60 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 
species is manifestly near to L. minor which has the same pubes- 
cence, 
Mentzelia barranc@ n. sp. No. 27101, La Barranca, 
Guadalajara, Nov. 15 1930, Plants resembling M. Conzatii Green- 
man, Shrubby, with brittle stems erect or nearly so but spreading 
and openly branched. Pubescence throughout minute, but in- 
clined to be hoary, of simple but very warty tapering and ap- 
pressed hairs, Leaves lanceolate from a nearly truncate base, 
doubly and laciniate-serrate, 2-4 inches long, long-acuminate, 
thin, the upper ones inclined to be opposite, all on short petioles. 
lowers light- orange-yellow, nearly 2 incheslong. Sepals filiform- 
subulate, 15cm long. Petals oblanceolate. Pods oblong, 1 em. 
ong. Seeds few, oblongand rngose, Stamens many, with fila- 
ments about an inch long. 
Cereus pecten-aboriginum Wat. So far as I can see, this is 
form of Pringlei Wat, ‘I'he description of the flowers tallies and 
the frufts are the form with fasciated areoles, The species near 
(ruadalajara has somewhat less ribs but it is hardly probable that 
there can be two species with the same pods and flowers as in Prin- 
glei. Iincline to think that the ripe fruit of Pringlei would be 
edible when the spiny coat is stripped off. There is a kind of 
fasciation in Cereus where there is an elongation of the spines 
which the natives call ‘‘viejo‘* old man, whiskered cactus. Grow- 
ers say this occurs only on flowering twigs, a fact that I doubt. 
I regard it more like a cancerous condition. It is most common 
; flowers of Pringlei are 3-4 inches long and stout and 
thick, black-purple without and white within and grow near the 
tips of the stems on the south side and the fruits form a great 
chestnut colored burr 4 inchos wide. 
_ _ Cereus gummosus has the long and tapering flowers of the 
night-blooming class and probably opens at night for it is open In 
the morning. The stems are decumbent and rooting neur the 
sea but straggling upward inthe interior. Tho fruits are peat- 
shaped and spinose till maturity when they turn purple and the 
spines fall off leaving the juicy and edible pear 4 of which mak? 
a meal, They call it ‘* petaiya agria‘‘ at Loreto It blooms all 
the year but flowersand fruit are scarce, ; 
