CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESFERN BOTANY 12% 
___In a savage review of this book ” Desert” of the issue of Apr. 
1932 page 130 makes a criticism that is unjust where it quotes the 
book’s remark that some cactus wil grow where the winter temp- 
erature is 25-30° below zero, calling ita gem of misinformation, 
but 1 have collected Cereus viridiflorus in Nebraska where the cold 
got Echinocactus Simpsoni, Opuntia fragilis, Mamillaria vivipara 
and Cereus phoeniceus where the cold was nearly the same, y 
main fault found with the book is the unwarranted and unbal- 
anced gush over this pestiferous family and the crude pronunei- 
ation. The illustrations are good and poorly colored. The prin- 
ting and paper are fine. 
CALIFORNIAN OPUNTIAE. 
name was proposed by Tournefort in his Institutiones” 
for this exclusively American genus which was adopted by Linne- 
us in 1753. Britton and Rose in their N.A, Cactaces say that the 
name came from Opous where prickly plants grow. Thies guess is 
copied by the Oxford Dictionary, but there seems no foundation 
bwan gulf, and ontioi the present participle of eimi, the ver) to 
in, or as we would say Opuntians 
and it was notorious that those people were traitors to the Gree ks 
in the Persian wars, and so the name became synonymous with 
traitor, which fact Tournefort knew. t more appropriate 
name could be found for this viciously horrid genus? i 
Engelmann aplit the genus in two sections, Cylindropuntias 
and Platyopuntia. Why the hopeless splitters, Britton and Rose 
did not make two genera from it fully as good 28 their Cereus 
segregates is unanswered, but as it iF the species fall into two 
ere t 
eight rows, which are calle 
but though the etems are roun 
raised areas, F 
Key to Opuntia. 
goth : 1 Jeptocaniis 
ike. fruit very spinose. 2 ramosiseius 
thick. Spines mostly sheathed. 
ry s 1 square, 
Tubercles 4-angled, nearly 84 3 Bigelovii 
