92 GRIFFITHS: NEW SPECIES OF OPUNTIA 
‘ Opuntia anahuacensis sp. nov. 
A glossy, yellowish green, low, reclining to prostrate species, 
45-50 cm. high and having a spread of 1.5 m.; joints obovate, 
thin, 13 X 27 cm., commonly bent over and more or less dished 
the second year, apex sharply rounded and base more or less 
stipitate; areoles obovate, at first light brown then dirty gray- 
black, upper half armed, enlarging in age and becoming sub- 
circular; spicules yellow, in a compact connivent tuft occupying 
one-half to two-thirds of the upper part of areole, about 2 mm. 
long, becoming more numerous in age and often 8 mm. in length; 
spines yellow, becoming white tardily, one or two porrect, 2-3 
cm. long, flattened, twisted, the shorter lower two often recurved 
and only 1 cm. long; flowers canary-yellow, turning slightly darker 
yellow toward close of day; filaments yellow, style white, stigma 
white, six-parted; buds light bright-green with only a tinge of 
red in the upper part of the tardily recurved sepals; fruit deep, 
dark-purplish-red throughout, pyriform, about 4 X 7.5 .cm., deeply 
pitted; spicules yellow, usually 2 mm. long or less, fugacious spines, 
mostly merging into the spicules on the one hand and becoming 
6-8 mm. long on the other, two to four in number. 
The species is characterized by its glossy yellowish.green colora- 
tion and size and shape of its fruit. It is known to us only from a 
single collection made by Mr. C. B. Allaire near Anahuac, Texas, 
at the mouth of the Trinity River in Texas. My inventory 
number 9217 was assigned to it and it has been grown since at 
Chico, California, under this same number. 
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Explanation of plates 2 and 3 
PLATE 2 
OPUNTIA CURVOSPINA Griffiths 
Terminal joints and two ripe fruits, a little more than one third natural size, 
cultivated at Chico, California. 
PLATE 3 
OPUNTIA CHLOROTICA Engelm. & Bigel. 
Terminal joints, about half natural size, three sevenths natural size, cultivated 
at Chico, California. 
