CACTACEiE OF MEXICO SAPFORD. 



555 



Fig. 



18. — Aporocactus 

 mis. 



flagellifor- 



areoles ; the floral leaves are usually showy and more or less spreading, 

 the stamens numerous and inserted along the tube, the style longer 

 and ending in the several-rayed green stigma (fig. 19). Schu- 

 mann recognizes several subsections; among them, Subinermes (in- 

 cluding E. fulchellus and E. suMnermis), Prostrati (including 

 E. scJieeri^ E. herlandieri, E. pi^ocum- 

 hens, E. cinerascens, E, enneaccmthus, 

 E. leonensis), Erecti pectinati (includ- 

 ing the pectinately spined E. ctenoides, 

 E. chloranthus, E. longisetus^ E. fecti- 

 natus^ E. ccespitosus, E. roetter'i)^ 

 Erecti decalophi (including the needle- 

 sjjined E. acifer^ E. conglomeratus^ E. 

 duhius, E. merkeri, E. stramineus) . 

 Among the plants mentioned above E. 

 cinerascens, with decumbent clustered 

 stems, yields an edible spiny fruit with 

 the flavor of a raspberry ; several of the pectinate spined forms have 

 zones of red and white or yellowish, owing to the color of the spines, 

 and are known as " rainbow cacti ; " and E. stramineus and its close 

 allies are known as strawberry cacti, from the edible fruit the}^ bear. 

 Cereus fruits. — The fruits of many species of Cereus and allied 

 genera are juicy, fine flavored, and nutritious. Their general name 

 throughout Mexico is pitahaya, a word of Carib, or Haytian, origin, 



early brought to Mexico 

 by the Spanish conquista- 

 dores, and sometimes modi- 

 fied to pitaya, or to its 

 diminutive form pitayita- 

 The following description 

 of a pitahaya was given as 

 early as 1535, by Oviedo: 



Pitahaya is a fruit of tlie 

 size of a closed fist, more or 

 less, and this is the common 

 size. It is borne on certain 

 very spiny and strange-looking 

 thistles, which are leafless but 

 have a few branches or long 

 arms which take the place of 

 branches and leaves. These are four angled and longer, each branch or arm, 

 than the arm length of a man ; and between angle and angle a groove, and 

 on all these angles and grooves at intervals are borne certain sharp and pointed 

 spines as long as half the middle finger of the hand or more, arranged three by 

 three or four by four; and among these leaves or branches, such as I have 



Echinocereus flower. 



