381 



ASTRAGALUS LEUCOPSIS T. & G. 



Rattle-weed. Sts erect, 3-5 dm ht, 

 tomentulose-canescent; Ifts 10-15 pairs, 

 oval or oblong, obtuse, 1 cm long or 

 more; spike-like racemes, 3-6 cm long 

 of sometimes more; fls 12 mm long; ex- 

 tube campanulate, teeth subulate, more 

 than half as long as the tube; pod thin, 

 bladdery, oval, unequally sided, 2-3 cm 

 long, tapering to a stipe 12 mm long or 

 less. 



Abrams, Fl LA 223. 



Genus SPKCl L.VUIA Heiftter. 

 Submenus DYSMICODON. Flowers di- 

 morphus. Capsule rather short, straight, 

 not disposed to split. 

 BPECULARIA BIFLORA A. Gray. 



Stem slender, simple or branched from 

 the base; leaves sessile, ovate or oblong, 

 crenately toothed, the upper reduced to 

 lanceolate bracts; fls 1, rarely 2, in each 

 B~x.il, nearly sessile; corolla purple. Cat. 

 BPECULARIA PERFOLIATA A./ D. C. 



Stouter, with clasping cordate leaves. 



CEREUS. As recognized by many 

 botanists, this genus contains over 200 

 species, natives of tropical America,, 

 the West Indies, and Galapagos 

 Islands, including what others class 

 as separate genera Echinocereus, 

 Echinopsis, and Pilocereus. Until bet- 

 ter known, many of the varied forms 

 cannot with certainty be referred to 

 the proper sections of this great genus, 

 which is characterized by Bentham 

 and Hooker as follows: Calyx tube 

 produced beyond the ovary; lobes 

 numerous, exterior scale-like, interior 

 elongated, spirally imbricated: petals 

 indefinite, larger than the calyx lobes, 

 spreading 1 , stamens numerous; fila- 

 ments adnate to the base of the calyx, 

 the inner free; ovary exserted. scaly: 

 style filiform: stigmata 5 to indefinite: 

 fruit scaly or tuberculated: flowers 

 lateral, often night-blooming. 



CEREUS ALAMOSENSIS Coulter. 



Sina spinosa of Sonora; 2-8 feet high, 2- 

 10 branches from the base with joints 1-4 

 feet long, flexuous or decumbent, often 

 forming arches and rooting at the joints, 

 and thus spreading over wide areas, 

 sometimes 100 feet in diameter or more; 

 ribs about 7, slightly tuberculated. The 

 bright red flowers slightly resemble those 



of C n. 



CEREUS BRANDFGEF CoU'ter. 



Caespitose. often 2 feet or more across. 

 cor sistintr of lew to many c.ylin r cal 

 hea^s p-ostlv 6 or ? inches h^gh. IM.-2 in 

 diameter, with 8 or 9 interrupted, strong- 

 ly tu"<>e cu ate rb ; . The p " n^r ^pi.-^s 

 frequently tinged with v, r rMant magenta, 

 tho older spires vari ble : n colir, often 

 of an ivory white with central;? of a deep 

 mng r ^ntr--r"aki -.? a pry h- iT i 'PO--A -o - 

 effe t. "Spines at first variegated, dark 

 and i eddish, Lecomiug ;nort or ieso uthy- 



black; radials 10-16, rigid, terete, radiant, 

 mostly uniform, 8-12 mm long; central* 

 almost always 4, very stout and promi- 

 nent, 3-4 cm long, cruciate, conspicuously 

 angled and compressed, sometimes twist- 

 ed, the lowest usually the most flattened 

 and sword-like (2-3 mm bipad): flowers 

 red, 4-5 cm long, with conspicuous woolly 

 and spine-bearing arealae over the ovary 

 and lower part of the calyx. Type in hb 

 Brandegee, El Campo Allemand and San 

 Gregorio, Baja California." Coulter, 

 Cont U S Nat hb 3:389 (1 Ap 1896). 



This has much the same aspect as Cer- 

 eUs Engelmann:, With similar variations 

 in the color of the spines, and bears a 

 similar edible fruit. 



C. Emoryi Emgelmann, Am. Jour. Set. 

 II. 14:338. The Velvet cactus occurs 

 in thickets often a hundred feet in di- 

 ameter, near the seashore from LoS 

 Angeles county, California, south to 

 Las Huevitas, in Baja California 

 ( Brand egfce). In a San Diego garden 

 it has attained a height of 10 feet, 

 with unusually thick joints, but the 

 stems are commonly prostrate, 2-3 

 feet long, 1% inch in diameter: flow- 

 ers abundant near the top of the 

 branches, rather short, yellow, 2 

 inches or more wide: fruit iy 2 inches 

 in diameter, densely covered with 

 numerous pulvilli, each bearing 20-25 

 stiff yellow spines, from 2-6 lines long, 

 3 of them stouter and longer than the 

 rest, often an inch long: seed 1.2-1.4 

 line longr, with a very prominent keel 

 and linear hilum. (5-10) 

 C. ng;elmaiml. This beautiful Cush- 

 ion cactus was discovered by t)r. 

 C. C. Parry, who named it in 

 honor of his life-long: friend, Dr. 

 George Eng-elmann, whose botanical 

 studies had been especially directed 

 toward the Cactaceae. It was found 

 near San Felipe, in the mountains east 

 of San Diego, California, and in Ari- 

 zona, and also occurs in Utah, Nevada, 

 and Baja California. In the Mohave 

 desert large oval masses containing 75 

 or more heads from one root have 

 been observed, but commonly 4-8 

 heads occur loosely in a Cluster, 

 3-12 inches high, 2-3 in diameter: ribs 

 10-14. interrupted: spines usually 

 whitish, often brown or varicolored, 

 straight or flexuous. anervilar, radials 

 1^-1(5. an inch loner or less, the later- 

 als long-est, the 4-8 centrals 3 inches 

 long or less: flower about 2 <nn> >g 

 across, open night and day for about a 



