579 580 



ECHINOCACTUS ORCUTTII Engelm. angular seeds, seeds 2 lines long, 



buSn^ S 1 n C fhe n mWdie. I g I "w l .n g h ^n^e d <!; *?*>** and rt 1 M ' . '"berculMe. 



ameter and 2-3% feet high, sometimes Colorado and Mohave deserts. An- 



often cespitose, more rarely proliferous at zona. 



base, With 13 When young, to usually 20 or T^ Smmsrmi TTne-plmann Tran<a AosiH 



22 obtuse tuberculate ribs and a woolly, 4'i ?t T if " ?Q? n ?*(\ QI i ^ 



spineless, depressed top; spines stout, red- Sci - M - Louis 2:197 (1863). Simple, 



dish, straight or recurved, all annulated, globose or depressed, with ovate tu- 



usually 9 radiating and 4 stouter central bercles like a Mammillaria, bearing 

 ones; flowers deep dull crimson with 



greenish or lighter colored margins to the about 20 outer ash-colored spines and 



petals, 2 inches long, otherwise as in E. 5-10 stouter darker inner ones, all 



viridescens; stigmata green 16-20; fruit straight and rigid. Flowers from the 



s^lT'seeds'-SV W a 2 y :46 ^m* ^ of the just developing tubercles, 



Type locality: Palm valley, Lower Cal- small, 9-12 lines broad, yellowish 



ECH&OCACTUS PENINSULAS Eng. * reen f to Polish; scales on the ovary 



Globose to cylindrical, rarely over 18 ver ^ few = berrv small > dr ^ wltn few 



inches in diameter, rarely attaining a black tuberculated seeds. Flowers in 



height of 8 feet; the 12-21 compressed tu- April and May. (5) 

 berculated ribs set with clusters of dull 



red spines; centrals 7. stout, the stoutest un ace cc usspines arrang- 



br'oad hooktd ed in beautiful star-shaped clusters; flow- 



ECHINOCACTUS POLYANCISTRUS EB ers pale rosfe<> 



The Hermit cactus, so-called because E - viridescens. Thomas Nuttall 



It is rare to find more than one in a crossed the American continent in an 



place, is a strikingly beautiful cactus expedition under Capt. Wyeth, in 



which I have sen only on the Mohave 1834, to the Columbia river. Thence 



desert in its wild state. The largest he vent to the Sandwich Islands, and 



plant I have seen is 18 inches high and returned to California, where he col- 



4 inches in diameter; each tubercle lected during a part of the year 1835, 



bears three to seven hooked, round, mostly near the coast from Sari Fran- 



brownish-pink spines, with which are Cisco to San Diego. His collections 



interspersed fewer ivory white spines, were very rich ,and contained the 



not hooked, very pleasing in contrast, types of many new species. On arid 



Flower over 2 inches long, of equal hills near San Diego, he observed what 



width, petals bright magenta, green at he supposed to be a species of Melo- 



base, filaments and stigmata green, cactus. No specimen appears to have 



anthers white. They were once cata- been preserved in his collections but 



logued at $15 apiece, and are still rare Torrey and Gray, in 1840, published 



in collections, unfortunately seldom in their Flora of North America. 1:554, 



long surviving transplanting from the following description from Nut- 



their native sands. Too much mois- tail's manuscript, rightly considering 



ture soon proves fatal. the p i an t they had never seen to be an 



E. polycephalus Engeimann and Bige- Echinocactus rather than a Melocac- 



low, Pacific railroad report, 4:31, t. 3, tus: "Large and nearly globose, with 



fig. 4-6. Heads globose, at last cylin- 20 or more angles; spadix none; flow- 



dric, a foot to 2 feet high, often 20-30 ers (rather large) yellowish-green, 



from a single base: ribs 13-21, acute: from the upper cluster of spines; 



circular areolae bearing 8-12 stout spines radiating, unequal; 3 of them 



compressed annulated curved reddish- usually larger, broad, acuminate, 



gray spines, either all radial, or 6 or 8 transversely striate; fruit green and 



outer ones surrounding 4 stouter cen- smooth. Sometimes a foot high and 



tral ones: flowers enveloped in a mass 9-10 inches in diameter: seldom if ever 



of dense wool, about 100 rigid dark laterally clustered. Segments of the 



pointed sepals upon the ovary are hid- calyx ciliate, nearly the length of the 



den in the wool, those of the tube linear-lanceolate petals. Berry about 



about as many and similar; petals the size of a gooseberry.' 



about 30, lance-linear, yellow, just ECHINOCACTUS WHIPPLEI E. & B. 



emerging from the wool; stigmata Whipple's hedgehog cactus is only 2 



8-11, linear: the dry 'berry full of to 5 inches high, ovate-globose, char- 



