Opuntia. CACTACE^:. 247 



angular, variously colored : largo purplo (lowei-s open only in sunlight : ovary and 

 fruit with 25 to 30 spiny areola;, 15 to 20 upper scjiala, and as many lance-ohlong 

 petals: stigmas about 12, erect. — Am. Jour. Sci. 2 ser. xiv. 338; Cact. of Pacif. 

 R Rep. iv. 35, t. 5, fig. 4-10. 



From tlie eastern slopes of the Southern Sierra Nevada, at San Felipe, into Arizona and Utah, 

 apparently abundant, Parry, Newberry, Palmer, and others. Heads usually 4 to 6 together, 5 to 

 10 inches hidi, 2 or 3 thick ; outer spines { to |, inner 1 or 2 inches long ; flowers 2^ to 3 inches 

 long and wide, appearing in .June. 



§ 2. Prumatic or cylindric, mos^thj hvanchwg : Jloirers nsna/fi/ lomier than wide : 

 stirjmas whitish : secdi^ obovate, usuaUi/ smooth or pitted : embryo ivith foli- 

 aceous curved cotyledons. — P^ucereus. 



* Ovary and. fruit spiny. 



2. C. Emoryi, Engelm. Stems erect, branching from the base, cylindric, with 

 16 to 20 ril)s, closely set with prominent hemispherical areohe bearing numerous 

 (30 to 50) thin straight yellow spines ;^ to 1 or 1| inches long; the 3 to 6 inner 

 ones longer and dellexed : flowers short, greenish yellow, crowded on one side of the 

 top of the stems : ovary with few sliort spines, which become formidal)le upon the 

 subglobose fruit. — Am. Jour. Sci. 1. c. ; Cact. Mex. Bound. 40, t. GO, fig. 1-4. 



On the gravelly mesas near the sea-shore at San Diego {Parry, Jgnssiz, Hiiclicock), and quite 

 abundant on rocky hills from Los Angeles to the Salinas Valley {Brewer), and into the Peninsula 

 to Kosaiio, Guhb. Stems 2 to 4 feet nigh, 1^ to 2 inches thick, often from a prostrate rooting 

 base, and forming dense thickets ; areolic 2 lines wide and 3 or 4 lines apart, densely covered 

 with the thin sharp and very brittle spines ; flowers usually on one side only, like tliose of § Pilo- 

 cerr.vs, '[^ to IJ incihcs long and a little loss wide ; fruit about an inch long ; seeds over n line 

 long, flhiiiing, minutely tuherculato. 



* * Ovary and fruit scaly. 



V,. oioANTEUS, Engelm., If) to 30 or even 40 feet high, very stout, with few erect bmnches 

 towards the upper jmrt, cream-white short-tubed flowers, and iaige oval edible fruit, which at 

 maturity bursts irregularly, and 



C. TniTiiBEni, Engelm., 10 to 1,5 feet high, more slender, with many equally high ascending 

 branches from the base, similar flowers, and larger globose delicious fruits, are found in the 

 .adjoining territories of Arizona and Lower California, and may be looked for in this State. 



§ 3. Tall, cylindric, viostly tinhranched ; up>per flower-bearinr/ portion ivith more 

 crowded areola' and. lonyer denser thinner bristly or hairy spines : flowers 

 short : seeds as in the last. — Pilocerrus. 



C. ScHOTTli, Engelm., 4 to 10 feet high, the lower part 5-anglcd, with distant areolae and few 

 very short and stout spines ; the upper flowering portion deeply 5-ribl)cd, with close-set areolre 

 bearing numerous setaceous spines, almost hiding the small flowers and small berries, — from 

 the same localities as the last two species, — may also be foiuul in Southern California. 



4. OPUNTIA, Tourn., Miller. 

 Tube of the flower very short, cup-shapod. Petals spreading or rarely erect. 

 Ovary with bristle-bearing areola} in the axils of small terete deciduous sepals. 

 Berry succulent or sometimes dry, marked with bristly or spiny areolae, truncate 

 with a wide umbilicus. Seeds large, white, compressed, with the embryo coiled 

 around the albumen : cotyledons large, foliaceous. — Articulated much-branched 

 plants, of various shapes, low and prostrate, or erect and shrub-likn; young branches 

 with small toroto subulate early docidu(Mis leaves, and in lh(Mr axil^ an areola with 

 numerous short easily detached bristles and, u.'^ually, stouter s]tine?, all barbed. 

 Flowers on the joints of the previous year, on the same areola; with the spines, 

 mostly large, open only in sunlight. Fruit often edible, often large. 



