02mntia. CACTACE^. 247 



angular, variously colored : large purple flowers open only in sunlight : ovary and 

 fruit with 25 to 30 spiny areola^ 15 to 2U upper sepals, and as many lance-ol^long 

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

 K. ilep. iv.°35, t. 5, fig. 4 - 10. 



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

 apparently abundant, Farrij, Newberry, Palincr, and others. Heads usually 4 to 6 together, 5 to 

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

 long and wide, appearing in June. 



§ 2. Prismatic or cylindric, mostly brandling : Jioivers tisnalli/ longer than wide : 

 stigmas whitish : seeds ohovate, usuallg smooth or pitted : embryo with foli- 

 aceous curved cotyledons. — Eucereus. 



* Ovary and fruit spiny. 

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

 IG to 20 ribs, closely set with prominent hemispherical areolai bearing numerous 

 (30 to 50) tliin straight yellow spines { to 1 or If inches long; the 3 to G inner 

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

 top of the stems : ovary with few short spines, which become formidable 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, Jgassiz, EUcJicock), and quite 

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

 to Rosario, Gabb. Stems 2 to 4 feet high, Ti to 2 inches thick, often from a prostrate rooting 

 base, and forming dense thickets ; areola 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 those ot § lilo- 

 ccreus, 1^ to H i^'^li'^s long and a little less wide ; fruit about an inch long ; seeds over a line 

 long, shining, minutely tuberculate. 



% * Ovary and fruit scaly. 



C GIGAN'EEUR, Engelm., 15 to 30 or even 40 feet high, very stout, with few erect branches 

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

 maturity bursts irregularly, and 



(' TiiiniBEiu Encfelm., 10 to 15 feet high, more slender, with many equally high ascending 

 braViches 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 m this State. 



§ 3. Tall, cylindric, mostly unbranched ; ^(.pper flower-bearing portion with more 

 croxvded areola; and longer denser thinner bristly or hairy spines: floivers 

 short : seeds as in the last. — Pilocereus. 

 C ScHOTTii Engelm., 4 to 10 feet high, the lower part 5-angled, with distant areola; and few 



very short and'stoift spines ; the upper flowering portion dci^ply 5-ribbed, with close-set areola; 



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



the same localities as the last two species, — may also be found in Southern Calilornia. 



4. OPUNTIA, Tourn., Miller. 

 Tube of the flower very short, cup-shaped. 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 areola, truncate 

 with a wide umbilicus. Seeds large, Avhite, 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-like; young branches 

 with small terete subulate early deciduous leaves, and in their axils an areola vdi\\ 

 numerous short easily detached bristles and, usually, stouter spines, all bai-bed. 

 Flowers on the joints of the previous year, on the same areoke with the spines, 

 mostly large, open only in sunlight. Fruit often eAlil)le, often large. 



