110 OACTACEJE. (cactus FAMILY.) 



2. ECHINOC ACTUS, Link & Otto. 



Flowers about as long as wide. Ovary covered with few (in ours) sepaloid 

 scales, wliich are naked or woolly in their axils. Fruit succulent or dry, 

 covered with the persistent scales, sometimes enveloped in copious wool, and 

 usually crowned with the remnants of the flower. Seed obliquely obovate, 

 black. 



1. E. Simpsoni, Eng. Simple, globose or depressed, with ovate tubercles 

 bearing about 20 outer ash-colored spines and 5 io 10 stouter darker inner ones, all 

 straijiht and rigid : flowers yellowish green to purplish : berry (Ivy, with few 

 black tuberculated seeds. — From the eastern slopes of the Colorado moun- 

 tains westward to Utah and Nevada. 



2. E. Whipple!, Eng. & Big. Simple, globose or ovate, icith 13 to 15 

 compressed and iiiterrupted ribs : 7 to \1 outer spines and 4 i7mer ones ; the ivorxj- 

 ivhite upper ones longest, broadest, recurved or twisted ; the loicer shorter, darker 

 and terete; the lowest nuddle one hooked : flowers yellow : seeds large, minutely 

 tuberculated. — From S. Colorado westward to S. California. 



3. CERE US, Haw. 



Flowers about as long as wide or elongated. Scales of the ovary distinct, 

 with naked or woolly axils, or almost obsolete and the axils spiny. Berry 

 succulent, covered with spines or scales or almost naked. Seeds black, — 

 Fruit often edible. Our species all belong to § Echixocereus, which in- 

 cludes low and usually cespitose plants, with numerous oval or cylindric 

 heads, short flowers, green stigmas and spiny fruit, the seeds covered with 

 confluent tubercles, 



1. C. viridiflorus, Eng. Ovate or at length cylindrical, simple or 

 sparingly branched, 1 to 2 inches high : ribs about 13 : areolae ovate-lanceolate : 

 spines strictly radiating, 12 to 18, icith 2 to ^ superior setaceous ones, the rest 

 lateral and longer, the lower frequentlt] purplish brown, the others white, central 

 one often wanting, when present stouter, solitary, and variegated : flowers 

 lateral towards the apex, i/eHow, becoming green : berries elliptical, small. — PI. 

 Fendl 50. Common in Colorado and southward. 



2. C. Fendleri, Eng. Ovate-cylindrical, 3 to 8 inches high: ribs 9 to 

 12 : areohe rather crowded : s/^/nes very variable, alwaijs bulbous at base, radial 

 ones 7 to \0, straight or curved, ivhite and brown, loicer ones stronger, central one 

 stout, curved above, dark brown, often elongated: flowers lateral below the top, 

 large, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, of a deep purple color: berry I to 1^ inches 

 long, edible. — PI. Fendl. 50. S. Colorado and southward. 



3. C. gonacanthus, Eng «fe Big. Ovate, simple or sparingly branched 

 from the base, 7-ribbed : areolm large, orbicular, distant : spines robust, angled, 

 straight or variously curved ; radial ones 8, yelloivish, often blackish at base and 

 apex, the upper one much larger than the others, nearly equalling the central one, 

 ivhich is remarkabhi stout, angular, and channelled : Jlowers scarlet, open day and 

 night. — Pac. R. Rep. iv. 33, t. 5. S. Colorado and southward. 



4. C. phceniceus, Eng. Heads 2 to 3 inches high, generallg forming 

 dense hemispherical masses a foot or more in diameter: ribs 9 ^o 11 : areolce ovate- 

 orhiculate, somewhat crowded : spines setaceous, straight, radial ones 3 to 12, 



