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The West American Scientist 



Vol. XII. No. 12. 



May, igo2. 



Whole No. I J 2, 



CACTUS NOTES. 



MAMILLIARIA THORNBERI Orcutt. 



Cylindrical, 1^ inch in diameter, usually 

 2-3 Inches high, erect, with 8 or 9 spiral 

 rows of tubercles, axils naked; 13-18 slen- 

 der white or brown tipped radials % inch 

 long; usually 1 slender flexuous hooked 

 central one-fourth to three-fourths of an 

 inch long, tipped with brown; fruit cla- 

 vate, scarlet, containing minute black 

 seeds. Tips of tubercles olive green, base 

 and axils and sunken portion of plant 

 tinged with purple; radials usually 13, the 

 upper sometimes the longest, often brown 

 nearly to the base; central occasionally 

 brown, usually the lower half white or 

 yellowish, often hooked upward, but often 

 twisted and turning in every direction. 

 Plant proliferous at base, forming numer- 

 ous offsets in the axils of the buried or 

 lower tubercles; these quickly take root 

 and usually soon sever connection with 

 the parent, thus forming dense compact 

 masses of old and young plants, usually 

 10-50— but in one, perhaps not exceptional 

 case, I counted 110 distinct plants, in a 

 cluster— all apparently originating from 

 the tallest individual in the group. Occa-, 

 sionally a plant, from injuries sustained, 

 becomes bifurcate or forms a number of 

 aerial heads which remain permanently 

 attached— but which usually form roots 

 of their own and eventually survive the 

 death of the parent. More than 1 central 



spine appears very rare, but 2 or three 

 sometimes appear from the same small 

 woolly areola, one or all hooked, of equal 

 or varying length. The largest plant 

 among over 1,000 was 1^^ inch in diameter 

 and nearly a foot high! Type, Orcutt, No. 

 2583:— Arizona. Curiously the same plant 

 was found a few days earlier than by the 

 author by Prof. J. J. Thornber, and 

 planted in the cactus garden of the Uni- 

 versity of Arizona, and this interesting 

 addition to the cactus flora of the United 

 States may therefore appropriately bear 

 his name. 



BCHINOCACTUS FALCONERI Orcutt. 



Plant cylindrical in age, 9-12 inches in 

 diameter, usually under 2 feet high, light 

 apple green in color, with a withered ap- 

 pearance (perhaps not normal) ; ribs tu- 

 berculate, acute, spirally inclined (hence 

 called caracola, "snail", or biznaga cara- 

 cola), usually 13. to rarely 17, intervals 

 narrow and deep; radial spines 10 or less, 

 grayish white, flattened, flexuous, 1-2% 

 inches long and laterally disposed; central 

 spines 7, stout, strongly annulated, red- 

 dish brown, the 3 upper and 3 lower of 

 about equal length, divergent, 1-3 inches 

 long, terete or slightly angled, straight; 

 the longest central erect, straight, flat- 

 tened or channelled above, ^4 inch broad 

 or less, varying from 1 to 6 inches in 

 length sometimes on the same plant, uni- 

 formly about V2 inch at the tip turned 



