202 GRIFFITHS: NEW AND OLD SPECIES OF OPUNTIA 
areole, 2-3 mm. long, increasing in age and filling entire areole; 
spines few, short, none or an occasional one, white to dirty gray, 
3-5 mm. in length; flowers yellow, turning to orange-red when 
closed, but only slightly darker yellow at close of day; filaments 
orange, petals broadly obovate to spatulate about 26x 45 mm., 
style white, stigma white, six-parted, small, rounded and minutely 
cuspidate above; fruit long, obovate, sometimes 24 x 55 mm., or 
often only 18x25 mm., dull, dark red, with the color extending 
only half way through the rind, interior being colorless. 
This species is more or less common on the Florida Coast, in the 
region of New Smyrna. It is a rather striking thing, inasmuch 
as it is erect and strict in habit, and has few spines or may even 
be entirely spineless. The specimens from which the description 
is drawn have been carried by us under P. I. G. No. 13277, and 
were collected near New Smyrna, Florida, October 25, 1912, by 
Mr. R. A. Young. The specimens seem to me to be quite clearly. 
referable to the Rafinesquean species, established in honor of the 
traveler Bartram. 
The points upon which one must base judgment here are 
mainly four:—(1) habit and habitat of plant; (2) absence of 
spines; (3) color of fruit; (4) shape of joints. The same species 
was collected by myself at New Smyrna, Florida, several years 
before, and was grown to maturity at San Antonio, Texas, and 
Chico, California, but the number was lost. It is more than 
probable, however, that we still have that original collection of 
mine represented in No. 13777, P. I. G., which has been field- 
grown with us at Chico for a number of years, but with no record 
of its origin. It is identical with the one here described. 
Opuntia obovata sp. nov. 
A beautiful, glaucous, gray-green, erect species about 3-4 m. 
in height when fully developed, but blossoming profusely with us 
at I m. when grown from cuttings, rather widely branched but. 
distinctly arborescent even in vegetatively propagated plants; 
joints long, obovate, broadly rounded above and gradually nar- 
rowed below, commonly 20 x 38 cm. or again frequently 15 x 35 
cm., glaucous gray-green, turning yellowish green in age, raised 
at areoles when young and not losing tuberculation entirely until 
the third year; areoles brown, gray the second year and finally 
black, subcircular or triangular, abour 2.5 mm. in diameter, be- 
coming enlarged on old trunks to frequently one cm. in diameter, 
