506 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vol. 50 



fully open ; sepals reddish in bud, ovate, acuminate ; petals pale yel- 

 low; fruit yellowish, 4 to 8 cm. long, oblong to clavate, sometimes 

 proliferous, the areoles large, white, bearing a fringe of white bris- 

 tles ; seeds white, 4 to 5 mm. in diameter, the commissure very in- 

 distinct. 



Type in U. S. National Herbarium, no. 535,063, collected by Dr. 

 R. E. Kunze in Pima County, Arizona, 1904. 



Perhaps nearest O. grahamii, but with larger and different joints 

 and different spines. 



The species is named for Dr. Kunze, a valued correspondent and 

 an enthusiastic cactus collector. He has furnished the following 

 interesting data regarding this species : 



I found this plant about forty miles south of the Ajo copper mines, in the 

 southwestern part of Pima County, Arizona, and only about 25 to 35 miles 

 north of the Mexican boundary. Immense tracts between the smaller arroyos 

 are covered by this species, and for miles my guide led us through stretches of 

 desert in the Gunsight Mining District, a waterless region, little known 

 except to prospectors. On the eastern slope of the Gunsight Mountain range 

 I collected Cereus thurberi, which species has its northern limit at the Ajo 

 copper mines, Ajo being 60 miles south of Gila Bend, on the Southern Pacific 

 Railroad. All the plants of 0. kitnsei were covered with the Coccus cacti to 

 such an extent that I was obliged to collect a basketful of such or go without 

 any. My former partner, Mr. L. Kunze, had found this Opuntia about the 

 same time, 20 to 25 miles south of Casa Grande, in Pinal County, and all 

 plants he brought in were completely covered with Coccus. I succeeded in 

 cleaning only a few plants for cultivation. Those which I collected I threw 

 into a pit, covered the mass with a peck of fine unslaked lime, and two weeks 

 later removed a dozen live and clean plants. I will send you shortly a young 

 plant of O. kunzei with an unopened flower bud. I shall try to preserve one 

 of the flowers for you in formaldehyde solution of 2 per cent strength, as well 

 as the fruit. 



I thought the spines resembled Opuntia grahami, but find it different in 

 shape of fruit as well as in thickness of its rootstock. I compared it with the 

 cut in Cactaceae of Mexican Boundary Report. I have therefore no plant of 

 0. grahami. 



Series CYLINDRICAE 



Further study is necessary to effect a natural grouping of the 

 species. We include in this group the three series Cristatae, Hu- 

 miliores, and Deciduae of Professor Schumann, which are clearly 

 not natural ones, the relative size and number of the tubercles proving 

 to be quite unsatisfactory characters. 



OPUNTIA TUNICATA (Lehm.) Link & Otto 



Cactus tunicatus Lehm. Ind. Sem. Hort. Hamburg 6. 1827. 

 Opuntia exuviata DC. Mem. Mus. Paris 17: 118. 1828. 



