BRITTON AND ROSE] OPUNTIOIDEAE OF NORTH AMERICA 5I3 



OPUNTIA CATACANTHA Link & Otto 



Opuntia catacantha Link & Otto; Pfeiff. Enum. Cact. 166. 1837. 



Type locality : St. Thomas. 



Distribution : St. Thomas, Culebra, Porto Rico. 



Illustration: Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 7: fig. 6. 



OPUNTIA HAITIENSIS Britton, sp. nov. 



? Cactus ferox Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. Suppl. 35. 1813. 



? Opuntia fcrox Haw. Suppl. PI. Succ. 82. 1819, not Nutt. 1814. 



Trunk somewhat flattened above, 3 to 4 meters high, branching at 

 the top, densely armed with acicular yellowish or gray spines 12 

 cm. long or less, their bases clothed with yellowish white wool 1 to 

 2 cm. long; branches obliquely linear-oblong to obovate, 1 to 3 cm. 

 long, 13 cm. wide or less, about I cm. thick, obtuse, the areoles 

 somewhat elevated, 1 to 1.5 cm. apart, those of young joints bearing 

 near the edges 3 to 6 acicular spines 1 to 2.5 cm. long, those on 

 the sides of the young joints spineless or with 1 to 3 spines, and with 

 small tufts of grayish wool; older joints bearing at all areoles 5 to 8 

 gray spines similar to those of the trunk, and brown glochides 6 or 

 8 mm. long; flowers about 2.5 cm. broad; sepals as broad as long, 

 or broader, apiculate ; petals yellow to orange, ovate, apiculate, 

 spreading ; stamens much shorter than the petals ; ovary cylindric 

 to obovoid-cylindric, terete or nearly so, 4 to 5 cm. long, its dis- 

 tinctly elevated areoles close together, only 5 or 6 mm. apart, bearing 

 brown glochides 2 mm. long, but no spines. 



Gonaives, Haiti, 16 meters altitude, George V. Nash and Norman 

 Taylor, no. 1766, August 16, 1905. Description drawn from living 

 plants and formalin and herbarium specimens at the New York Bo- 

 tanical Garden. 



Opuntia fcrox is said by Pfeiffer to be of South American origin. 

 Willdenow's description calls for long wool at the areoles, wmich this 

 Haitian plant has on those of the stem. 



OPUNTIA MILLSPAUGHII Britton, sp. nov. 



Trunk terete, 7 cm. thick at base, 5 cm. thick at top, 60 cm. high 

 or less, branching at the summit, the branches divaricate-ascending, 

 narrowly oblong, much compressed, 40 cm. long or less, 5 to 10 cm. 

 wide, 1 to 1.5 cm. thick, light green; branchlets obliquely lanceolate, 

 obtuse, as wide as the branches, but shorter, 1 cm. thick or less, 

 floriferous at and near the apex ; areoles of the older branches pitted, 

 about 1 cm. apart, those of very young shoots slightly elevated, the 



