514 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. SO 



glochides very short, yellow-brown; spines of the trunk 15 cm. 

 long or less, very numerous and densely clothing the trunk, very 

 slender, gray, mostly strongly reflexed, pungent, those of the 

 branches and branchlets restricted to the areoles on their edges, 

 shorter than those of the trunk, but similar, those of the fruit 

 yellow gray, 2 cm. long or less; flowers cupulate, crimson lake, 

 1 cm. wide; sepals fleshy, ovate, acute, 4 mm. long and wide; petals 

 erect-ascending, obovate, mucronulate, about 4 mm. wide ; stamens 

 half as long as the corolla; style about as long as the corolla; 

 stigma oblong, yellowish crimson ; fruit compressed-obovoid, 2 cm. 

 long, 1.5 cm. thick, bearing one or two spines at most of the areoles. 



Type in N. Y. Botanical Garden, Britton & Millspaugh, no. 5578. 



On nearly flat and smooth limestone rocks, along road across 

 Eleuthera Island, at Rock Sound, Bahamas, Britton & Millspaugh 

 5578, February 22, 1907 ; Thatch Cay, Long Island, Bahamas, 

 Britton &■ Millspaugh 6288. 



The species is most nearly related to Opuutia nashii Britton, now 

 known to be widely distributed in the Bahamas. It differs from this 

 in its spreading rather than erect or ascending branches, in its very 

 much more abundant and formidable armament, in the shape of the 

 joints, and in the pitted areoles, which are spineless except at and 

 near the edges of the joints. The roots of this plant spread out for 

 a distance of nearly a meter from the base of the trunk on the flat 

 limestone surface. We were fortunate in securing excellent living 

 specimens and in transporting them, nearly unbroken, to the New 

 York Botanical Garden. 



OPUNTIA NASHII Britton 



Opuntia nashii Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 3:446. 1905. 



Type locality : Inagua, Bahamas. 



Distribution : Bahama Islands. 



Illustration : Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 6 : fig. 5. 



OPUNTIA RUBESCENS Salm-Dyck 



Opuntia rubesccns Salm-Dyck; DC. Prod. 3: 474. 1828. 



Type locality : Brazil (?). 



Distribution: Island of Culebra; Montserrat; South America (?). 



Culebra and Montserrat plants agree nearly with the description of 

 this spineless species, which clearly belongs with the Cruciformes, as 

 pointed out by Berger, rather than with the South American series 

 Inarmatae, where it was placed by Schumann. 



0. leucacantha Link & Otto, 0. subfcrox Schott, and O. Icucos- 

 ticta Wendl. are all cited as Mexican, and are not known to us. 



