BOTANICAL EEPOET. 



441 



Opuntia sph.erocarpa, Engdm, and BigchWy Pac. H, licp. /F, CacL p. 47, t 13, 

 fs. 6-7 ; Syn. Cact p. 44. Var. ? Utahexsis : diffusa, Lrtc-yirens, ai-ticiilis orbiculato- 

 obovatis, crassis, junioribiis ssepo globoso-obovatls ; areolis subapproxlmatis ; foliis min- . 

 utis subulatis dlvaricatis; setis brevi?56iniis panels stramineis; aeuleis nullis sou parviilis 

 nunc singulo longiore recto robusto albido ; floribus sulpluireis, ovario obovato areolis 

 fusco-tomentosis sub-25 iustructO; sepalis extenoribus traiisversis obcordatis euspida- 

 tis; petalis 8 late-obovatis emarginatis ; stylo vix supra stamina exserto; stig-iuatibus 

 8 brevibus erectis ; bacca obovata areolis plurimis tomentosis stipata ; seniinil^us nu- 

 merosis irregulariter compressis anguste marginatis. 



Pass west of Steptoo Valley, in the western mountains of tlie Basin, found 

 July 19 in flower and fruit Joints 2-3 inches long and of almost the same diameter; 

 often over ^ inch in thickness, sometimes almost terete or rather egg-shaped ; areolie 

 6 or 8 lines apart ; leaves very slender and acute, scarcely 1 line long, smaller than 

 in any other of our species except 0. hasUarls, also a western form from the Lower 

 Colorado. Bristles few, and even in old joints scarcely more than | line long; spines 

 none, or on the upper areola3 a few short ones, with liere and there a stouter one 4-I 

 inch in leno-th. Flowers nearly 3 inches in diameter, pale or sul[)lmr-yellow, when 

 fading, reddish; fruit about 1 inch long and half as wide, with a deep umbilicus, 

 and witli 20-25 areolae, wdiich sometimes show a few bristles or a minute spine ; seeds 

 very irregular, 2, or, in the largest diameter, sometimes 2^ lines wide. 



Unwilling to increase the nund^er of illy-defined species in this most difficult 

 genus, I attach this plant to the only species known to me to which it possibly can be 

 compared, 0. splimrocarpa from New Mexico, though its fruit is not spherical, has not 

 a shallow umbilicus, and is, at least in the specimen before me, not dry ; the latter 

 w^ould be an insuperable distinction, if we might not suspect, what in fact is often 

 the case, that the fruit later in ihe season would become diy and brittle. The leaves, 

 which heretofore have been entirely too much neglected as a diagnostic character in 

 this genus, and the flowers of the original 0. splKBrocarim^ are unknown thus far. 



Opuntia toktispina, Engchn. <& Bigelow, I. c. p. 41, t. 8. fs. 2-3 ; Syn. Cact p. 37. 



Forks of tlie Platte ; in flower in July. The specimens being very incomplete, I 

 am not quite sure that this is the same species as that of Captain AATii2:>ple's Expedi- 

 tion; the joints appear to be somewhat smaller, the areolae closer together, and the 

 spines shorter (1-1 1 inches) and rather weaker; it may possibly prove to be an 

 extreme form of 0. liajinesqun, the area of which extends to the Rocky Mouiitnins, 

 Leaves subulate, 2 lines long; flowers 2J-3 inches in diameter, sulphur-yellow; ovary 

 long (1-1| inches), with 20-30 areolae, with light-brown wool and short bright-brown 

 bristles; exterior sepals obovate, lance-cuspidate; petals G-8, broadly obovate, obtuse, 

 crenulate; stigmas 6-8, short, erect, as long as the stamens. 



Opuntia iiysteicina, Engdm. d Bigelow, I. c. p. 44, t. 15, fs. 5-7 ; Sgn. Cact. p. 43. 



A flowering specimen, collected in June between \Yalker and Carson Rivers, is 

 exactly like one found by Dr. Bigelow on the Colorado Chiquito; it has slenderer and 

 straighter spines than the one figm-ed in Whipple's Report, and approaches somewhat 

 to 0. erinacea, E. & B., of the Mohave region, in which I now recognize the long-los: 



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