ot 
obovate, elliptic, or oval, thinnish, or quite thick at the base of 
the plant, mostly 1-3 dm. long, bright-green: leaves stout-subu- 
late, 3-9 mm. long, green or purplish-green: areolae rather evenly 
scattered or more numerous along the edges than on the faces 
of the joints, few of the upper marginal ones armed, or joints 
individually unarmed: spines slender, solitary, or 2 or 3 together 
and sometimes with several shorter ones, pale-yellow, at maturity 
deeper-yellow, nearly terete, obscurely spirally twisted: flowers 
showy, mostly few on+a joint: sepals lanceolate or ovate-lan- 
ae corolla 8-10 cm. wide; petals few, the inner ones broadly 
obovate or cuneate, some of them mucronate: berries solitary 
or ye on a joint, obovoid, sometimes slightly pyriform, 3.5-5 
cm. long, purple. 
Sandy woods and roadsides Florida to eastern Texas. 
For many years specimens of a prickly-pear of uncertain 
relationship were collected in Florida. In 1912, Dr. David 
Griffiths associated the specimens from northern Florida and 
described them undert he name of Opuntia Bentonii, making the 
type specimen a certain collection from near MacClenny, at the 
same time recording the extension of the geographic range to the 
mouth of the Brazos River in Texas. 
A little later Dr. Britton and Dr. Rose, in the course of their 
studies in the genus Opuntia, associated this plant with Opuntia 
stricta, basing their opinion on the close resemblance of the 
Florida specimens and those of apparently authentic specimens 
of O. stricta received from European botanical gardens where that 
plant had long been in cultivation. Still later they began to 
refer here various hitherto unassigned specimens from peninsular 
Florida, so that now we know .the species to range from the 
northern extremity of the state to the southern. 
One curious point about this plant is that its habitats, as far 
as the writer has observed, often arouse suspicion that it may be 
naturalized in Florida, and not a native. In fact, Dr. Griffiths 
savs:! “Always in cultivation in the eastern portion of this range 
and native in southwestern Louisiana and Texas.” If the 
Florida specimens are properly referred to Opuntia stricta it Is 
quite likely they are descendants of plants that were brought from 
Cuba, where it appears to be native, or from some other point 
‘Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 25. 
