) 
ed 
in its habit, has lately been recorded in considerable detail. 
It is indeed, not strange that this plant, even considering its 
extensive geographical range, should have remained, until 
recently, the least known of the older described species of Opuntia 
in the eastern United States. 
The exceedingly fragile articulation of the joints was com- 
mented on in the papers referred to above. Recent observations 
have shown that even the wind will separate the joints and 
scatter them. It may be that this ready method of vegetative 
propagation has caused the plant to become the shyest bloomer 
of all our eastern species of Opuntia. It may be readily seen 
that propagation by seeds is almost unnecessary. The crowfoot- 
cactus, as this plant is sometimes called, grows naturally in the 
. loose sand of pinewoods or in the drifting sands of active dunes. 
In sheltered spots the branches lie on the surface of the sand; 
but when in exposed positions the joints naturally partly bury 
themselves in the sand and thus strings of joints that would 
otherwise be b’own apart and scattered, are securely anchored 
in place, at least until the sand may be blown away from the 
bodies of the joints and from the spines which extend further 
down. into the sand. The phenomena just described not only 
obtain in the natural habitats of this plant, but they are dupli- 
cated on the sand mounds in the cactus plantation at Buena 
‘Ista. 
Another interesting point in connection with this plant recently 
impressed on the writer is the similarity in color between the 
joints and spines on the one hand and the sand in which they 
grow on the other. The camouflage is usually so complete that 
one usually feels the presence of the plants before the cye is 
attracted by them. 
The color of the corolla according to both the original plate 
and to testimony obtained at Apalachicola is lemon-yellow. 
Dr. Mohr records the corolla as being ‘rose purplish.” The 
color is various in some species of Opuntia, and it may thus vary 
in this one, 
‘ Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 18: 237-246. 1917. and 19: 1-6, 
O18, 
