Chapter IV. 

 ANHALONIUM. 



A SMALL genus of anomalous cnaracter, founded by Lemaire in 

 1839, but afterwards reduced to Mamillaria. It lias again been 

 restored, with good reason, by an American botanist, Mr. J. M. 

 Coulter, who bases its generic distinction on the absence of spine- 

 tufts, the imbricated tubercles in two series, the production 

 of the flowers on the young tubercles, and the large tuberculate seeds. 

 Four of the species resemble each other in having a short, fleshy, 

 top-shaped stem and a flat-topped rosette of thick, fleshy, wrinkled, 

 grey-green, wart-like tubercles. A fifth, previously included in 

 Echinocactus, and later made into a distinct genus, Lophophora, is 

 the " Dumpling Cactus," A. Williamsii. This differs from the 

 other four in having a short, carrot-shaped, wrinkled stem, crowned 

 with a cap-like, fleshy, grey-green top, with radiating creases and 

 bearing a few small scattered tufts of wool'y hairs, and a central 

 tuft from which the flowers spring. Still another generic name, 

 Ariocarpus, has been proposed for these plants. For practical, 

 purposes, however, Anhalonium may stand. The genus is strictly 

 Mexican. 



A. Engelmanni. 



This was previously known as Mamillaria fissurata and 

 Anhalonium fi,ssuratum. Stem top-shaped, with thick woody root*, 

 tubercles broad, flat, wrinkled, spreading like leaves, forming a 

 rosette 4 inches across. Flowers rose-coloured, 1J inch wide. 

 Mexico. Differs from the other cultivated species in having the upper 

 surface of the tubercle marked with a broad and deep wool -bearing 

 longitudinal groove which widens below. (Fig. 6.) 



JL. furfuraceuxn. 



Like A. prismaticum this differs chiefly in having shorter 

 and more pointed tubercles, the surface of which is irregularly 

 mamillate, and the apex a cup-like depression containing the little 

 cushion of hairs. Flowers 1 inch long, white or pinkish, the sepals 

 brownish. 



