EY 
PAPERS ON CACTESA, 
I. CACTEZ OF EMORY’S RECONNOISSANCE. 
From A LETTER IN Notes oF A MILITARY RECONNOISSANCE FROM Fort LEAVENWORTH, IN Missouri, To San Deco, 
In CaLiForNIA. . .. By W. H. Emory. Apprenpix No. 2. Washington, 1848. 
On the occasion of my report on the botany of Dr. Wislizenus’s voyage, I have made [157] 
a careful investigation of the Cactaceze,—of which he brought home with him more 
than twenty species, — and have been enabled to elucidate several points which had been unknown 
or obscure before; no doubt because in the hothouses of European gardens these curious plants, 
though they thrive pretty well, rarely produce flowers and fruit: so that from eight hundred species 
of Cactacese at present cultivated in Europe, perhaps not one fourth is known as to its flowers, and a 
much smaller proportion in fruit. 
I have ventured to describe some of your species from the drawing; my description, however, 
and the names given by me, must remain doubtful till we are able to obtain some more data to 
characterize the species. I have written it more for your information than for publication; but if 
you choose to append it to your published report, I have no objection to it, but must request you to 
make such corrections or alterations as your notes or your recollection of the plants will enable you 
to do, — for example, as to size, as in some of the drawings no size is mentioned ;* in which case 
I have assumed them to represent the natural size. I have, for convenience’ sake, numbered the 
different figures, and shall now proceed to copy for you the descriptions and remarks following my 
numbers. 
1. Mamriiarta. Oct. 18, 1846. Head waters of the Gila, 6,000 feet above the sea. Proliferous in the 
highest degree, forming hemispherical masses often of a diameter of 3} feet, which are composed of. 100-200 different 
heads or stems. Single heads conical, apparently about 4 or 5 inches high and 23-3 inches in diameter ; color bluish- 
green ; spines white or reddish. 
This species appears to be allied to M. vivipara, but is distinguished by the conical heads and the hemispherical 
tufts, while M. vivipara has hemispherical or even depressed heads, and forms flat and spreading masses. It may be 
an undescribed species ; in which case the name of M. agyregata appears to be most appropriate. 
- Mamitiarra. Oct. 26, 1846. Rare; on the Gila, 3,000 or 4,000 feet above the sea. Apparently a 
Mamillaria, though the habit of the plant is more that of an Echinocereus; but all Echinocerei have the bunches of 
spines disposed in vertical ridges, which is not the case in the figure in question. Stems irregularly cylindrical, with 
divers contractions and swellings, about 4~6 inches high and 1}~-1} inches in diameter, many (in the figure 8) from 
one base. 
The name of M. fasciculata would indicate the peculiarity of this species. 
* Where the size is not mentioned, the original drawings are the size of nature. —W. H. E. [The accompanying figures 
are reduced, — Eps. ] 
x A 
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ea 1% on ft ss 
Aees a a a a i wm MEG hace 
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Ras Oat Cot. fn Me vf, ar 
fag in aes 1, 4 ta me Ae oe gt Bae Faia a Few hes fees a che 
—- re Sn aul Auvghe. atl Comer tl, Mp fasin Tt 
