282 CACTACEAZ OF SIMPSON’S EXPEDITION. 
QO. HysTRIcINA, Engelm. & Bigelow, I. c., p. 44, tab. 15, fig. 5-7 ; Synops. Cact., p. 43. A flowering specimen, 
collected in June between Walker and Casi rivers, is pene like one found by De, Bigelow on the pan Chi- 
quito. It has slenderer and straighter spines than the one figured in Whipple’s Report, and approaches so 
what to O. erinacea, Engelm. & Bigelow, of the Mohave region, in which I now recognize the long-lost O. wae [442] 
Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Flor. 1, p. 555. Joints 5 inches iene half as wide, obovate ; leaves 14 lines long ; 
areolw closely set with long straw-colored bristles ; lower ones with few and short white spines, upper ones with 
numerous grayish-red spines 13-2 inches in length. Flowers pale straw-colored, 2}~3 inches in diameter ; ovary 1 inch 
long, with 20-30 white woolly aculeolate areole ; exterior sepals oblanceolate, squarrose, or recurved at the elongated 
tip ; petals obovate, obtuse, crenulate ; style with 8 or 10 short erect stigmas, longer than the stamens. The squarrose 
tips of the sepals are particularly conspicuous on the bud, 
O. Missourrensis, De Cand. Prod. 3, p. 472; Torr. & Gray, Flor. 1, p. 555 (in part). Cactus ferox, Nutt. 
Gen. 1, p. 296. From the deserts of Salt Lake Valley to Rush Valley ; specimens without flower or fruit. Joints 
small (2-3 ee — broadly obovate or circular; areole closely set ; spines numerous, stiff, stout, angular, white, 
mostly deflex 
MISSOURIENSIS, var. ALBISPINA, Engelm. & Bigelow, I. ¢., p. 46, tab. 14, fig. 8-10; Synops. Cact., p. 44 
Smith Creek, Lookout Mountains, in western Utah; flowering in July. By their sberidier exo spines the spect: 
mens approach to var. trichophora. Flowers 3-34 inches in diameter, bright golden-yellow ; ovary 1 inch long, with 
20 or 25 areolx, scarcely spiny ; exterior sepals obovate, cuspidate ; petals about 8, obtuse, es Se style shorter 
than the stamens ; stigmas about 5, very short, erect. Some flowers have elongated and very spiny ovaries, evidently 
abortive. 
O. FRAGILIS, Haworth, Suppl., p. 82; Torr. & Gray, Flor. 1, p. 555; Synops. Cact., p. 45. Cactus fragilis, 
Nutt. Gen. 1, p. 296. Fort Kearny to the North Platte country; in flower in June and July. This is, I believe, the 
first time that the flowers of this species were collected since Nuttall’s discovery of it in 1813. Travellers report that 
the plant is very frequently seen in the sterile prairies east of the Rocky mountains, but that it is rare to find them in 
flower, and rarer still in fruit. Since many years I have the plant in cultivation from specimens brought down by 
Dr. Hayden, but have not been able to get it to flower. Nuttall only informs us that the flowers are solitary and 
small. In the specimen before me thoy are yellow, scarcely 2 inches in diameter; ovary 8-9 lines long; the 
13-15 areole are densely covered with thick white wool, the upper ones bear a few white spines ; lower sepals broadly 
oval, with a short cusp ; petals 5, obovate, rounded, crenulate ; style longer than the stamens ; stigmas 5, short, erect, 
cuspidate.* 
O. PULCHELLA, sp. nov.:7 parvula cespitosa diffusa ;_ articulis parvis obovato-clavatis ; foliis minutis [443] 
e basi ovata subulatis ; areolis confertis, eran aculeos albidos rectos, singulum longiorem complanatum 
porrectum seu deflexum alios brevissimos radiantes gerentibus; floris purpurei ovario areolis 13-15 convexis albo 
villosissimis et longe setosis dense apie ; sepalis inferioribus lineari-oblongis breviter cuspidatis, su perioribus spatu- 
latis ; petalis sub-8 obovatis obtusis, stylo cylindrico exserto, stigmatibus 5 linearibus suberectis; bacca sicca setosis- 
sima, seminibus crassis rhaphe lata plana notatis. 
Sandy deserts on Walker River ;* flowers in June. — This is one of the smallest, as it is one of the prettiest, 
es of this genus. It belongs to the small section of Clavate (Synops. Cact., p. 46) of the cylindric Opuntic, but is 
Gaines from all those known to me by its small joints and purple flowers; all the others have, so far as I know, yellow 
flowers. Joints 1-1} inch long, 4-6 lines thick, very slightly tuberculated ; leaves scarcely 1 line long; areole 
crowded, white woolly. Larger central spine on the upper areole 4-6 lines long, flat, and somewhat rough above, 
convex below; smaller ones 4-6 or 10, radiating, }-14 line long. Flowers crowded, of a beautiful bright purplish- -red 
or deep rose-red color, 1}-1} inch in diameter ; ovary 4-5 lines long, beset with white capillary spines, 3-5 lines long, 
15-20 on each areola; style not ventricose, as is usual in i genus, but cylindric; stigmas slender, pale yellow ; 
berry clavate, at last dry, about 1 inch long, well marked by the conspicuous white-woolly ravedlis and their numerous 
es flexible, hair- like bristles, 4-6 or 7 lines long. These bristles are entirely destitute of the minute 
barbs 1 bristles of Opuntic. The thick round seeds, 2 lines in diameter, 
are well distinguished by a broad rhaphe, much wider than I have seen it in any other clavate Opuntia. 
* This note, containing the character and mesos of 8 This pretty species afterward (1867) collected 
Opuntia Pes Corvi, having been p Pp ‘‘among the sage brushes” of tical by Mr. William Gabb; 
(p- 226), is here omitted. — Epirors. and in the following year by Mr. S. Watson, “frequent in 
7 An account of this species was given in the Transactions | the valleys of western Nevada, from the Trinity Mountains 
of the St. Louis Academy, II. p. 201 (1863). to Monitor Valley, 4,000-5,000 feet alt.” 
