234- CACTACEZ OF WHEELER’S EXPLORATION. 
Var. Le Conte: (£. Le Contei, Engelm.). At last clavate from a slender base ; lower central spine more flat- 
tened, curved or twisted, but not hooked ; flower rather smaller and with fewer parts. — This is the western form, 
from South Utah and Arizona to and beyond the Colorado River. Dr. Rothrock collected, at Camp Bowie, Arizona, 
a peculiar form (492), which may represent another variety, decipiens: globose, 1 foot in diameter ; spines shorter 
and fewer, no straight spines above the 4 central ones, none longer than 1-13 inches, 10-15 thin flexuous spines on 
side and upper end of areolz ; only 20-25 sepals on ovary. 
E. POLYCEPHALUS, Engelm. & Bigelow (see Watson in Bot. King’s Expl. 117). From the Mojave region to 
southwestern Utah. The numerous spiny-bristly sepals, and the linear, acute, yellow petals, almost hidden in a dense 
cottony wool. 
E. WurrrtE!, Engelm. & Bigelow; Watson, 1. c. 116. On the Lower Colorado River, and northward 
into Utah. 
Cereus (EcCHINOCEREUS) ENGELMANNI, Parry ; Watson, l.c. 117. Throughout Arizona and into Utah and 
southern California Flower purple, open only i in mid-day sunshine. — Camp Bowie (1002); Mrs. Major Sumner, | 
Flower only. May be this or an allied species. 
C. (EcHINocEREUS) PH@NICEUS, Engelm. Globose or oval heads, 2~3 inches high, about 2 inches in diameter, 
several to a great many (sometimes over 100) from one base, 8-11-ribbed ; 8-15 slender but straight, stiff, and 
very brittle spines in each bunch, }-1} inch long, 1-3 of them more central and a little stouter. Deep red [129] 
flowers, 14-23 inches long, half as wide, open equally day and night ; spatulate, rather stiff petals, rounded at 
tip. — From West Texas to southern Colorado and Arizona, as far west as the San Francisco mountains (Bigelow), and 
from Fort Whipple (Palmer). 
C. HINOCEREUS) TRIGLOCHIDIATUS, Engelm. Few (2-5) globose or oval heads, 2-4 inches high, 2-24 thick, 
6-7-ribbed ; areolz more distant than in the last ; spines fewer, only 3-6, flattened or angular, usually curved, about 
1 inch long ; flowers same as in last. — New Mexico, Santa Fé, 1874; Rothrock (39 
C. gonacanthus, Engelm. & Bigelow, — which extends from New Mexico to the Arkansas River and westward to 
Zui, and is characterized by its stouter, longer, and more numerous spines, —may belong to this species ; and perhaps 
both, with numerous other so-called species, which vary only in the number of the ribs, the number or form of the 
spines, and the closeness of the spine bunches, but have all similar flowers, may have to be considered as forms of one 
polymorphous type (C. pheniceus). 
Opuntia (PLATOPUNTIA) BASILARIS, Engelm. & Bigelow. A low plant, with broadly obovate, often retuse or 
fan-shaped joints, branching mostly from the base, pubescent, as well as the fruit ; areole very close, without spines, 
but densely covered with short yellowish-brown bristles; flowers large, rose-purple ; fruit dry, subglobose, with rather 
few large and thick seeds. — Southeastern California to Arizona. Distinct from all other species of this region by its 
mode of growth, its pubescence, the absence of spines proper, and the very large (33-5 lines wide) seeds. The large 
purple flowers, which in the season completely cover the plant, make a beautiful show. 
O. (PLatopuntra) Missourtensts, D.C. Santa Fé, New Mexico, 1874; Rothrock (6). Common from the 
plains of the Missouri into the mountains. A low, very spiny (whence Nuttall’s name, 0. ferox) species, with yellow, 
or sometimes (on the upper Arkansas plains) purple flowers, and dry spiny pods, which contain large, much com- 
pre: and broadly margined seeds. 
Several more — probably half a dozen — flat-jointed Opuntia have been noticed in Arizona; some prostrate and 
with smaller joints, others tall, erect, with large joints (to a foot or more in length), many of them very spiny. 
Of them not much is known, as the plants are “difficult to preserve, and flowers and fruit have not often been [130] 
found or collected. Full notes, living joints, good fruit and seed, and pressed flowers are desirable to make us 
sufficiently acquainted with these plants. The best method of preserving the flowers is to split them open before 
attempting to dry them. Living plants or joints are very valuable, but alone are not sufficient, because in cultivation 
they very rarely flower and scarcely ever bear fruit, 
0. (CyLInpRopuntra) cLavaTa, Engelm. A low, cespitose plant, with short (1-3 inches high, 1 inch thick), 
clavate, ng, strongly tuberculate joints, the upper areole bearing 4-7 ebony-white, flattened, striate spines, 
surrounded by a apr of smaller bristly ones; yellow flowers, 2 inches wide ; dry, yellow, oval pod, covered with 
numerous — woolly, and long-bristled areole. —El Rito, New Mexico (Rothrock), in 1874 (92) ; also about 
Santa Fé, e 
0. been PULCHELLA, Engelm. (see Watson’s Bot. King’s Expl. 119 ; Simpson’s Rep. Bot., tab. 3) 
A very small, purple-flowered species of Nevada. A flower brought home by Mr. Bischoff was by a singular error 
enumerated in the Catalogue of 1874 as Cereus viridiflorus. 
O. (Crurnpropuntra) ARBoRESCENS, Engelm. (see Watson, 1.c. 120). Cuero, New Mexico (101), Rothrock 
in 1874; Cienega, South Arizona (near Tucson), the same (584); and from Camp Bowie, Arizona (1002), by 
