70 THE CACTACEAE. 



Type locality: South of the Altar River, Sonora, Mexico. 



Distribution: Sonora and Lower California. 



This is a very interesting and important cactus in northwestern Mexico, often the 

 dominant plant in the landscape. On the plain about Guaymas solitary plants, giants of 

 the race, are seen, which are doubtless remnants of great forests which once covered this 

 plain. In Lower California protected valleys and hillsides are now covered with forests 

 made up almost entirely of this species. The natives call these plants cardon. They 

 gather the wood for firewood and use it to make walking-canes, or in building their simple 

 houses, especially for rafters and beams; the Yaqui Indians, especially, gather the seeds 

 and make a kind of flour by crushing them, and this is made into tomales. It is common 

 in western Sonora, on many of the islands in the Gulf of California, all along the east 

 coast of Lower California, and along the west coast of Lower California as far north as 

 Magdalena Bay. In this distribution we have included the two species Cereus calvus and 

 C. titan, both of which were described from spine-clusters. They may or may not be spe- 

 cifically distinct from P. pringlei, but without further data it is best to refer them here. 



Illustrations: Gard. and For. 2:f. 92; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 18: 119; Rep. Mo. Bot. 

 Gard. 16: pi. 1, f. 1 to 4; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen f. 13; Schelle, Handb. Kakteenk. 

 f. 19; MacDougal, Bot. N. Amer. Des. pi. 12, 13; Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1897: pi. 6, as 

 Cereus pringlei; Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: pi. 130; Stand. Cycl. Hort. Baileys: f. 2695. 



Figure 104 is from a photograph taken at Magdalena Bay, Lower California. 



2. Pachycereus orcuttii (K. Brandegee) Britton and Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 422. 1909. 



Cereus orcuttii K. Brandegee, Zoe 5: 3. 1900. 



"Stems erect, branching, bright green, reaching a height of 3 meters and a diameter of 15 cm., 

 with hard woody center; ribs 14 to 18, about 1 cm. high; areoles round, about 6 mm. in diameter 

 and about half that distance apart, densely covered with short, light gray wool ; spines all slender, 

 spreading, yellowish brown, irregularly 3-seriate; radials 12 to 20, about 12 mm. long, deficient 

 above; intermediates about 10, one-third to more than twice as long, less spreading, one of the 

 upper spines of this row usually stouter and darker, porrect, often reaching a length of 7 cm. ; centrals 

 about 5, porrect, spreading a little longer than the intermediates; flowers greenish brown, darker 

 outside, diurnal, entire length about 4 cm.; petals short-apiculate ; ovary densely covered with 

 short scales, almost completely concealed by thick, rounded tufts of yellowish wool, in which are 

 imbedded dark brown bristles 4 to 6 cm. long; stamens lining the upper half of the tube; style tips 

 acute; fruit not known. 



"The plant from which this description is drawn was obtained by Mr. C. R. Orcutt near Rosario, 

 Baja California, in May 1886. It was brought to him by his guide, who found it off the trail some 

 little distance. The cutting was planted in Mr. Orcutt's garden, and is now about 2 meters in 

 height; has flowered but has formed no fruit. It is much the finest of the large Cerei of Baja Cali- 

 fornia, being densely covered with bright yellow-brown spines." 



Type locality: Rosario, Lower California. 



Distribution: Known only from the type locality. 



The above description and account are taken from Mrs. Brandegee's article in Zoe, 

 June 1900. Dr. Rose saw the type plant in 1908 at San Diego, California, and at that 

 time obtained a flower and bud from Mr. Orcutt. Afterwards Mr. Orcutt photographed 

 the plant and a flower and sold the prints. The photograph has also been printed on card- 

 board and distributed in an advertisement for Orcutt's American plants. A set of these 

 photographs is in the National Herbarium. 



3. Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum (Engelmann) Britton and Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 



422. 1909. 



Cereus pecten-aboriginum Engelmann in S. Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. 21: 429. 1886. 



Tree-like, 5 to 10 meters high, with a trunk 1 to 2 meters high and 3 dm. in diameter, crowned 

 with many erect branches; ribs 10 or 11; areoles 1 cm. in diameter or even less, extending downward 

 in narrow grooves, in the flowering ones forming brownish cushions connecting with the areoles 



