i8 



THE CACTACEAE. 



long; leaves thin, oblong to oblanceolate, 1 6 to 21 cm. long, 4 to 5.5 cm. wide, acuminate, cuneate at 

 base, tapering into petioles 2 to 3.5 cm. long; areoles circular, bearing when young a little wool, but 

 soon becoming naked; calyx turbinate, somewhat angled, naked, with linear deciduous sepals; 

 petals 12 to 15, rose-colored, obovate, 3.5 cm. long; style longer than the stamens, red, thick; stigma- 

 lobes 5 to 7; ovary depressed; fruit yellow, truncate, 5 to 6 cm. long; seeds 6 mm. long, black, 

 shining. 



Type locality: Near Badillas, on the Magdalena River, Colombia, South America. 



Distribution: Northwestern South America and throughout Panama. 



This species was collected by Bonpland during Humboldt's trip through the New 

 World and was described and pubHshed by Kunth in 1823. Dr. Rose examined two of 

 the original specimens in the herbarium of the Museum of Natural History at Paris, one 

 being the specimen given by Bonpland and the other the specimen in the Kunth Herbarium, 



Fig. 12. — Pereskia bleo. 



which is kept distinct from the general herbarium. The only other representatives of this 

 species from South America which we have seen are a specimen in the herbarium of the 

 same museum, which was collected by Justin Goudot in Colombia in 1844, and one collected 

 in 1852, by I. F. Holton at San Juancito, Colombia, preserved in the Torrey Herbarium 

 and one recently brought by Francis W. Pennell from Boca Verde, Rio Sinu, Colombia. 



Heretofore Pereskia bleo has been considered one of the most common species, for 

 many living collections as well as herbaria contain many specimens under that name; the 

 plant which has been known as P. bleo, however, is P. grandifolia Haworth, now known to 

 be a native of Brazil and not found wild in Colombia. 



Since determining that the so-called Pereskia bleo of our gardens and of Brazil is not 

 the true P. bleo of Humboldt, we have become convinced that P. panamensis Weber is the 

 same as P. bleo; Mr. Pittier's exhaustive exploration of Panama has strengthened our con- 

 clusions, for he has traced this species as far south as the Colombian border. Humboldt's 

 plant came from northern Colombia. 



