OPUNTIA. 7 1 



The following specimens were collected by Dr. J. N. Rose in 191 1: Near Pichilinque 

 Island (No. 16533, type); near San Jose del Cabo (No. 16468); near Cape San Lucas 

 (No. 16379); on Carmen Island (No. 16630); on San Josef Island (No. 16552). 



Plate XIV, figure i , is from a plant collected by Dr. Rose on San Josef Island, Lower 

 California, in 191 1, which flowered the next year at the New York Botanical Garden. 



Series 8. VESTITAE. 



The series Vestitae contains three or perhaps four species, two of which possibly represent green- 

 house forms of species of Tepkrocactus, natives of the high Andes. They are low species with elon- 

 gated cylindric joints sometimes arising from subglobose ones, and form a connecting link between 

 the true species of Tepkrocactus and Cylindropuntia. Opuntia vcstita in the field was supposed to 

 be a form of 0. pentlandii, but in cultivation it has developed quite differently ; 0. floccosa, a Tepk- 

 rocactus, sometimes develops like the Vestitae; one specimen which we have grown shows a slender 

 cylindric stem with few long hairs or none. Opuntia boUviana and 0. pentlandii, both from Bolivia 

 and described at the same time by Salm-Dyck, and which we have united, seem to represent two 

 forms of the same species, 0. pentlandii being the abnormal form. The same condition seems to 

 exist in 0. versckaffeltii and its variety digitalis, the variety being the normal form. Schumann had 

 these species in his series Teretes (our series Subulatae), but 0. subulata and 0. cylindrica are tall 

 woody, much branched plants. 



Key to Species. 



Arcoles with hairs; joints not or scarcely tuberculate. 



Joints I to 1.5 cm. thick; spines 2.5 cm. long or less; fruit mostly sterile 35-0. vestita 



Joints 2.5 to 3 cm. thick; spines up to 5 cm. long; fruit many-seeded 36. 0. shaferi 



Areoles without hairs; joints distinctly tuberculate 37-0. versckaffeltii 



Of this series? 38. 0. hypsophila 



35. Opuntia vestita Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenz. 13: 388. 1845. 

 Opuntia teres Cels in Weber, Diet. Hort. Bois 898. 1898. 

 Roots fibrous ; stems much branched, weak, forming small clumps 3 dm. broad or less and nearly 

 as high, fragile ; joints short or elongated, becoming in greenhouse cultivation 2 dm. long or more, ob- 

 long or cylindric, i to 1.5 cm. thick, very spiny, easily breaking apart; areoles circular, conspicuous, 

 bearing short wool, spines, and several long hairs; spines about 6 in each cluster, acicular, brownish, 

 2 to 2.5 cm. long; leaves minute, acute; flowers small, including the ovary; 2 cm. long, deep red; petals 

 I cm. long; areoles on ovary conspicuous, filled with white wool and long hairs; fruit red, usually 

 sterile, globular or a little longer than broad, usually naked, generally truncate at apex, often bearing 

 small spiny joints at the areoles. 



Type locality: In Bolivia. 



Distribution: Common on the sterile hills about La Paz, Bolivia. 



Specimens were collected by Miguel Bang some years ago and segregated as a new 

 species by the late Karl Schumann, but this was never published ; others were obtained by 

 Dr. H. H. Rusby in 1885, and by R. S. Williams in 1901. It was again collected by Dr. 

 Rose in 1914, and living plants are now growing at the New York Botanical Garden. As 

 seen wild, it is a strange little plant, growing in low clumps, its fragile stems easily breaking 

 apart, especially at the terminal joints. The bright red fruits remain on the parent plant 

 until they produce a number of spiny joints, often as many as five, which, after falling 

 off, strike roots and start new colonies. 



Dr. Rose suspected at the time he collected his material that it might be Opuntia 

 vestita, and suggested that it should be carefully compared with it. This he was not able 

 definitely to prove in the field, but the living specimens sent to the New York Botanical 

 Garden put out new branches which are long, slender, and cylindric, and are devoid of long 

 acicular spines, quite unlike the wild plants but almost identical with the specimens re- 

 ceived from La Mortola, Italy, some years ago as 0. vestita. 



Optmtia teres Cels must belong here, at least in part. Weber states that the flowers 

 are very similar to 0. vestita, while the fruit is said to be small, red, and proHferous, just as 

 found in 0. vestita. The leaves are described as 2 cm. long, however, and there is a pos- 

 sibility that 0. exaltata may be partly represented in the description, as we find herbarium 

 material of both species, from Bolivia, mounted on the same sheet. 



