OPUNTIA. 



77a. Opuntia depauperata sp. nov. (See Appendix, p. 216.) 



78. Opuntia pubescens Wendland* in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 149. 



1837- 



Fig. 123. — Opuntia pumila. X0.4. 

 Fig. 124. — Opuntia pubescens. X0.75. 



Opuntia leptarlhra Weber in Gosselin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 10: 393. 1904. 

 Plants small, usually low, sometimes 4 dm. high, much branched; joints easily becoming de- 

 tached, nearly terete, glabrous or pubescent, 3 to 7 cm. long; spines numerous, short, brownish; 

 flowers lemon-yellow but drying red; filaments greenish; style white; stigma-lobes cream-colored; 

 fruit small, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, red, a little spiny, with a depressed umbilicus; seeds small, 3 mm. in 

 diameter. 



Type locality: In Mexico. 



Distribution: Northern Mexico to Gua- 

 temala. 



This species was sent to the Exposition 

 Universelle at Paris by the Mexican Govern- 

 ment in 1889. and was there seen and de- 

 scribed by Dr. Weber as 0. leptarthra. A part 

 of this material finally went to the Hanbury 

 Garden at La Mortola, Italy, whence we 

 obtained specimens in 1913 which prove to 

 be identical with specimens obtained by Dr. 

 Rose and others in Mexico and Guatemala in 

 1905 to 1909. 



This is an insignificant species and hence 

 has generally been overlooked in the region 

 where so many more striking species are found. 

 It is widely distributed, extending from the 

 State of Tamauhpas, in Mexico, to Guate- 

 mala, a much greater range than that of most 



species. Its wide distribution is doubtless due to the fact that the joints, which are cov- 

 ered with barbed spines and are easily detached, fasten themselves to various animals 

 and are scattered like burs over the country; each little joint thus set free starts a new 

 center of distribution. 



This is a difficult plant to grow in greenhouses, for the spreading or hanging branches 

 soon become entangled with other plants and break off in attempts to free or move them ; 

 partly for this reason, doubtless, it rarely flowers in cultivation. 



Opuntia angusia Meinshausen (Wochenschr. Gartn. Pflanz. i: 30. 1858) was unknown 

 to Schumann. It was originally described as similar to the South American species, 

 0. aurantiaca, and, if so, it must be near 0. pubescens, if not identical with it, being a native 

 of Mexico, where it was first collected by Karwinsky. 



Figure 124 represents joints of the Guatemalan plant, cultivated in the green- 

 houses of the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, obtained in 1907. 



79. Opuntia pascoensis sp. nov. 



Stems erect and rigid, up to 3 dm. high; joints easily breaking apart, erect or ascending, terete 

 or slightly flattened, 3 to 12 cm. long, 1.5 to 4 cm. broad, puberulent, hardly tuberculate but with 

 faint upturned lunate depressions between the dark-blotched areoles; leaves minute; areoles some- 

 what elevated, filled with brown wool intermixed with longer white cobwebby hairs; spines 4 to 8 

 on young joints, more on older joints, acicular, yellow, 2 cm. long or less; glochids numerous, short, 

 yellow, tardily developing; fruit globular, 1.5 cm. in diameter, naked below, spiny above. Doubt- 

 less of wide distribution, for the joints are easily detached and are distributed like burs, but so far 

 only two collections have been reported. 



*Pfeiffer (Enum. Cact. 1837) frequently refers several of Wendland's species to Catal. h. Herrnh. 1835, but we 

 can find no references to Wendland having published a catalogue of the Herrenhausen Garden either in 1835 or about 

 that time. We have therefore cited all of Wendland's species so referred by Pfeiifer to the pages given in his 

 Enumatio. 



