OPUNTIA. 



173 



Key to Species. 



Joints narrowly obovate. 



Joints grayish green, densely velvety 190. O. tomentosa 



Joints bright green, minutely puberulent 191. O. tomentella 



Joints broadly obovate 192. 0. guilanchi 



190. Opuntia tomentosa Salm-Dyck, Observ. Bot. 3: 8. 1822. 



Cactus tomentosus Link, Enum. Hort. Berol. 2: 24. 1822. 

 Opuntia oblongata Wendland in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 161. 1837. 

 Opuntia icterka Griffiths, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 23: 138. 1913. 



Becoming 3 to 6 meters high or more, with a broad top and a smooth trunk 10 to 30 cm. in 

 diameter; joints oblong to narrowly obovate, 10 to 20 cm. long, velvety pubescent, somewhat 

 tuberculate when young; glochids yellow; spines usually wanting but sometimes i or more appear; 

 flowers orange-colored, 4 to 5 cm. long; filaments white or rose-colored; style dark carmine, longer 

 than the stamens; stigma-lobes 5 or 6, white; fruit ovoid, red, sweetish; seeds 4 mm. broad. 



Opuntia tomentosa. 



Type locality: Not cited; doubtless Mexico. 



Distribution: Central Mexico and as an escape in Australia. 



This species was first described from cultivated plants and has long been a favorite. 

 When grown out of doors, as it is in Bermuda, it forms a large and conspicuous plant. It 

 is usually nearly or quite spineless, but plants which come from the Valley of Mexico are 

 often spiny. 



According to J. H. Maiden, this plant had been sent to him under the unpubHshed 

 name Opuntia lurida, and as 0. pnbescens. 



Illustrations: Agr. Gaz. N. S. W. 23: pi. opp. 1028; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 16: 121; 

 De Candolle, PI. Succ. Hist. 2: pi. 137 [A, B], this last as Cactus cochenillifer (fide Berger). 



