208 



THE CACTACfiAE. 



235. Opuntia rubescens Salm-Dyck in De CandoUe, Prodr. 3: 474. 182S. 



1837. 



Opuntia catacanlha Link and Otto in Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 166. 



Consolea rubescens Lemaire, Rev. Hort. 1862: 174. 1862. 



Consolea catacanlha Lemaire, Rev, Hort, 1862: 174. 1862. 



Opuntia guanicana Schumann in Giirke, Monatsschr, Kakteenk, 18: 180, 



1908, 



Trunk erect, nearly cylindric below, flattened above, 3 to 6 meters high, sometimes 1.5 dm. in 

 diameter, branching above, its areoles bearing several or many acicular spines up to 8 cm. long or 

 more, or spineless; ultimate joints thin and flat, mostly dark green or reddish green, not reticulate- 

 areolate except when young, oblong to oblong-obovate, 2.5 dm. long or less, mostly 2 to 4 times as 

 long as wide, the terminal ones often much smaller; areoles i to 1.5 cm. apart, bearing several acicular 

 nearly white spines i to 6 cm. long, or spineless; flowers yellow, orange or red, about 2 cm. broad; 

 ovary long-tuberculate, 4 to 5 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. in diameter; petals obovate, apiculate; sta- 

 mens about half as long as the petals; fruit reddish, obovoid or subglobose, 5 to 8 cm. in diameter, 

 spiny or spineless; seeds suborbicular, 6 to 8 mm. in diameter. 



Figs. 263, 264. — Opuntia ru 



Type locality: Cited as Brazil, but erroneously. 



Distribution: Mona and Porto Rico to Tortola, St. Croix, and Guadeloupe. 



Culebra, St. Thomas, St. Jan, and Montserrat plants agree with the description of 

 Opuntia rubescens, which clearly belongs with the Spinosissiniae {Crucijormes), as pointed 

 out by Berger, rather than with the South American series Inarmatae, where it was placed 

 by Schumann; it is a spineless state of O. catacantha, as was conclusively proven by us 

 through field observations in the Virgin Islands, and greenhouse plants of 0. rubescens 

 develop spines. 



Both the spiny and spineless races exhibit remarkable proliferation of the ovaries, 

 these often forming chains of several joints while attached to the plant; these, falling to 

 the ground, strike root and form many small, flattened joints 2 to 4 cm. long, as in Opuntia 

 Dionilifonnis, to which this species is otherwise closely related. 



Illustration: Joum. N. Y. Bot. Card. 7: f. 6, as Opuntia. 



