OPUNTIA. l6l 



Figure 199 is from a photograph of a plant with narrow joints, in McClearj^'s Canyon, 

 Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, taken by Dr. MacDougal; figure 200 represents a joint of 

 a plant from the collection made by Professor J. W. Toumey at Tucson, Arizona, olatained 

 by Dr. MacDougal in 1902. 



OpunTia palmEri Engelmann in Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 423. 1896. 



This plant has not been again collected and is still a doubtful species ; it came from St. 

 George, southwestern Utah. In 1909 E- W. Nelson made a collection for us in this region, 

 but the only shrubby, juicy-fruited species which he collected has brown spines and brown 

 glochids, which would seem to exclude it from 0. palmeri. It is not at all unlikely that 

 O. palmeri should be referred to 0. chlorotica, a widely dispersed species, but of which we 

 have not seen any specimens from Utah. 



172. Opuntia laevis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 419. 1S96. 



Loosely few-branched, i to 2 meters high, but in cultivation often forming a low, dense bush; 

 joints obovate to oblong, 1.5 to 3 dm. long, light green, often spineless but usually with a few (i to 3) 

 short spines i cm. long or less at the areoles of the upper part of the joint; areoles rather distant, 

 small; flower large, 6 to 7 cm. broad; petals lemon-yellow, sometimes tinged with red, broad, and 

 obtuse or refuse; filaments and style short, pale yellow; stigma-lobes green; ovary turbinate, more 

 or less tuberculate, at first leafy, often bristly at top; fruit obovoid, 5 to 7 cm. long; seeds 4 to 5 mm. 

 broad. 



Type locality: In Arizona. 



Distribution: In the mountains about Tucson, Arizona. 



Referred by Professor Schumann to 0. inermis (0. stricta), but it is not that species. 



Illustrations: Ariz. Agr. E-xp. Sta. Bull. 67: pi. 8, f. i ; N. Mex. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 

 72: pi. i; Plant World ii'»: f. 5. 



Plate XXVIII, figure i, represents a flowering joint of a plant brought by Dr. Mac- 

 Dougal from Tucson, Arizona, in 1902, to the New York Botanical Garden. 



173. Opuntia stricta Haworth, Syn. PI. Succ. 191. 1812. 



Cactus opuntia inermis De CandoUe, PI. Succ. Hist. 2: pi. 13S [C]. 1799.* 



Cactus striclus Haworth, Misc. Nat. 188. 1803. 



Opuntia inermis De Candolle, Prodr. 3: 473. 1828. 



Opuntia airampo Philippi, Anal. Univ. Chile 85: 492. 1894. 



Opuntia parva Berger, Hort. Mortol. 411. 1912. 



Opuntia bentonii Griffiths, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 22: 25. 1912. 



Opuntia longiclada Griffiths, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 525. 1916 (according to description and illustration). 

 Bushy, low, spreading plants, sometimes forming large clumps, seldom over 8 dm. high; joints 

 obovate to oblong, usually 8 to 15 cm. long, but sometimes much elongated and then 30 cm. long 

 or more, green or bluish green, glabrous, often spineless especially in greenhouse specimens, some- 

 times but a spine or two on a joint, at other times spines more abundant; leaves stout, subulate, 



3 to 4 mm. long; areoles distant, the wool brownish, the glochids short; spines, when present, usually 

 I or 2 from an areole, stiff, terete, yellow, i to 4 cm. long; flowers 6 to 7 cm. long; petals yellow, 

 broad, obtuse, apiculate; filaments yellow to greenish; style usually white; stigma-lobes usually 

 white but sometimes greenish; fruit purple, usually broadest at top, tapering to a slender base, 



4 to 6 cm. long, with a more or less depressed umbilicus. 



Type locality: Not given. 



Distribution: Western Cuba; Florida to southern Texas. 



Opuntia vulgaris balearica Weber (Diet. Hort. Bois 894. 1898) is given by Weber as 

 a synonym of 0. inermis; Opuntia balearica Weber (Hirscht, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 8: 

 175. 1898) has also been used, but not described, and Hirscht says it belongs here. 



This species is often cultivated on the west coast of South America. It was there 

 given the name 0. airampo by Dr. Philippi, who supposed it to be the airampo of the Peru- 

 vians, a native species, quite different from this one. 



This species is the pest pear of New South Wales and Queensland. It has now run 

 wild over thousands of acres of the best agricultural and grazing land of the interior of 



*Berger (Jlort. Mortol. 411. 1912) gives the date 1797. 



