THE CACTACEAE. 
84 
the shape and size of the flowers it resembles many of the plants heretofore passing as 
Mammillaria, but it has very different seeds, flowers, areoles, and structure. In its fruits, 
seeds, and flowers it approaches Ariocarpus, but in other respects it is very different. 
1 . Lophophora williamsii (Lemaire) Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 131. 1894. 
Echinocactus williamsii Lemaire in Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenz. 13: 385. 1845. 
Anhalonium williamsii Lemaire in Forster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. 233. 1885. 
Anhalonium lewinii Hennings, Gartenflora 37: 410. 1888. 
Mammillaria williamsii Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 2: 129. 1891. 
Lophophora williamsii lewinii Coulter, Contr. Nat. Herb. 3: 131. 1894. 
Echinocactus lewinii Hennings, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 5: 94. 1895. 
Mammillaria lewinii Karsten, Deutsche FI. ed. 2. 2: 457. 1895. 
Lophophora lewinii Thompson, Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 9: 133. 1898. 
Plants dull bluish green, globular to top-shaped or somewhat flattened at top, 5 to 8 cm. broad, 
with a thickened tap-root sometimes 10 cm. long or more; ribs 7 to 13, nearly vertical or irregular 
and indistinct, tubercled; flowers central, each surrounded by a mass of long hair, pale pink to 
white, 2.5 cm. broad when fully open, with a broad funnelform tube; outer perianth-segments and 
scales green on the back, callous-tipped; filaments much shorter than the perianth-segments, nearly 
white; style white below, pinkish above, shorter than the perianth-segments; stigma-lobes 5, linear, 
pinkish; ovary naked; fruit 2 cm. long or less; seeds 1 cm. in diameter, with a broad basal hilum. 
Type locality: Not cited. 
Distribution: Central Mexico to southern 
Texas. 
This plant contains a narcotic and has 
been the subject of much study regarding its 
chemical, medicinal, and therapeutic prop¬ 
erties. Dr. L- Lewin isolated an alkaloid 
which he named anhalonin. Since then one 
or more other alkaloids have been discovered. 
The active drug contained in this plant, how¬ 
ever, it is claimed, does not lie in the alkaloids 
but in certain resinous bodies discovered by 
Dr. Erwin E. Ewell. The dried plants have 
been used since pre-Columbian times by cer¬ 
tain North American Indians in some of their 
religious ceremonies and dances. The physi¬ 
ological effects which follow the eating of the 
dried plants are remarkable visions, and these 
have been described in considerable detail by writers who have visited the Indians and 
who have recorded laboratory experiences. There is considerable commerce carried on in 
this plant by some of the Indian tribes, although it is forbidden by law. The globular 
plants are sliced into 3 or 4 sections and then dried in the sun and these dried pieces form 
the mescal buttons of the trade. 
According to Safford (Journ. Hered. Washington 8: f. 5, 6, 7. 1916), Bernardo Sahagun 
in the sixteenth century spoke of its use by the Indians of Mexico; Sahagun, however, 
supposed the plant was a fungus, and called it teonanactl or “sacred mushroom.” 
This species is known variously as pellote, peyote, mescal button, devil’s root, or 
sacred mushroom; it is sometimes also called the dumpling cactus and, according to Mr. 
Robert Runyon, challote in Starr County, Texas. 
The name Ariocarpus williamsii Voss (Vilm. Blumengartn. 368), according to the 
Monatsschrift fur Kakteenkunde (7: 32. 1907), has been used, but whether it was formally 
published we do not know. 
Anhalonium rungei Hildmann and A. subnodusum Hildmann (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 
3: 68. 1893) are only names, but doubtless belong here; A. visnagra (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 
6: 174. 1896) should perhaps also be referred here. 
Fig. 97.—Lophophora williamsii. 
