ECHINOCACTUS. 
171 
A few years ago the governor of Tamaulipas sent a large plant to the City of Mexico, 
of which we have a photograph. This plant was 3 meters high, 1.3 meters in diameter, and 
weighed 2,000 kilograms. 
Illustrations: Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 54, as Echinocactus ingens; Illustr. Lon¬ 
don News 9: 245. 1846, as monster cactus; (?) Schelle, Handb. Kakteenk. 149. f. 76; Garten- 
welt 7: 277; De Laet, Cat. Gen. f. 9, as Echinocactus ingens visnaga; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 77: 
pi. 4559; FI. Serr. 6: pi. 616; Amer. Garden 11: 461; Diet. Gard. Nicholson 1: 501. f. 694; 
Jard. Fleur. 2: pi. 123; Watson, Cact. Cult. 125. f. 48; ed. 3. 47. f. 20. 
Figure 187 is a reproduction of the plate in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine above cited. 
4 . Echinocactus grandis Rose, Contr. U. S' 
Nat. Herb. 10: 126. 1906. 
Simple, large, cylindric, 1 to 2 meters high, 
6 to 10 dm. in diameter, dull green and, when 
young, with broad horizontal bands, very woolly 
at the crown; ribs on young plants as few as 8, 
broad, high, and more or less undulate,, but in 
old plants very numerous and rather thin; 
areoles remote on young plants, confluent in old 
flowering plants; spines stout, subulate, dis¬ 
tinctly banded, especially the stouter ones, at 
first yellowish but soon reddish brown; radial 
spines usually 5 or 6, 3 to 4 cm. long, central 
spine solitary, 4 to 5 cm. long, straight; flowers 
numerous, yellow, 4 to 5 cm. long; scales on the 
ovary linear, their axils bearing an abundance of 
wool covering the ovary with a dense felty 
mass; upper scales narrow, rigid, more or less 
spiny-tipped; outer perianth-segments ovate, 
long-apiculate, with ciliate margins; inner seg¬ 
ments oblong, obtuse, retuse or apiculate, ser¬ 
rulate ; fruit hidden in a mass of soft white wool, 
oblong, 4 to 5 cm. long; seeds black, shining, 2.5 
cm. long. 
Type locality: Hills near Tehuacan, 
Puebla, Mexico. 
Distribution: Limestone hills of Puebla, 
Mexico. 
This is one of the very large species of 
Echinocactus and is very characteristic of 
the deserts of Puebla where it is often the 
most conspicuous plant of the landscape. 
The juvenile plants appear very different 
from the mature ones. 
Illustrations: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 12: 73; U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. PI. Ind. Bull. 262: 
pi. 18; Bull. Soc. Acclim. 52: 54. f. 13; Schelle, Handb. Kakteenk. f. 75, as Echinocactus 
ingens; Reiche, Elem. Bot. f. 163, as Cereus ingens; Nat. Geogr. Mag. 21: 701; Plant World 
11 6 : f. 3; Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 8: f. 3; MacDougal, Bot. N. Amer. Des. pi. 17, in part; 
Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 27: 87; Mollers Deutsche Gart. Zeit. 29: 439. f. 15. 
5 . Echinocactus platyacanthus Link and Otto, Verh. Ver. Beford. Gartenb. 3: 423. 1827. 
Stems nearly globular, 5 dm. high, 6 dm. broad, light green, very woolly at apex; ribs 21 to 30, acute; 
spines brownish at first, grayish in age; radial spines 4, spreading, 12 to 16 mm. long; central spines 
3 or 4, spreading, 3 cm. long; flowers 3 cm. long, long-woolly; outer perianth-segments lanceolate, 
mucronate; inner perianth-segments obtuse, yellow; stigma-lobes 10. 
Fig. 187. — Echinocactus visnaga. 
