182 
the; cactaceae:. 
numbers of this cactus are plowed out in the breaking of the sod land. Occasionally, the 
farmers gather them and haul them to the margins of the field and there build fences 
much like the stone walls so familiar in New England. The plants are easily corded and 
the strong sharp spines make the fences quite formidable.” 
Echinocactus courantianus Eemaire is given as a synonym of this species by Eabouret 
(Monogr. Cact. 196. 1853) and seems never to have been described. Melocactus laciniatus 
Berlandier is only mentioned by Engelmann (Cact. Mex. Bound. 27. 1859). 
The plant is called devil’s pincushion and devil’s head cactus. 
Illustrations: Alianza Cientifica Universal 3: opp. 222; Cact. Mex. Bound, pi. 33, f. 1 to 
6; Bliihende Kakteen 1: pi. 50; Gartenflora 32: 20; 37: pi. 1286; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 12: 
57; Diet. Gard. Nicholson 1: 501. f. 693; Riimpler, Sukkulenten 185. f. 103; Arm. Rep. 
Smiths. Inst. 1908: pi. 2, f. 1; Forster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. f. 58, 59; Orcutt, Rev. Cact. 56; 
Schulz, 500 Wild FI. San Antonio pi. 13; Thomas, Zimmerkultur Kakteen 39; Schelle, 
Handb. Kakteenk. f. 89; Watson, Cact. Cult. 121. f. 46, as Echinocactus texensis. 
Plate xix, figure 3, shows a plant sent by Dr. MacDougal to the New York Botanical 
Garden from Austin, Texas, in 1902, which flowered in 1904 and 1905; figure 4 shows a 
fruit, painted by D. G. Passmore in Washington, D. C., of a plant collected by F. F- 
Upton near Fort Worth, Texas, in 1907; figure 5 shows a seed from a plant collected by 
Robert Runyon at Brownsville, Texas, in 1920. Figure 192 is from a photograph of a plant 
which flowered and fruited in Washington, D. C. This was sent from Fort Worth, Texas, 
by F. F. Upton in 1907. 
21 . ASTROPHYTUM Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 3. 1839. 
Plants globular or more or less flattened to short-cylindric; ribs few, very prominent, more or 
less covered with white, radiating, hairy scales; spines usually wanting, weak or subulate in two 
species; flowers borne at the top of the plant, large, yellowish with a reddish center, soon fading, per¬ 
sistent, campanulate to short-funnelform; fruit globular, covered with brown, scarious, imbricating 
scales, these woolly in their axils, and more or less pungent; seeds dark brown, smooth and shining, 
with a large depressed hilum having intumed margins. 
Four species, all Mexican, are here recognized; the type species is Astrophytum myrio- 
stigma Femaire. 
The generic name is from aarr/p star, and 4>vtov plant, referring to the star-like shape of 
the plant. 
Key to Species. 
Spines wanting. 
Plants globular to columnar; flowers 4 to 6 cm. long. 1. A. myriostigma 
Plants much depressed; flowers 3 cm. long. 2. A. asterias 
Spines present. 
Spines flat, ribbon-like, hardly pungent. 3. A. capricorne 
Spines subulate. 4. A. ornatum 
1. Astrophytum myriostigma Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Nov. Sp. 4. 1839. 
Cereus callicoche Galeotti in Scheidweiler, Bull. Acad. Sci. Brux. 6 1 : 88. 1839. 
Echinocactus myriostigma Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1844. 22. 1845. 
Astrophytum prismaticum Lemaire, Cactees 50. 1868. 
Echinocactus myriostigma columnaris Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 321. 1898. 
Echinocactus myriostigma nudus R. Meyer, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 22: 136. 1912. 
Plants solitary or cespitose, globular to cylindric, up to 6 dm. high; ribs usually 5, sometimes 6, 
8, or rarely even 10, very broad, acute, usually covered with white woolly scales but sometimes 
naked; spines wanting, at least on old plants; flowers 4 to 6 cm. long; outer perianth-segments narrow, 
with brown scarious tips; inner perianth-segments oblong; scales on ovary and flower-tube scarious, 
imbricated, narrow, often bristly tipped, with long wool in their axils. 
Type locality: Not cited. 
Distribution: Northern central Mexico. 
