CACTUS. 
231 
Globose to cylindric, sometimes nearly a meter high; cephalium eylindric, sometimes nearly as 
long as the plant-body, made up of white wool and soft brown bristles; ribs 14 to 20, thick, large, 2 
to 3 cm. high; spines 10 to 15, stout, yellow to brown, 2 to 7 cm. long; flowers pinkish, 1.5 to 2 cm. 
long; outer perianth-segments acutish or obtuse and mucronulate; inner perianth-segments acute; 
stigma-lobes 6 or 7, apiculate; fruit oblong to broadly clavate, 2 to 2.5 cm. long; seeds dull black, 
strongly tubercled, especially at the distal end. 
Type locality: Antigua, West Indies. 
Distribution: Southern Bahamas, Porto Rico, Virgin Islands, St. Christopher, Antigua, 
Montserrat, and Dominica. 
Urban, who has followed us in restoring Miller’s old specific name intortus, although 
using it under Melocactus , has applied the name to the Hispaniolan plant while, as a matter 
of fact, Miller’s plant came from Antigua and represents a very different species. 
The plant is abundant along and near the coast in southwestern Porto Rico and grows 
also on the Porto Rican Islands Culebra, Vieques, Mona, and Desecheo; a headland near 
Cabo Rojo, Punta Melones, has taken 
its name from this cactus. On the 
islands Mona and Desecheo in the 
Mona Passage a race with elongated 
slender spines exists; and through the 
Virgin Islands, east to Anegada, the 
species shows much variability in its 
armament. It grows on several islands 
in the southern part of the Bahamas, 
north to Acklin’s Island and Long 
Island, called Turk’s cap or Turk’s 
head here as in the Lesser Antilles; 
the Turk’s Islands have taken their 
name from this plant which appears 
on their postage stamps. 
Illustrations: Bradley, Hist. Succ. 
PI. ed. 2. pi. 32, as Echinomelocactus; 
Journ. N. Y. Bot. Card. 6:7. f. 3; 
9: 46. f. 11, as Melocactus sp.; Curtis’s Bot. Mag. 58: pi. 3090, as Melocactus com¬ 
munis ovatus; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 6: 87, 135; 26: 115; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 
f. 6; Zool. Soc. Bull. 22: 1466; Diet. Gard. Nicholson 2: 347. f. 539, as Melocactus 
communis; Diet. Gard. Nicholson 4: 568. f. 42; Suppl. 530. f. 568; Nov. Act. Nat. Cur 18: 
Suppl. 1. pi. 7; Forster, Handb. Cact. ed. 2. 432. f. 47; Watson Cact. Cult. 141. f. 55., as 
Melocactus miquelii; Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. 18: Suppl. 1. pi. 11, as Melocactus macracanthoides; 
Bradley, PI. Succ. pi. 32, as Echinomelocactus; Linnaea n: pi. 4, as Echinocactus xantha- 
canthus; Mus. Bot. Leide 3: pi. 1, 2, 4, A, as Melocactus eustachianus; Mus. Bot. Leide 3: 
pi. 3, 4 E, as Melocactus portoricensis; Wendland, Coll. PI. Succ. 1: pi. 5 , fide Miquel; Verh. 
Kon. Akad. Wetensch. Amst. II. 5 3 : pi. 2, f. 4, 4a, 4b, 6; Mus. Bot. Leide 3: pi. 
4, B, 12, 13, 19, as Melocactus linkii; Mus. Bot. Leide 3 : pi. 4, C, as Melocactus linkii (form) 
Mus. Bot. Leide 3: pi. n, as Melocactus linkii (seedlings); Verh. Kon. Akad. Wetensch. 
Amst. II. 5 3 : pi. 2, f. 5 to sd; Mus. Bot. Leide 3: pi. 4, D, 12, 20, as Melocactus croceus; 
Mus. Bot. Leide 3: pi. 11 (seedlings); Mus. Bot. Leide 3: pi. 4, C, as Melocactus linkii 
trispinus. 
The following illustrations, more or less diagrammatic, while generally showing the 
characters of this genus remarkably well, do not bring out the specific differences and we 
have been unable to distribute them. It seems desirable to make a record of them here: 
Fig. 243.—Cactus intortus. 
