coche;miea. 21 



5. COCHEMIEA (K. Brandegee) Walton, Cact. Journ. 2: 50. 1899. 



Plant-body cylindric, often much elongated, the surface covered with spirally arranged tuber- 

 cles, these not milky; tubercles not grooved above; spines both central and radial; flowers borne 

 from axils of upper old tubercles, narrowly tubular, curved and bilabiate; perianth-segments in 2 

 series; stamens and style red, exserted; ovary naked; fruit indehiscent, globular, red, naked, bearing 

 a large scar at top ; seeds black, reticulated. 



Type species: Mammillaria halei Brandegee. 



The genus was named for an Indian tribe which once inhabited Lower California. Mrs. 

 Brandegee, who first separated these species as a subgenus, describes the flowers as "scarlet, 

 tubular, slender, somewhat curved, and oblique, with spreading unequal petaloid sepals, 

 so making the flower apparently double as in Cereus flagellifonnis." 



Four species are known, all inhabiting Lower California. 



Fig. 22. — Cochemiea halei. Fig. 23. — Cochemiea poselgeri. 



The fact that Cochemiea had been raised to generic rank, to which four species had 

 been transferred, has been overlooked by all our botanical indexes. Walton's remarks in 

 this connection are interesting: 



"The plants so classed have flowers very elongated, tubular, with sepals placed as a second 

 ring, removed some distance below the petals; they are oblique like Epiphyllum truncatum and 

 Cereus flagelliformis and in fact more resemble those flowers than they do those of any Mammillaria, 

 so much so that I think it would be best to drop the generic name of Mammillaria and simply adopt 

 Mrs. Brandegee's name of Cochemiea as a generic name." 



Mrs. Brandegee suggested (Erythea 5: 117), "It is possible that some of the elongated 

 species of Mexico proper will be found to belong to this section when the flowers are better 

 known." But we have seen no plants from the mainland of Mexico which suggest this 

 relationship. 



Key to Species. 



Spines all straight i. C. halei 



Some or all of central spines hooked. 



Central spine normally solitary 2. C. poselgeri 



Central spines normally 2 to 11 (sometimes only i in C. selispina). 



Central spines i to 4 3- C. setispina 



Central spines 8 to 11 4. C. pondii 



