52 



THE CACTACEAE. 



1. Neobesseya wissmannii (Hildmann). 



Mammillaria siinHis robustior Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 6: 200. 1850. 

 Mammillaria nuttaUii robustior Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 265. 1856. 

 Maiumillaria missouriensis robustior S. Watson, 



Bibl. Index i: 403. 1878. 

 Cactus missouriensis robustior Coulter, Contr. U. S. 



Nat. Herb. 3: iii. 1894. 

 Mammillaria wissmannii Hildmann in Schmnann, 



Gesamtb. Kakteen 498. 1898. 

 Cactus robustior Small, Fl. Southeast. U. S. 812. 



1903. 



Plant solitary, or forming mounds 2 to 3 dm. in 

 diameter and i dm. high with 25 heads or more; 

 areoles elliptic when young, conspicuously white- 

 woolly, the head usually globose, tubercles rather 

 large, spreading, somewhat narrowed towards apex ; 

 spines 7 to 14, when young white to brownish, in age 

 gray with yellow swollen base, acicular, 1.5 to 2 cm. 

 long, sometimes all radial and spreading, rarely i or 

 2 centrals and these porrect; flowers large, 4 to 5 cm. 

 long, dark yellow; scales on flower-tube strongly 

 nerved; margin of perianth-segments naked; inner 

 segments abruptly long-apiculate; fruit globose, 8 

 mm. in diameter. 



Type locality: Not cited, presumably Texas. 

 Distribution: Central Texas. 

 Illustration: Bliihende Kakteen i : pi. 5, as 

 Mammillaria wissmannii. 



Figure 50 is a reproduction of the illustration cited above 



Fig. 50. — Neobesseya wissmannii. 



2. Neobesseya similis (Engelmann). 



Mammillaria similis Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 5: 246. 1845. 



Mammillaria similis caespitosa Engelmann, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 6: 200. 1850. 



Echinocactus similis Poselger, AUg. Gartenz. 21: 107. 1853. 



Mammillaria nuttallii caespitosa Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. 3: 265. 1856. 



Mammillaria missouriensis caespitosa S. Watson, Bibl. Index i: 403. 1878. 



Cactus missouriensis similis Coulter, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: iii. 1894. 



Mammillaria missouriensis similis Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 498. 1898. 



Cactus similis Small, Fl. Southeast. U. S. 812. 1903. 



Coryphantha similis Britton and Rose in Britton and Brown, Illustr. Fl. ed. 2. 2: 571. 1913. 



Plants sometimes growing in large clumps i to 1.5 dm. high by 2 to 3 dm. in diameter, containing 

 25 individuals or more; larger plants 6 to 10 cm. in diameter; tubercles deep green, cylindric, some- 

 times 2 cm. long, when young the groove filled with white wool ; spines all puberulent ; radial spines 

 12 to 15, spreading, dirty white with brownish tips; central spine solitary or often wanting, similar to 

 but stouter and longer than the radials ; flowers 5 to 6 cm. long, light yellow, the outer lobes tinged 

 with brown and green; inner perianth-segments long, narrow, acuminate; flower-tube definite, 

 covered nearly to its base with short greenish stamens; style green; stigma-lobes 4 to 6, linear; 

 fruit globular or short-oblong, 10 to 20 mm. in diameter; seeds large, globose, 2 mm. in diameter. 



Type locality: Near Industry, Texas. 



Distribution: Eastern Texas. 



Engelmann says that the flowers and fruits are larger than in Mammillaria nuttallii. 

 The inner perianth-segments gradually taper to the apex. 



S. Watson and others refer here Mammillaria caespitosa Gray (Struct. Bot. 421. f. 838), 

 but the plant illustrated by Gray is Echinocereus reichenbachii. The Index Kewensis 

 refers Mammillaria caespitosa Gray, as they also do Mammillaria similis, to Mammillaria 

 missouriensis. (See Cactaceae 3: 26). 



Illustration: Cact. Mex. Bound, pi. 74, f. 7, as Mammillaria nuttallii caespitosa (seed). 



Plate III, figure 2, shows a plant collected by F. E. Upham at Fort Worth, Texas, which 

 flowered in Washington. 



