PELECYPHORA. 59 



Mammillaria schumanniana (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 12: 178. 1902) was evidently 

 intended for M. schumannii. 



Illustrations: Monatsschr. Kakteenk. i: facing 89; Thomas, Zimmerkultur Kakteen 

 51, as Mammillaria schumannii. 



Plate VII, figure 6, shows a plant collected by Dr. Rose at Cape San Lucas, Lower 

 California, in March 191 1 (No. 16375), while a member of the scientific staff of the U. S. 

 Steamer Albatross. Figure 55 is from a photograph of another plant from the same 

 collection. 



10. PELECYPHORA Ehrenberg, Bot. Zeit. i: 737. 1843. 



Plants small, cespitose, cylindric or globose, tuberculate, watery; tubercles not arranged on ribs, 

 strongly flattened, crowned with an elliptic areole bearing a pectinate spine, never grooved; flowers 

 borne near center, broad, campanulate, purplish, the segments in definite series; flower-tube very 

 short, slender; stamens short; fruit small, naked; seeds black, smooth. 



Only one species, native of Mexico, is here recognized, Pelecyphora aselliformis 

 Ehrenberg, the type. A second species has generally been referred here but it differs so 

 widely from the other that we have no hesitancy in segregating it generically (see genus 

 No. 13, p. 64). 



The generic name is from ireXeKvs hatchet, and cpopos bearing, referring to the shape 

 of the tubercles. 



The plant has usually been regarded as a near relative of Mammillaria, but it has little 

 in common with that genus. The flowers are central, borne in a mass of wool or hairs; 

 the tubercles are not grooved and the seeds are black and smooth. It has been difficult for 

 us, with the material at hand, to make out definitely the origin and position of the flower, 

 but it seems to originate on the central sunken disk. This disk at first bears only clusters 

 of hairs in the center of which the flower is produced. In time the flower opens and the 

 tubercle, with its peculiar spiny crown, is developed, leaving in its axil the tuft of hairs 

 about the flower. 



1. Pelec5rphora asellifomiis Ehrenberg, Bot. Zeit. i: 737. 1843. 



Pelecyphora aselliformis concolor Hooker in Curtis's Bot. Mag. 99: pi. 6061. 1873. 

 Pelecyphora aselliformis grandiflora Haage jr., Cact. Kultur ed. 2. 206. 1900. 



Tufted, cylindric, 5 to 10 cm. high, 2.5 to 5 cm. in diameter, covered with tubercles arranged in 

 spirals; tubercles strongly flattened laterally, somewhat stalked at base; areoles at top of tubercles 

 very long and narrow, crowned by an elongated, scale-like spine with numerous lateral ridges, usually 

 free at tip, giving a peculiar pectinate appearance; flowers 3 cm. broad or more, campanulate; 

 perianth-segments in 4 rows, the outer ones sometimes white, oblong, acute ; stamens borne at top of 

 flower- tube, much shorter than perianth-segments; stigma-lobes 4, erect; seeds i mm. broad, 

 kidney-shaped. 



Type locality: Mexico. 



Distribution: About San Luis Potosi, Mexico. 



This plant does not do well in cultivation. It is known generally as the hatchet 

 cactus, and is also called peote and peyote, also peyotillo and peotillo; it is said by the 

 Mexicans to possess medicinal properties. 



Mammillaria aselliformis, according to Watson (Cact. Cult. 188. 1889), was described 

 in 1843, but we have found no other reference to it, except that Dr. A. Weber gives it as a 

 synonym, crediting it to Monville. The name Anhalonium aselliforme Weber and Ario- 

 carpus aselliformis Weher (Diet. Hort. Bois93i. 1898), quoted by Schumann as synonyms, 

 were not formally published. Pelecyphora fimbriaia Hildmann (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 3: 

 68. 1893), simply a name, may or may not belong here. 



Illustrations: Haage, Cact. Kultur ed. 2. 206, as Pelecyphora aselliformis grandiflora; 

 Amer. Card. 11: 474; Curtis's Bot. Mag. 99: pi. 6061, as Pelecyphora aselliformis concolor; 



