258 



THE CACTACEAE. 



stout-subulate, 4 to 6 mm. long, erect or ascending, slightly curved upward, dark green; glochids 

 brownish; spines subulate, usually numerous, solitary or 2 together, light gray, except the brown 

 tip, salmon-colored when drj', and faintly banded when wet; flowers often several on a joint; 

 ovary obconic, nearly terete; sepals green, outer lanceolate to ovate, 4 to 8 mm. long, acuminate, 

 the inner much larger, with shoulders of very broad body narrowed into stoutish tip ; corolla bright 

 yellow, 4.5 to 5.5 cm. wide; petals about 12, 2.5 to 3 cm. long, broadly obovate to cimeate-obovate, 

 broadly rounded at apex, mucronate; anthers nearly 2 mm. long; berry clavate, about 3 cm. long, 

 narrowed at base; umbiHcus rather small, somewhat concave; seeds rather few, 4 to 4.5 mm. in 

 diameter. 



Sand dunes, northeastern Florida. Type in the herbarium of the New York Botanical 

 Garden; collected on dunes at Atlantic Beach, Florida, in April 1921, by J. K. Small. 



Dr. Small notes that the stiff spines may penetrate leather shoes and that the plant 

 is very prolific, both vegetatively and through its fruit. 



Figure 235 is from a photograph taken by Dr. Small of the type plant. 



On page no, vol. i, insert: 



Series 3a. PISCIFORMES. 



Plants in dense colonies with turgid, verj^ spiny, narrow, deep green joints, the spines conspicu- 

 ously long and slender, salmon-colored in the first year, gray in the second; flowers numerous, 

 bright 3'ellow; berrj' turbinate-obovoid, 4 cm. long or less. The only species inhabits Florida. 



96a. Opimtia piscLfonnis Small, sp. nov. 



Prostrate, copiously branched, forming dense mats often i to 3 meters in diameter, with joints 

 piled several layers deep, roots fibrous; joints narrowly elliptic, linear-elliptic, or spatulate, mostly 



Fig. 236. — Opuntia pisciformis. 



I to 3 dm. long, ver\^ thick, deep green, readity detached; leaves stout-subulate, 2 to 4 mm. long, 

 incurved; areoles rather prominent, mostly armed; spines solitary or 2 or 3 together, cream-colored, 

 becoming salmon-colored and gray with a dark tip when dr}^ salmon when wet, the longer ones 5 

 to 6 cm. long; flowers numerous: ovar\' turbinate, angular and tuberculate; sepals green, the outer 

 lanceolate to triangular-lanceolate, 9 to 12 mm. long, acuminate, the inner much larger, the broad 

 ovate or suborbicular base broadly tapering into the ^^en,^ stout tip; corolla bright yellow, 6 to 7.5 

 cm. wide; petals about 12, 3 to 4 cm. long, broadly cuneate, mostly truncate or emarginate at apex, 

 mucronate; anthers nearly 2 mm. long; berry broadly turbinate-obovoid, 3.5 to 4 cm. long, purple, 

 narrowed at base, the umbilicus deeply concave; seeds rather numerous, 5 to 5.5 mm. in diameter. 



