74 



length and weighing 350 pounds, equivalent to 175 kilo. All 

 the mature plants of Lecontei have invariably a curved central 

 spine. 



Echinocactus Wislizeni, of which I have collected specimens 

 two and a quarter meters in length, also average 175 kilo, in 

 weight. But the form is much more obovate or subglobose and 

 therefore of greater diameter, on which account it is called 

 barrel cactus. Cylindrical plants of this species do not exist. 

 Smaller sizes are quite spherical. 



The central spine of a mature plane of Wislizeni is always very 

 much hooked, hence this species is known as the fishhook cactus. 

 The flower of Lecontei is yellow, of the shade known as Indian 

 yellow. The flowers of all the many hundreds of Wislizeni I 

 have observed during the past dozen years in the vicinity of 

 Phoenix, were always of a rich purple color, and also in all speci- 

 mens met with in the bottom lands of the Rio Santa Cruz, near 

 Tucson, and the Rio Rillito, near Pantano, Arizona, the flowers 

 were purple. Yet Prof. John M. Coulter, in The Botany of 

 Western Texas, says the flower of Wislizeni is yellow, and gives 

 locality on the upper Rio Grande, from El Paso upwards. Dr. 

 Bigelow collected Wislizeni near the Rio Colorado in Arizona 

 nearly fifty years ago, but made no mention of the flowers. 



I am now in a position to settle the difference of opinion in 

 regard to these two species. Mr. E. O. Wooton, for twenty 

 years botanist of the experiment station of the agricultural col- 

 lege, Mesilla Park, New Mexico, visited me on the 29th of 

 July, 191 1, for the purpose of studying the many species of my 

 cactus farm. Mr. Wooton had previously paid much attention 

 to the succulents of New Mexico. He therefore was much 

 astonished to see one of my plants of Wislizeni with a purple 

 flower, and also noted the difference of the size of spines between 

 my plants and those of New Mexico. Now Mesilla Park is 

 located in Dona Ana County, the type locality of Wislizeni, 

 where all flowers of this species are yellow or straw-colored. 



Fortunately we found a plant of Lecontei in one of the beds 

 with a belated flower having yellow petals, anthers and stamens, 

 all others being withered, and Mr. Wooton remarked that it was 



