14 BOTANY. 
Flowering in May. So nearly allied to the last that we considered it a form or sub-species of it. 
Dr. Newberry has now obtained the flowers. His specimen has fewer spines than Dr. Bigelow’s 
original ones; 8 or 9 radial ones, about 1 inch long, and 1 or 2 central angulate ones, 13-2 
inehes long; all whitish and somewhat translucent. They resemble the spines of C. enneacanthus, 
but the flowers are vastly different, being open day and night, and not diurnal, as those of the 
species just mentioned. 
Floribus magnis diametro transversali duplo longioribus coccineis; ovario parvo squamis 
sepaloideis 8-12 triangulatis in axilla Janam albam et aculeolos 3-5 graciles gerentibus munito; 
tubo sensim ampliato sepalis fere 20 lanceolatis aculeigeris instructo; sepalis superioribus sub 8 
oblongis obtusis; petalis 10-13 spatulatis obtusis; stamnibus numerosissimus et stigmatibus sub 
9 vix exertis petala subacquantibus. ; 
The flowers are 33-4 inches long and 13-2 inches in diameter; the slender spines in the axills 
of the upper sepals are 6-8 lines in length, the stigmas, as in the whole subgenus Echinocereus, 
velvety green. 
OPUNTIA BASILARIS, E/ngelm. & Bigelow, I. ¢., p. 43, t. 13, f. 1-5, t. 23, f. 14; Syn. Cact., 
Abundant on the Colorado from Fort Yuma to the Great cafion, and one of the most common 
species in the Colorado valley and desert. Dr. Newberry confirms the description before given 
of the peculiar growth of this species; a large number of joints of different shape obovate, 
obcordate, emarginate, or elongate, and almost oblanceolate, issue from nearly the same base, 
and are covered in spring (March and April) with a profusion of rose-colored or purplish flowers, 
often 150 on one plant. The ovary is described as somewhat tuberculate but sometimes almost 
smooth. The fruit is dry when ripe; seed large and thick, as in the figure above cited. 
Opuntia Hysrricina, #. & B. l. c., p. 54, t. 15, f. 5-7, t. 23, p. 15; Syn. Cact., p. 43. 
Common from the Colorado to the Rio Grande. The form collected by Dr. Newberry, and 
named in his notes ‘‘hairy-spined Opuntia,’’ has fewer, shorter, and usually straighter spines 
than the specimens figured and described in Lieut. Whipple’s report; the larger ones are also 
angular and erect, and by these characters distinguished from the nearly allied Opuntia Mis- 
_ souriensis. However, Mr. Fendler’s specimens from Santa Fé, (the flowers of which were 
inadvertantly distributed with No. 276, O. pheacantha, but are easily distinguished by the 
spinulose ovary, ) seem to be intermediate between the two, and may make it necessary to unite 
them. 
_ Dr. Newberry’s specimens have 1-5 larger spines, 1-1 inches long, nearly erect, and about 
_ § smaller deflexed ones below, with a few very small ones above. Flower nearly two inches 
in diameter, ovary with 20-25 tomentose pulvilli, each with a short slender leaf, (sepal,) less 
than one line long, and 5-12 bristly spines of very different lengths: the interior sepals are 
obovate cuspidate petals, obcordate, orange yellow; 5 erect green stigmata, forming a compact 
head. 
Opuntia ecutnocarpa, H. & B. 1. c., p. 40, t. 18, f. 5-10, t. 24, f. 8; MU. B. Rep. ID, p. 56. 
— Syn. Cact., p. 49. In the Mojave valley, and common on the Colorado; begins to flower end 
of March. The specimens obtained are low, with many short branches, much of the habit of 
the clavate Opuntie, but distinguished from them by the sheathed spines and the reticulated wood 
___ peculiar to the cylindroid Opuntie. The ovary is 6-8 lines long, with about 20 pulvilli bearing 
thick ovate leaves, abruptly narrowed into a subulate point, 1-2 lines long, and in their axills in 
‘ a white tomentum, 6 or 8 sheathed spines, the large ones 6-8 lines long. The greenish yellow 
flower when fully open is 13 inches wide; petals spatulate, rounded or emarginate, denticulate, 
ae the exterior ones mucronate ; stigmata 5-6, large and thick, and apparently yellow. 
a OPUNTIA ARBORESCENS, Engelm. in Wislezen. Rep. N. Mex. note 5, M. B. Rep. IT, p. 58 
___«t. 15, f. 16-11; P. RB. Rep. IV., t. 11, f. 5-6, t. 18, f. 4,6. 24, f 12; Syn. Cact.. 51, 
- Common in Western New Mexico. ge goes 
