BEHAVIOR OP SPECIES OF CACTI. 15 



Italy, and from Berlin, and all have behaved in the same way. At 

 Brownsville the species has not been planted until lately, but at 

 Chico there are plants from the same sources which are 6 years old 

 that show no signs of deterioration at present and have always been 

 healthy. 



Several of the small- jointed, low, prostrate species behave in the 

 same way at San Antonio, and are comparatively short lived. They 

 are universally attacked by a fungus, which may account, at least in 

 part, for the rapid deterioration. Ophntia attairei, especially when 

 placed under cultivation at San Antonio, grows with great rapiditjr. 

 Cuttings set in the spring blossom from the current year's growth in 

 the fall. The second year the growth is very vigorous also, but the 

 third year it is not as prolific, and the fourth season the plant is in- 

 variably in bad shape, but usually reestablishes itself freely from de- 

 tached and terminal cuttings which have been formed by the death 

 of the older proximal growth. O. allairei is not killed outright like 

 O. spinosior, but its condition becomes very poor and the root may 

 die. There is always more or less fungous injury associated with 

 this phenomenon, but it does not seem possible that it is accountable 

 for all such damage. A number of other species become weakened 

 also after the third year, due more evidently to the attacks of fungi. 

 0. macrorhiza, 0. ocanthoglochia, O. leptocarpa, and O. fuscoatra 

 are in especially poor condition after the third j^ear at San Antonio. 

 Only the last named has been grown at Brownsville for four years, 

 but it has not suffered at all yet, though its growth is much less 

 rapid. At Chico none of them appear to suffer in this manner, but 

 they grow much less rapidly than in either of the other situations. 



At Chico there are no signs of breaking down in any of the 

 plants. At San Antonio, besides those noted above, there are a 

 number of other species 1 which have many joints dropping off in 

 the center, indicating a breaking down of the plant, which will prob- 

 ably progress very rapidly during the next two years. Unfortu- 

 nately, the varieties grown at Brownsville and their handling have 

 not been such as to give positive information along this line. 



At San Antonio Opuntia neoarbuscula has a behavior much like 

 O. spinosior, but not so pronounced. It grows very rapidly when 

 once established and may at times even blossom the first year from 

 cuttings. It invariably is very vigorous and healthy for two years, 

 shows signs of deterioration the third, and by the fourth year is in 

 bad shape. It continues to live at least six or seven years, but its 

 condition is very poor, usually about three-fourths of the branches 

 being dead, the old trunk dry and scaly, and the inner tissues 

 largely unhealthy. Cuttings can always be established, even from 



1 Opuntia texana and 0. gilvoalba. 



