46 THE WEST AMEEICAN SCIENTIST. 



NEW LOWER CALIFORNIA^ CACTUSES. 



The folowiag unpublished forms have been known to the writer for several 

 years, but their publication was indefinitely delayed by the death of the eminent 

 authority on this tru^y diflSicult class of plants. Possessing the notes upon which 

 Dr. Engel naun decided to base the new species and variety here presented, I ven- 

 ture to now publish them under the names which he proposed. While a more care- 

 ful study of them and comparison with other forms is desirable, yet it is thought 

 better to give these notes in their present form than to delay further, owing to the 

 distribution of specimens and living plants in variou s herbaria and gardens through- 

 out the United States and Europe. • 



EcllillOCactus Orcuttii, Engelmaiin, MS. Heads cylindrical, 10 to 18 inches 

 in diameter and 2 to 3^ feet high, sometimes bulging in the middle, growing single 

 or often cespitose, more rarely proliferous at base, with 13 when young, to usually 

 20 or 22 obtuse tuberculate ribs and a woolly, spineless, depressed top: spines stout, 

 reddish, straight or recurved, all annulated, usually 9 radiating and 4 stouter cen- 

 tril ones: flowers deep dull crimson with greenish or lighter colored margins to the 

 petals, 2 inches long, otherwise as in E. viridescens: stigmata green, 16 to 20: fruit 

 pulpy, crimson, sc ily, with numerous small seeds. 



Palm valley, Lower California. H. 0. and C. R. Orcutt, May 29, 1883. Some 

 of the cespitose plants were found with 18 large, well developed heads; young plants 

 usually globose. Occasionally found with E. viridescens at San Diego. 



Cereus phoeniceus var. pacificus, Engelm. MS. Plant cespitose, one to 

 four feet in diameter, few to five hundred short stems (6 to 9 inches long and 2 to 2h 

 inches in diameter) in each, forming dense oval cushions: stems with 10 to 12 obtuse 

 ribs, shallow intervals, and anequ&,l number of internal ligneous fibers: radial spines 

 1 to 12 and of an average length of | inch, the 4 central spines larger, f to 1 inch 

 long, sleu'ler, white: flower an inch across, including the capsule 1| inches long, the 

 oblong s::atulate sepals bright red with a broad purplish mid vein: ovary and fruit 

 with 25 to 30 spiny areolae: fruit fleshy with numerous small seed: stamens slender, 

 as long as sepals; anthers small, red; style f inch long, stigmata 6 to 8, greenish. 



Less than thirty plants of this beautiful form are known to exist in its original 

 locality — a rocky canyon near Todos Santos bay, Lower California, where it was 

 found in flower January 25, 1883, by Dr. C. C. Parry, H. C. Orcutt and myself. 

 No other locality has since been found for this consequently rare form, which is 

 probably a gool species. C. R. ORCUTT. 



The United States has but five botanic gardens out of the one hundred and 

 ninety-seven in the world. 



The active volcano of Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands, composed of the old 

 Lake Halemaumau and the New Lake, sank from the bed of the crater on March 6, 

 leaving a bottomless abyss about four miles in circumference. The volcanic erup- 

 tion which has been so active in the past was utterly extinguished. — Scientific Amer- 



