58 



villosis setas gracillimas demum numerosixsimas fulvidas et subinde acu- 

 Leolos setisformes caducos gerentibus ; floris purpurei ovario obovato pul- 

 villis plurimis instructs ; stigmatibus 8 in capituhmi congestis ; bacca 

 obovata late umbilicus (sicca?) ; seminibus magnis crassis subregularis. 

 On William's River, the Colorado, and the Mojave, and down to the Gila : 

 flowers Apjril and May. Habit very different from any other of our Opun- 

 tia? ; the stout obovate or fan-shaped joints (5-8 inches long) originate 

 from a common base, forming a sort of rosette. Leaves only 1 line long, 

 4-6 lines apart; pul villi red-brown, somewhat immersed. Flower about 

 2.Yi inches in diameter; ovary with 40-60 pulvilli. Fruit apparently dry, 

 thereby approaching the next section [Xerocarpeae]. Seed 3 lines in di- 

 ameter, 2 lines thick. Mr. Schott has observed, on the dividing ridge of 

 the California mountains, west of the mouth of the. Gila, and again in the 

 Santa Cruz valley, Sonora, a very similar but suberect species, 3 feet high, 

 spineless, inclined to assume a purplish hue, which he seems to have con- 

 founded with O. basilaris. Can it be O. rufida, or is it an undescribed 

 species?" — E, Syn 298 (42). 

 V. ramosa Parish. 



"Spreading, and the joints freely branching above; joints and fruit 

 glabrous; otherwise as in the species. Dry washes and gravelly benches 

 of the Colorado and Mojave deserts, and occasionally in the less arid re- 

 gions; dry ridges, 7000 ft. alt., on the northern side of the San Bernardino 

 Mts., near Bear valley; San Mateo Pass; San Jacinto Plains as far as Box 

 Springs; Temecula; Coast Range at least to the Santa Margarita River. 

 This variety is the common form of the species in Southern California; 

 only near the summit of the Cajon Pass have I seen plants basilar branch- 

 ed as defined by Kngelmann and figured in Pac. R. R. Rept., iv. t. 13. f. 

 5."— -Parish, Torr ci b 19:92. 

 Opuntia camanchica, E- 



"Prostrata; articulis adscendentibus majusculis suborbiculatis; pul- 

 villis remotis plerisque armatis; setis stramineis fulvisve parcis; aculeis 1-3 

 compressis fuscis apice pallidioribus, superioribus elongatis suberectis, 

 cseteris deflexis; bacca ovata late umbilicata; seminibus majusculis angu- 

 latis hilo excisis. Llano Estacado, on the Upper Canadian River. A 

 large, extensively spreading plant; the joints 6-7 inches long; spines i%~ 

 2 or even 3 inches long. Fruit large, juicy. Seeds 2-3 lines in diameter, 

 very irregular and deeply notched at the hilum. — E, Syn 293. 



Opuntia arbuscula E. 



"Arborescens, erecta, capitato-ramosissima ; articulis laete viridibus 

 elongato-subtuberculatis ; aculeis subsingulis porrectis vel subdeflexis ; 

 fiore flavo-virescente. On the lower Gila, near Maricopa village: flowers 

 June. A truly arborescent form, with a solid trunk of 4 or 5 inches in di- 

 ameter, 7-8 feet high ; joints 2-3 inches long, about 4 lines in diameter; 

 tubercles indistinct, about 6 lines long; spine 9-12 lines long, often with 1 

 or 2 smaller ones under it Flower i l / 2 inches in diameter." — E, Syn 309 

 (53). 



