60 



Naked, sterile, rocky places on the Upper Guadaloupe. Flowers 

 (in St. Louis) in June. Root a large and fleshy tuber, some- 

 times 2 or 3 inches in diameter; joints 3-4 inches long, about 2^-3^ 

 wide, hardly attenuate at the base. Leaves subulate, about 5 lines long; 

 areolae %-\ inch distant, more crowded toward the base and on the edges; 

 spines (often wanting) 1 inch long, the smaller 4-6 lines long. Flower 3 

 inches in diameter; ovary 1% inch long; petals 1 inch wide, 1% inch long, 

 pale yellow, red at the base. Fruit 1%, inches long; the strongly margin- 

 ed seeds comparatively few, 2%, lines in diameter. — I have found the same 

 plant in similar situations in Western Arkansas; and it is possible that it 

 may be one of Nuttalls' new species (O. mesacantha, O. c^RSpitosa, or O. 

 humifusa) of which I cannot find a description. — Nearly related to O. vul- 

 garis." — Engelmann, Plants Lindheimerianae, 206. 



Opuntia Lindheimeri E. 



"Erecta, robusta ; caule lignoso ; articulis (magnis) ellipticis basi at- 

 tenuatis planis ; pulvillis remotis ad margines confertioribus griseo-tomen- 

 tosis, setis flavidis aculeisque paucis instructis 1-3 compressis validis de- 

 flexis varie divergentibus stramineis, nunc cum 1-2 aculeis adventitiis gra- 

 cilioribus; flore . . . , bacca clavata elongata subpulposa glabrata; 

 seminibus late marginatis. — About New Braunfels. Plant erect, often 6-8 

 feet high ; stems terete ligneous, sometimes six inches in diameter, with 

 gray bark, and very light, spongy wood. Larger joints 9-12 inches long, 

 5-7 broad. Areolae i>£-2 inches distant on old joints; bristles on them 1-3 

 lines long. Spines all pale yellow, much compressed, indistinctly annulat- 

 ed, %-i inch long, various; the 3 larger spines, or the 1 longer, with 1 or 2 

 shorter spines. The fruit which Lindheimer has sent as belonging to this 

 species resembles very much that of O. vulgaris, 1-2%. inches long, slen- 

 der, with a deep umbilicus, very different from that of the following spe- 

 cies. Seeds 2-2^ lines in diameter, not numerous. Young plants grown 

 from this seed have the same compressed spines, but are brown at the 

 base ; the lower areolae produce no spines, but a quantity of long, coarse 

 hair. — I add here the following species [O. Engelmanni], though not 

 properly belonging to the flora of Texas, because I suspect that it is also 

 found at the mouth of the Rio Grande, within the limits of Texas, and 

 here, and especially on the barren sand islands at the Brazos, near Point 

 Isabel, the St. Louis Volunteers found large and impenetrable thickets 

 formed by an Opuntia with large joints, covered with almost globose 

 fruits, with innumerable small seeds and a very luscious deep red pulp. 

 The fruit and seed are before me, but unfortunately I did not obtain a liv- 

 ing specimen." — Engelmann, Plantae Lindheimerianae, 207. 



Coulter Contr U S na hb 3:420, 461. 



O. Engelmanni in part fide E — but it seems unwise to discard the 

 long established name. 



