[19 



KCHINOCACTOS NO 79. 



It may be incidental- 

 ly noted here that in 

 Mexico chimneys are 

 all but unknown— cook- 

 ing being carried on 

 in small furnace-like ar- 

 rangements, even in the 

 City of Mexico, where 

 charcoal is mostly used 

 for fuel. Nowhere in 

 Mexico did I see a fire- 

 place or a stove. The 

 poorer people use the 

 ground for their fire- 

 place, or boxes filled 

 with earth sometimes. 



We have thus found one cactus at home, and I have referred 

 to it as Mamillaria spinosissima — but thereby hangs a long tale. 

 Prince Salm-Dyck was the first to name this, one of the most 

 beautiful of all known cacti, but it has also received a multitude 

 of other names since — such as M. pretiosa, splendens, Uhdeana, 

 polycentra, polyacantha, polyactina, and nobody knows how 

 many more. Now, all the Mamillarias have to be transferred to 

 the Old Linnaean genus Cactus — because that is an older name 

 -than Mamillaria, and also because the name Mamillaria was first 

 applied to a genus of seaweeds. Hence, our plant would na- 

 turally become Cactus spinosissimus, and Otto Kuntze actually 

 has given it this name, though very unfortunately, since that 

 name was given years before to a very different plant, and of 

 course cannot be used again wdthout confusion. Now comes the 

 question as to what specific name is next available in point of 

 age, a question by no means easy to answer, for dozens of books 

 will have to be consulted, and some of these books may not be 

 found nearer than London, where we shall have to find some 

 botanist who will look at them for us. So this muddle of names 

 will have to continue, and until we learn the name that it can be 

 called by most properly, we can call it by Kuntze 's name, Cactus 

 spinosissimus. 



