Jacobi 



April £6, 1855 



I do not believe, thatl you will get far with the ideas expressed 

 in your letter to the prince, tb fclrrange thr cacti byycolor and shape 

 f the seeds..As you already reraark your seif, the seeds of H . se^ili s 

 is black a^d tubercular like the seed of the Echinocacti . This Mararai> 

 lania however does in this not stand alone. I have exanined seed of 

 M. Wildiana; it is black and im the shape of a cup (also knowu as a 

 "ping-rta ss H , t o receive blood, E.D.), and has on its surf ace seniflphe- 

 ric cavities, T ^hioh Surround the seed surf ace« ^esides there ocour with 

 Mammilarlae , brown and yellowish ones, seeds, which are pointed in bean- 

 shape. In view of your reraark s I have decided, to exanine under the 

 raicroscope all seeds of cacti, which come into ray han^s, and, aftear 

 some tirae to report to you the results«. 



Also, the division of the cact' by flöwer and fruit will at the 



present' State of the science result in continuing dif f iculties; because 



of the Echinocactus fruit s known to ne is one for instance, E» seti - 



spinus, e^tirely sraooth-, and I am convinced, that in not too far a fu- 



ti;re we will find other Echinocacti with 1 alike fruits. The illustra- 



tion of Mal acac actus fruits, which according to flower and acoor-ding^ 



to shape raust be figured with the Echinocacti as far as the entirely 



of the fruit \$ Covicarncci / 

 soft and on the outside very thin coverj Stands until now alone. Of the 



Echinocacti in ray collection unf ortunately not nany : fl owering speci- 



mens exist.but, luckily,I can avail rayseif of the collection of a Mr. 



Kraeh in this place, where there are seyral large original plant s,. 



which in part 4 have flowered at times*. - Just now I reraeraber , that the 



seed of E. pumilus i s not black but brown and totally smootft. In re - 



gard of your 1 form I have not yet und ertaken any research, but will do 



so this summe r.. 



You teil the prince, that you. did not succeed 3 , . to keep your 



plants of E »uncinatus alive. This news afford ne some consolatiorr,, 



thougft of a bad kind. I have not done better so f ar , regardless of all 1 



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7 8 9 10 

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