Loyal Valley, Feh. 22, 1880 



Dear Dr. Engelmann, 



I received your excellent treatise regarding the oaks in the United States, 

 shortly after my last letter was sent, and thank you very much for it. According 

 to this it is therefor a well-known fact that with all black oaks the fruit does 

 not ripen until the second year, regarding which we could not find anything in 

 the, frankly deplorable, literary works which are available here. The Opuntia 

 Wrightii , or what is designated as such, is definitely no delicate form of 

 2> arborescens . I have both with stems of over 5 foot hei^ht and 3 - h incb stem 

 circumference (measured) and as they stand next to each other the habit is completely 

 different. The 0. arborescens Stretches its stem internodes, which ar pe *r somewhat 

 club-shaped, (on the ends thicker than at the starting point) raostly upward, the 

 other lets them partly hang downward, partly standing upright, like the lights on 

 a Christmas tree; but the stem internodes are always much thinner than on 0. 

 arbo res cens, perhaps half as thick, and not club-shaped but somewhat sheared in 

 above and below, in the center somewhat thicker. The flowers of both are pretty 

 much the same in size but somewhat different in color. It would be possible that 

 through an oversight I sent along a young 0. arborescens which, as you wrote, 

 made you perplexed. I had to look for very small specimens which would fit into 

 the box and perhaps there I made a mistake. Opuntia leptocaulis blooms very 

 beautifully and füll, but always during the day, as I can observe every moment. 

 I did not notice if the flowers close in the evening, however I will now be 

 observant of it. 



My son, who recently travelled from Ft. Clark to Ft. Davis with the Fngineers 

 of the Pierce Railroad and the California Pacific R. R # , on the Devils River saw 

 thousands of the Hesperaloe Yuccaefolia ; so it seems that it is not at all rarej 



I enclose a short article which I wrote about the Dasylirion . which grows 

 here abundantly; I believe I made a blunder in that I considered it a Liliaceae 

 instead of a Bromeliaceae . I think Lindheimer had even told me that it belonged 

 to the Bromeliaceae? 



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