study on the spot the plants and families that he would specially want, that is those that 

 could not be prepared for a herbarium. Mr. Decaisne had personally known me for a 

 long time, as he saw me frequently in The Jardins des Plantes of Paris; he knew 

 perfectly what I was capable of and what was above my talent. I was going to teil him 

 that my offenngs were entirely disinterested, that is to stay, free from pecuniary 

 remuneration.. The only thing I asked for was an official recommendation and mostly 

 tiie facil.ties to be able to change residence according to the needs of my work without 

 leavmg the mi itary, and to accompany the expeditionary regiments ad libitum,' at my 

 discretion. WeH! can you beheve it? Mr. Decaisne did not have the politeness to ansvver 

 me.lt took a whole year until he asked me through is collector, Mr. Bourjeau at what 

 stage I was with my work and if I did not have some memoir to send him You can 

 nnagine that 1 told Mr. Bourjeau, to relate to his boss that I had no accounts for him 

 You can see that I was not officially encouraged to work, and that I was disgusted I did 

 not do research work that I could have done had I received some slight Stimulation At 

 he begmnmg I wanted to do a little bit of everything and study the flora and its deteils 

 I made large herbanums that went to honor Mr. Buchinger and that he related to the 

 German speciales. For example the Fougeres went to Leipzig with Mettemus the 

 Lycopodiacees to Berlin to Mr. Alexander Braun, etc. But I very soon recognized the 

 proverb. he who embraces too much cannot grasp it; and that I did not have sufficient 

 time. I also began by studying only the Cacti, specially those that were most interesting 

 as they were more unknown. B 

 Now, in spite of their very incomplete State, I would like to place my notes in order and 

 publ.sh them. However while reviewing them, I hesitate and I find at each step many 

 difficulties, some of which I would like to present to you 



The greatest problem is the delineation of the genders. The genders are always groups 

 that are more or less artificial, This is more prevalent in the Cacti family than in others 

 Nature rarely forms perfectly circumscribed groups, and is usually preceded by 

 graduaüons and by transitions, both of which are insensible. Then they never form 

 continuous senes: U can form a line replicated on itself. Points that are far from each 

 other will return and unite at the beginning of the series. In the State of our knowledge it 

 would seem one could clearly separate two large groups. the Peiresca and the Opuntia 

 Now m those two groups do you not have the transitions such as P. poppigii and 

 tubulata? By the way the Peirescia are very little known to us; on my part I did not 

 encounter them m Mexico, therefore I cannot teil you anything about them The 

 Opuntia seems to have bark that is slightly elongated, hidden partly by wool in the 

 Vertex and compressed between the tubercles that increase their numbers The 

 Anhalonium Wüliamsii is the exception; its bark is entirely similar to the Mamillaria 

 i nerefor I beheve we are entirely in agreement that we can reject the fact that the 

 emergence of the ovary is a basis of some Classification of the generic character If I 

 have talked to you about this it is because in your letters you called my attenfion to this 

 subject. I wanted to teil you about my ideas, to corroborate them with yours 

 On the contrary, a character that seems to have been conserved and which is of great 

 importance, because there are some species than form the transition, is the one derived 

 from the bark, wether it is smooth or squamous. Six groups in which nature teils us they 

 are of the Cacti senes are: Eumamillaria, Aulacothele, Anhalonium, Melocactus 

 Discocactus and Melacocarpus. 



I think that we^an form a large group that one could name Melocactiae or 

 (jymnocarpae. 



