~ 2 - 



copious material flowing in fron friends fron distant parts. The 

 study of cacti begar with a_shipnent fron ny old frien.d fron Frank- 

 furt F. Lindheiner fron Texas, who sent ny a oase with Lchin » texen- 

 sls , Cer . caespitosus , Mam » calcarata and some others.The forns- 

 seen by ne deligbted ne.and I oulti^ated and studied them. Some 

 years later, ny friend and colleague Dr. A.Wislizenus went to New- 

 Mexico and Northern Mexico, and another friend, Dr. Gregg,went with 

 tbe army also into northern Mexico; fired on by ne, they collected 

 many stränge plants, with special zeal they studied tbrough 



the cactus flora; soon. afterward.s a nunber of expeditions to deter- 

 ml^e the boundaries of the new territories and railroad routes to 

 the Pacific Ocean were orpranized by the provemnent; ny interest in 

 cacti influenced all botanists who acconpanied these expeditions 

 to study the cacti, and, thus, a nass of material was brou^ht to - 

 gether,which all came into ny hands. The examlnation of this indi- 

 gestible onlet showed soon - I really was aware at the very first 



examinatlon of taxonomic cacti - how totally insuff icient and little 



and 



scientific the study of Cacti had been left to gardeners ^ro-^ers . 

 I got in contact with prince Salvr? and found his knowledge also 

 very lacking. Th e fault was, that the nost ardent lovers of cacti, 

 as th e prince hinseif, were not botanists; the gardeners e^en less 

 so; that all of them had no general scientific background and no 

 Points of ref erence for conparisons. De Candolle is the only one 

 who pre sent s an exception. Then f ollowed Martins, who however did 

 not much work on them, and Jucrazini , who na de the bast scientific 

 examinations, wbbb but who as far as I an concerned did not ß-o deep 

 enough. 



Before a continue, let ne say, that I have never seen a wild 

 cactus except the locally growing Qpuntia Haf inesquii i All ny exa- 

 raination have been nade with cultivated or dried snecinens, or with 



Copyright reserved 



