- 7 - 



character has been honored for a lonh time. 



What you say about the Position of the flower of O. clavata is 

 correct,but the fact of the position has very little meanlng, nothing 

 certain, hardly specific. Yes, it may even be, that the totally ripe fruit 

 throws off the remains of the flower finally, as you mention this for 

 Schottii . 



^ f Opuntia already points to the fact, that the exterior form is 

 not necessarly connected to the f ormation of flogen and fruit, this be- 

 comes even much more evident with Rhipsalis ;- Who would join Rhip - 

 salis pentagona and pachyptera with out seeing the flower, I do not 

 know if Pf ei f f era belongs to this; the dried flower of your Cereus 

 puprio^l f er us » and what you told me earlier a^out this Speeles, seens 

 to put'it to Rhipsalis. If this is so, then we have a species with 

 stro^fr spines, whereas all other have hardly an indication of spines. 

 But why not ? This would be the Rhip salis cereacea .How is the fruit ? 

 Is it too spiny y semi-transparent , as with the true Rhipsales ? I have 

 made fine Studie s about the placenta f ormation of Rh 1 p sa l i s , wh ich 

 bugged all botanists ,who worked on. this,from Gärtner and De Card olle 

 until out time. Unf ortuna tely, such examinations can only be nade with 

 live speeimens,- Eow is the fruit of Ff eif f era ? I assume also spiny, 

 not like Rhipsalis !- 



With Gereus the exterior form takes on all possible nuances, and 

 he, who has studied a number of cerii finds, that there is no charac- 

 teristic in these forms. Fron cylindrically thin C. tuberosus to 

 ball-shaped pectLyytus etc. one finds all gradations, while ^he flowers 

 are all those of the Cerei echi^oceril are, resembling each other to 

 cause con^usi on; and that is o^iy a small gr oup. Thus the transition 

 from the two-.win.cred Phyllocacti to the three-edged Cere i is entirely 

 non-apparent. But even the construetion of the flower is not decisive 

 here, the oblique a^d the straight (regulär) flowering Cerei appear 



