St. Louis, Mo. May 13, 1883 



Dear Doctor: 



I received your letter a week ago. Ma^y thanks for it. Un - 

 fortunately it is too late this year to eMp plant s, that should 

 have been done k weeks an;o, Ho^ever, I oould not have handle d it f , 

 because I have been suf fering the entire Winter, and can accora- 

 plish only little. I intend, if my strength pernits, to travel 

 next month to Europe.and, and, if possible, to restore my Health 

 through this ocean voyage; itis ho^ever very doubtful, if I can' 

 see you. in the distant Ronen; but I nay be able to hear nore of- 

 ten from you. 



I can. imagine, that you are much ocoupied,but you could have 



mailed me a postalcard in reply to ny letter of November, and in - 



form rae ab out your residence f shipment of cacti, etc. Then I would 

 have known , where I stood« 



That my Cereus (Cact. of the Boundary) is not variabilis , 

 I knew a long tine and connected the mi stake; it is without doubt 

 princeps according to Pfeiffer. But if it is pentagonus Linsei, 

 is very doubtful for me. At least, I observed a Cereus in flower 

 last vear , which I considered to be pe n tag onu s , wn j c h , however, is 

 ve^y di^ferent from my "princeps . Here enter again the old, poor 

 descriptions and, therefor, the dif f iculty to identif y the old 

 Speeles. This Cereus has ( as princeps and variabilis ) flores 

 albi grandes nocturni , but the ovary is not covered with scales; 

 m y princeps has only spine-bundles on the ovary and variabili s 

 has very few scales. Further, pen tag onus as well as variabili s 



have a Corona separated fron the other raass of stamens, whereas 

 princeps has s tarn i na continua. I do not know the seeds of penta - 

 gona , those of the other two differ much ^rom each other. 

 Princeps is more common on the lower Rio Grande, while I know no- 



