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knowledge it would seem that one could distinclty separate 2 large groups: the Peirescia and the 

 Opuntia. Between these 2 groups don't you have transitions such as the Peirescia Poepigii and the P. 

 Tubulata? The Perirescia are, by the way, very little known in the areas where I was in Mexico and I 

 would have little to say about them. The Opuntia are definitely separated from the cylindrical and 

 globular Cacti, but it is true that the flowers of many of them are unknown. 



Do we know the flowers of the majority of those that constitute for example the Cerci opuntiacii, which 

 is the plant drawn by many under the name cactus moniliformis! Are they not the same as the Opuntia 

 with a Cereus flower? Our Opuntia clavata differ, but not considerably, from a type differentiated by 

 their crowned fruit and there perianth. Its flower, that gives birth to its fruit, does not seem to be as red 

 as in the ordinary Opuntia (Opuntia Schottsi that I found abundantly in San Luis Potosi and all the way 

 to the Rio Grande. Its fruit is not very characteristic: it is profoundly umbilicated, furrowed and black. 



The Rhipalis also seem to be a very natural group, neighbors on one side of the Phyllocactus because of 

 the shape of its stalks and on the other side they are a transition of the Cereus through the Pfeiffera 

 cerviformis and by the Garambullo (Cereus pugioniferus) that is nothing eise than Cereus with flowers 

 hke the Rhipsalis. It is difficult to place it in one or the other species. 



In regards to all the others, from the Philoocactaceae up to the Cereus or Pilocereus or Echinopsis or 

 Echinocereus and also the Echinocactus, Helocactus, Mammillaria and Anhalonium there are also very 

 subtle transitions, multiplied so frequently that it is difficult to divide them and to separate them into 

 groups. Never-the-less in an enumeration or scientific description of all these species, it is indispensable 

 to establish separate groups even if I can not establish all the analogies that are possible comparing the 

 Mammillaria with the Cereus. Without doubt these groups exist; the only question that is difficult is to 

 establish their precise limits and to classify them distinctly. Should these be called genders or 

 subgenders? Where should the subgender stop and the gender begin? It is certain that the best would be 

 to unite a small group of perfectly defined species. However nature does not obey our classifications; to 

 the contrary our Classification must adapt to nature. I believe we must stop forming a small number of 

 genders so well defined. The moment you want to spread out our groups you won't have a single 

 characteristic that would be common to all species that form them. 



If you will permit me we are going to review some of the principal characteristics on which at the 

 present time, groups are formed. Let us take the first Classification of Salm. Let us admit that there are 

 two large divisions of the Eubulosa and the Rotataceae; the first ramifications, that of the Eubulosa, is 

 divided in 2 large groups: 1) Germen reclusum Laevae and 2) Germen insertum squamosum rarelaeve. 



The first group comprises 4 genders: Anhalonium, Pelacyphora, Mammillaria and Melocactus. But the 

 terrain on which it grows is under our Steps; hte division of the prince of Salm resta simply on errors. 



I have never understood what was meant by inserted ovary or excerted ovary in the family of the Cacti I 

 know that m certain Mammillaria the stem comes out of the body of the plant depending on its maturity 

 However if one takes the time to look more closely, one will notice that under no circumstance is the 

 ovary inmersed in the body of the plant (it is here, I suppose, that the words onsertum and inclusum are 

 used). In the Mammillaria the sections of Aulacothele and Longimamma, where the flowers are large 

 andwhere described long time ago. I do not understand how prince Salm, such a conscienscious 



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