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Our plant has no other analogy elsewhere. They have no resemblance with the species that is formed by 

 the natural group of the Aulacothele. Then also this particuliarity entirely unique, of the thorns that cross 

 each other after the areola has produced its flower whose upper half is elongated. The cephalium 

 seemed to be much less visible than it is ordinarily in the AulacotheleW Could it be as persistent as the 

 cephalium of the Melocactusl Therefore in its own right it should be placed in the gender of the 

 Melocactus, with whom it seems to have great affinity if one wants to disregard its mammeliform body. 

 Would it be necessary to make a new gender, intermediary between the Eumammillaria and the 

 Melocactus having the body of the first and the inflorescence of the second? In the doubt that I found 

 myself I probably would take the second opinion, but I would like to be enlightened by your advice and 

 your ideas. You have been able to study this plant better than I; you probably have living samples at 

 your disposal and I hope you can set me straight. 



There you are my dear colleague. I have again abused of your time and patience; my letter is sufficiently 

 long for today. I will postpone its continuation to another day. You would make me very happy if you 

 would not spare any criticism and send me your advice which is not unknown in the botanical world. All 

 authority is always secondary to yours. 



In the next letter Iwill try to deal with the more difficult chapter of the Echinocactus and the Cereus. It 

 is there that I will be made to confess that the greatest portion of the information that Ii have obtained 

 comes from the material that I received after it was partially destroyed. 



I am also going to collect my notes and I will send you successively the list of all the species old or new, 

 that I have found. There will be a certain number of species that I will not be able to bring back to be 

 compared with those that have already been cultivated in Europe. I am sure that you widerstand that it 

 is not always easy to recognize the species in our catalogues or to find them in the gardens where they 

 are not labeled like in our collections and that offer an infinite number of variations. There are those 

 where I will only be able to indicate the group to which they belong. For example in the area of San Luis 

 Potosi, there is a very common Mammillaria of the pentacantha or other neighboring species. I should 

 have known the cultivated species in my collections before going to study them in Mexico or at least 

 those that I did not have. In France I do not know any large collections of cacti and I have never been to 

 Germany. Therefore I have only seen important secondary collections. These samples are not always 

 correctly labeled. It would also be necessary to cut every day, each species found to send them to 

 Europe with a labe! indicated exactly where they come from, so that late on they can be compared to 

 each other to establish their variations. All this is very easy theoretically but when one finds oneself on 

 the site, without proper resources, with very restricted means of transportation, not being able to get off 

 the horse everytime something is seen, then the Situation is different. More than once I got the 

 observations of the Commander of the columns with which I marched, because I was too far from the 

 columns or if I would stop I would stay too far behind. It also to me more than once of having been 

 bothered disagreably by rattle snakes (Vibora cascavella) that are very common specially north of San 

 Luis Potosi up to the Rio Grande. They make this terrain very dangerous. 



A moment ago I was talking about species that vary so much therefore I was unable to name them, 

 except by the name of their group. The example I want to mention is the Echinocactus Shenogoni, that 

 varies so much or better yet, that offers so many transitions. I finally was made to believe that they all 

 form one Single species (at least all the ones that I saw). 



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