1 



Weber, Frederic to George Engelmann 



Ree. March 30 Ans. May 1 1 

 Lyon, March 16, 1877 

 My Very Dear Colleague, 



This very morning I reeeived your kind letter of February 23, that gave nie enormous 

 pleasure. Precisely today I wanted to write to you ( because tomorrow there is an envoy 

 to America), to send you some notes that I prepared for you to read. I could not do this 

 earher as family affairs together with daily occupations have not allowed me a single 

 tree moment. 



I still have not had the time to examine the seeds that you were so kind to include with 

 your letter. Therefore I thank you while you await my next letter. We will try to make 

 these profitable. 



Today I am only sending you the notes regarding the Echinocactus Californicus, to 

 which I include those of the Echinocactus Potrii that also come from your frontiers and 

 that you perhaps do not know well. I also send you the copy of the description that 

 Lemaire has made of his Echinocactus acanthoides that I suspect is a close neighbor of 

 the cylindracus. It is well understood that all the notes in the manuscript that I send you 

 you may keep;. also those that I will send you later on; however I ask you please to 

 return the drawings. The Echinocactus californicus is definitely different from the 

 Echinocactus viridescens and cylindricus. Pfersdorff, last year reeeived from California 

 a nice package with numerous samples of the last species, that I was able to compare 

 with the Californicus, with which they have little exterior resemblance, even though 

 they belong to the same branch. I regret infmitely not being able to send you a bündle 

 ofthorns. Because Pfersdorff owns this unique plant of considerable value, I did not 

 dare ask him to mutilate it. However today I wrote Mr. Klein in Paris, my old 

 illustrator, and asked him to make an exaet sketch of the thoras in actual size. You will 

 also find a sketch of the thorns next to the flowers. I thought the flowers in füll bloom 

 had smooth sepals and petals with unbroken edges, that are not fringed nor 

 denticulated. I only noticed that the petals were undulated along its edges. Today, while 

 examimng the dried flower, I noticed that because of the dryness some sepals seem 

 tnnged, but I think that this is simply caused by the dryness. 

 I will place in the mail at the same time as this letter, a small package containing 2 

 dried flowers. I sent them as samples and could have done so simultaneously, but I 

 forgot. You will recognize them very easily. The thicker one is the flower of the 

 Echinocactus Californicus; the other one is elongated and oval and has small scales 

 and a flower that is smaller that the Leuchtenbergia. the first was collected by 

 Pfersdorff in 1872; the one from the Leuchtenbergia was collected in 1876 by Mr. 

 Robert, an amateur close to Lyon. 



I would like to add a thousand things in today's response, but I lack time and will do it 

 next time. Only a few words in regards points that Struck me the most. You asked me if 

 f understood what I had written in regards the Ovatae, all the Cylindropuntia of South 

 America including the Opuntia visitata and cylindricaü ( I know the fruits and flowers 

 of the first because Mr. Martel has a vivid example that flowers and bears fruit every 

 year. I don't know any Opuntia cylindrica, I thought they always were the real 

 Cylindropuntia and I placed them close to the group of Opuntia ovatae. Is it necessary 

 to join such diverse plants? 



