Weber A.F. 

 Ree. April 13 

 Ans. May 1 1 



Lyon, March 29, 1877 



My dear and honored colleague, 



I have just reeeived from Paris a very exaet and well made sketch of the thorns of the 

 Echinocactus californicus from the Pfersdorff collection. Today is the day the Courier 

 departs for America therefore I will send it to you immediately so that you can include it 

 with the other documents relative to the same species that I sent you in my last letter. The 

 drawing ( natural size) was made by Mr. Klein, my old draftsman that has possibly had 

 the habit of drawing the Cacti and who knows perfectly your drawings of the Bound. 

 Comm. Rep. that he has used as models. You may consider this as entirely exaet and also 

 as entirely impartial as the drawings have been made under the eyes and the direction of a 

 scholar that has some preconeeived ideas and therefore are designed aecording to his 

 ideas. 



As I was not present to guide Mr. Klein in his drawings, he only used his eyes as guides 

 and I am very delighted because he probably saw it better than I. Aecording to his 

 drawings I would be tempted to modify the description that I have given of the thorn and 

 to admit that there is a Single interior thorn instead of four. The other 3 thorns that I 

 considered to be interior are in reality exterior thorns and are inside the adventitious ones. 

 Consequently we have the following arrangements: 



1) One central thorn,0.06 m. long, round and ringed ( a little flat), of yellow crimson color 

 and slightly curved at its point. 



2) Eight interior thorns, 0.06 m. in length, round and ringed, yellow in color with 

 yellowish spots and 2 transverse purple Striae. 



3) Two to four adventitious thorns, 0.03 m. in length, more spindly, round and ringer, 

 yellow and placed on the Upper half of the areola surrounded by 3 superior thorns. 



Studying the disposition of the thorns in this manner is probably more exaet that that of 

 my original description. There are however many Echinocactus of large ribs of which it is 

 not always easy to distinguish which should be called interior or central or exterior or 

 adventitious, as one frequently finds thorns of 2-3 (sometimes 2-6) types. For example 

 Echinocactus cornigerus, recurvus, Wizlizeni^ etc. Schematic figures similar to those that 

 I placed on the margin ( somewhat crude, alas!) would be beneficial to introduce some 

 clarity in the description. 



0 1 



cm 



7 8 9 10 Missouri 



. , BOTANICAL 



Copyright reserved Garden 



