Weber, Alb. Fred. 



Ree. June 27 

 Ans. Aug. 5 



Vincennes June 10, 1882 



My dear and very honored colleague, 



Thank you for your very excellent letter of the 21rst of May that I reeeived 3 days ago. Also thank you 

 for the excellent seeds that it contained. 



Your letter confirms the supposition that I had made, that the pretty Opuntia you sent me, is the 

 Opuntia clavata. This species is, I believe, new for our collections. At least I had never seen it and knew 

 it only through your description. In the German horticultural catalogues, one finds an Opuntia clavata 

 that was decribed under this name by Prof. Philippi from Santiago (Chile) in the Gartenflora of Regel 

 (1872). This plant, I reeeived alive from Haage and Schmidt, and is nothing more than a Cereus with 

 short flowers, and has the particularity of pushing its roots under the ground. One part of it forms an 

 oval bulge which is what made Philippi take it as an "Opuntia clavata". Because the plant and the seeds 

 have absolutely nothing in common with those of the Opuntia, I wrote Haage and Schmidt telling them 

 that their plants were a Cereus and I advised them to name the plants Cereus stolonifer or Cereus 

 hypogaeus. Those gentlemen sent me another plant under the name Eulychnia catastania (Phil), that 

 was evidently only a variety of their Opuntia clavata. Like that one, it came from alpine regions, 

 whereas the Eulychnia castania came from the coast. I suggested that they name the first var. mdinxxs 

 and the second var. B. littoral is. The plant is now in the catalogue of Haage and Schmidt under the 

 name of Cereus hypgaeus andinus and littoral is. 



Returning to your Opuntia clavata I should teil you that the piece that you sent me was planted 

 immediately in a secure place. It grew with some beautiful roots. Today it has already doubled in size, 

 and without doubt will not delay in growing branches. It is therefore an acquisition that we can be 

 assured of and I will give my friends some of this plant so that they can multiply it. 



The seeds of the Opuntia camanchica and of the Cereus gonacanthus have germinated here; in regards 

 to the Opuntia angustata and the Echinocactus duranthenoides, their seeds have not given signs of life, 

 but this may occur later. The seeds of the Echinocactus Simpsoni, sent last year have given me many 

 small plants. I also grew 4 young plants of Opuntia Bernardina, seeds bought at Haage and Schmidt. 

 From them, I also reeeived seeds of the Opuntia Tucsonensis, lurida, tessillata, fulgida but they have not 

 grown yet. 



This year I also have sown many, many argentinian seeds, among which there surely will be many new 

 surprises together with some old ones. 



My Pilocereus Pasacana ( in the proximity of Catamarca), seems to be identical with an old plant 

 described by Labouret ( Horticultural revue 1854), under the name Echinopsis formosissima.. 





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