Weber, A.F. rec. Sept23 

 ans.Nov 23 



Vincennes September 6 1882 



My very dear and very honored colleague, 



I would like to acknowledge having received your letter of the 9th of August, and thank you for it. It 

 included the sketch of the Cereus of Parry from San Luis Potosi, that I return to you after having copied 

 it. 



I new well that this Cereus could not have come from Saltillo where there no longer are any Cierges 

 arborescents. The careful study of the drawings and the notes of Parry, as also the seeds and the remains 

 of the flowers that you sent me, has convinced me that the species of Parry is identical to a plant that I 

 found one single time on the road from Queretaro to San Luis Potosi and in my notes I gave it the name 

 of Cereus acanthocarpus; I did not have the time to describe its stalk that is hexagonal and arborescent 

 and looked like your drawing.; I did not see the flowers but I picked a dried fruit similar to your sketch, 

 containing some seeds also similar to yours, that unfortunately did not germinate. I considered this 

 species very similar to the Cereus Queretensis^ that has thorny fruits, quite similar but in which the 

 seeds seem a little different. The seeds of the Cereus Queretensis have germinated here, and have 

 produced a plant very distinct from the species that are well known. The seeds of Parry that you have 

 sent, also germinated and when the young plants will have developed a little more, we will see what 

 they really look like. To recognize them later I have named them provisionally as Cereus acanthocarpus 

 var. ? Parryi. It is possible that this species may be mistaken with the Cereus Queretensis. You 

 understand how the drawings and the notes of Parry have interested me, because I found so many points 

 that were made comprehensible to me, that had remained unclear, obscure and incomplete in my notes. 



You will also find in the letter I sent you today a seed of the Cereus serpentinus. Of all the seeds of the 

 Cereus known until now, it is without a doubt the largest. The cereus marginatus = germinatus also has 

 large seeds, but they are far from reaching the size of the Cserpentinus. As you teil me the Cereus 

 marginatus rarely flowered and bore fruit in San Luis Potosi where it is beginning to be rare. In the 

 south of Mexico, however, close to Tehuacan it flowers abundantly. The flowers are of a more vivid red 

 than in the north and the fruits are also red. They greatly surpass the size of your Cereus pect in 

 aborigines. The fruit from where the seeds come, that I am sending you, rotted a few years ago at the 

 house of the courageous Pfersdorff This fruit did not contain more than two seeds, as the others had 

 been aborted. I will keep one and I will send you the other. I hope that it will interest you. To avoid it 

 from being crushed or damaged, I encased it in the middle of a piece of cardboard. The Cereus 

 serpentinus is frequently cultivated in the gardens in Mexico because of its beautiful flowers; I saw it in 

 Orizaba, Tehuacan, Queretaro, etc. but I never found it in its natural setting. In Mexico I never had the 

 occasion of seeing a ripened fruit; I only brought back from Mexico a fruit that was green, that you 

 examined at my house in 1869, and in which one can clearly see that the seeds are enormous. 



