2 



According to your letter I presume, like you, that the seeds of the Opuntia Bernardina, tucsonemis, 

 arbuscula, tesselata, fulgida, lurida, etc. that I bought at Haage and Schmidt' s, must have come from 

 your shipment to some botanical gardens. I have always been afraid of the veritable pillage that occurs 

 in some botanical gardens. When I was in Lyon, where there was a magnificent collection of Agave, I 

 could never obtain, not even one seed, however I could purchase them from Haage and Schmidt who 

 received them from an intermediary seed merchant in Lyon. Concerning the seeds of your Opuntia, the 

 Opuntia Bernardina is the only one in which the seeds have germinated. The others have not given signs 

 of life, until now, but I will leave them in the pots where they were planted, because sometimes these 

 seeds will grow after 1 year and even after 2 or 3 years. This year I saw the seeds of the Argentinian 

 Cacti grow, that had been seeded in 1880. A few days ago I saw seeds of the Agave Victor iae Reginae 

 grow that were sent by you and had been seeded in 1880. The Opuntia germinate with difficulty, as a 

 general rule and are very slow. I will therefore wait a year or two to see if these Opuntia from Haage and 

 Schmidt will germinate. While waiting I have the 4 young plants of the Opuntia Bernardina that I will 

 classify here under that name. 



The seeds of the Echinocereus that we have sent and that were picked by Parry under de name of 

 Alicoche, belong evidently to the Cereus einer ascens or to the Cereus leptacanthus^pentalophus DC. 

 According to my notes and my recollections, the native name is Alicoche and belongs mainly to the 

 Cereus cinerascens and its varieties: inneacanthus, cirrhiferus, Ehrenberzii, that have purple flowers 

 and delicious fruits that are generally named Pitayita or Pitayita de San Juan that is to say from St. Jean. 

 This is the time when the fruits ripen (in Monterrey). Your are making an error in thinking that there are 

 only 2 Echinocereus in Mexico. Following are the ones that I have seen or the ones on which I have 

 made clear notes: 

 Echinocereus Mexicani: 



C. cinerascens- found in Mexico from the Rio Grande in the north. It has a number of varieties: 

 C-( procumbres EngelmanniVA) with different varieties, pink flowers. 



C. Blankii ( Berlandini vor. ?!!) 



C. ? minus very common in the surroundings of Saltillo. It is according to me a very different 

 species than the cinerascens. 

 C. aeifer San luis Potosi (rare). 



C. pectinatus et var. scattered from San luis Potosi to Texas. 



C. pulchellus et amoenus- Pachuca 



C. subinermis ( big yellow flowers) Chihuahua. 



C. Salm- Dyckianus Scheer (Chihuahua, Durango, synom. Echinocereus durangensis Poselger) 



Next year please send me through the mail a piece of your Cereus longinatus, I will have it grafted by 

 Mr. Robert, who has incomparable abilities in this art. I am sure he will be able to multiply them. This 

 year the season is already too advanced. 



I also want to recall certain words in regards some Statements that you made in one of your preceding 

 letters and on which I need to correct you. You said in regards the Mamillaria micromeris, that this 

 plant must be placed with the Echinocactus, as also the Anhalonium. These are your Statements: A 



