3 



Echinocactus horripilus intermingled in the same area as the Mammillaria conoidea I 

 suspected their close relationship even if I did not see the flowers of the first. 



Another plant I would like to call your attention to and of which I send you the dried 

 flowers is a small Cereus or Echinocereus with uncinated spines as seen under the name 

 ot Cereus Bertini Cels. This unusual plant originates on the eastern coast of Patagonia 

 across from the Islands of Leon, Valdez, etc. At 49o lat.S. It grows with a variety of 

 Echinocactus gibbosus described by Labouret in 1899 under the name Echinocactus ferox 

 celsianus, Towensis, Schlumbergeri and whose seeds all produced our gibbosus The 

 history of the introduction of this plant is quite curious and proves the efforts that Mr Cels 

 made to procure it. A brother of Mr. Cels is captain of a merchant ship. In J894 he brought 

 back a number of Cacti from the coast of Patagonia. I looked at this shipment of Cels with 

 Labouret. There were only Echinococcus gibbosus and a lot of debris. Unfortunately a 

 Cereus with hooked spines died. This was evidently an entirely new species because until 

 then we did not know of any Cereus with hooked spines. Being verv perturbed at not 

 having been able to preserve this plant alive, Mr. Cels asked his brother to please find this 

 plant again on his next voyage. He remembered perfectly the place where he collected it 

 and asked another ship's captain, Mr. Bertin, who was leaving for that region to collect it 

 and bring it back. He gave him such exact directions that Mr. Bertin found the plant and 

 brought it back to France. In honor of this Mr. Cels gave it the name Cereus Bertini. 



This plant is entirely similar to an Echinocereus in the area of Pentalop Its stem is also 

 crepitant and its flesh soft. Every one would take our plant as an Echinocereus This plant 

 interests me m particular. Until the present time no plant in South America has been 

 shown to be part of the group of Echinocereus as you have defined it (With the Cereus 

 multiangularis, strigosus, etc. Salm added that there is nevertheless a difference between 

 this Cereus and the Echinopsis). 



The Cereus Bertini bloomed in the month of May at Pfersdorff s. I will prepare the flower 

 and send it to you. Because of the shortness of its pipe, this flower seems to be a transition 

 of the Echinocereus to the Pfeiffera. It also has a great resemblance to the Echinocereus 

 of small flowers, for example the Echinocereus viridifloris, but its pipe is much shorter 

 The stamina are all enclosed in the depth of this pipe. The Stylus is not green ( as in all the 

 Echinocereus of Mexico and the United States, but violet brown). 



The only flowers that were observed were nearly (vertical located very close to the top 

 which is trequently seen in the Echinocereus). Unfortunately I did not know if it grew out 

 of a tear of the epidermis, a fact that you noticed in the Rhinocereus (group in whom this 



