BOTANICAL REPORT. 
443 
Opuntia pulchella (spec. nov .)parvula caespitosa diffusa; articulis parvis ob- 
ovato-clavatis; foliis minutis e basi ovata subulatis; areolis eonfertis, superioribus acu- 
leos albidos rectos, singulum longiorem complanatum porrectum seu defiexum alios 
brevissimos radiantes gerentibus; floris purpurei ovario areolis 13-15 convexis albo 
villosissimis et longe setosis dense stipato; sepalis inferioribus lineari-oblongis breviter 
cuspidatis, superioribus spatulatis; petalis sub-8 obovatis obtusis, stylo cylindrico ex- 
serto, stigmatibus 5 linearibus suberectis; bacca sicca setosissima, s^ninibus crassis 
rhaphe-lata plana notatis. 
Sandy deserts on Walker River; f fl. in June. 
This is one of the smallest, as it is one of the prettiest, species of this genus. It 
belongs to the small section of Clavatcc (Synops. Cact. p. 46) of the cylindric Opun- 
tice, but is distinct from all those known to me by its small joints and purple flowers; 
all the others have, so far as I know, yellow flowers. Joints 1-1 \ inches long, 4-6 
lines thick, very slightly tuberculated; leaves scarcely one line long; areolm crowded, 
white woolly; larger central spine on the upper areolae 4-6 lines long, flat, and some¬ 
what rough above, convex below; smaller ones 4-6 or 10, radiating, ^-1J lines long; 
flowers crowded, of a beautiful bright purplish-red or deep rose-red color, 1^-1 J 
inches in diameter; ovary 4-5 lines long, beset with white capillary spines, 3-5 lines 
long, 15-20 on each areola; style not ventricose, as is usual in the genus, but cylin 
dric; stigmas slender, pale yellow; berry clavate, at last dry, about 1 inch long, well 
marked by the conspicuous white-woolly areolae" and their numerous purplish-brown, 
flexible, hair-like bristles, 4-6 or 7 lines long. These bristles are entirely destitute of the 
minute barbs which otherwise invariably characterize spines and bristles of Opuntice. 
The thick round speeds, 2 lines in diameter, are well distinguished by a broad rhaphe, 
much wider than I have seen it in any other clavate Opuntia. 
Plate 3, Fig. 1. Part of a plant of Opuntia pulchella , showing a flower-bud and two 
flowers, natural size. 
Figs. 2-4. Bunches of spines, 4 times the natural size. 
Fig. 5. Section of a larger spine,-more magnified. 
Fig. 6. A leaf from'an ovary with the axillary woolly and bristly areola, 4^imes 
natural size. 
Fig. 7. A fruit. 
Figs. 8-9. Seed, 4 times magnified; fig. 9 showing the broad rhaphe. 
and cylindric, fresh or dark green,.usually growing one on top of tbe other, forming chains of 1 or 2 feet long, at last 
prostrate; joints fragile, separating as readily as in O.fragilis; tumid pul villi 4-6 or even 8 lines apart; leaves 2£-3i or 
4 lines long, incurved; spines 1-LJ inches long, very straight, when in threes divergent like the “ crowsfoot ” used against 
cavalry, whence the name given by tbe military gentlemen who discovered this species. Flowers lp-lf inches in 
diameter ; sepals and petals less numerous and narrower than in any allied species; ovary about i inch long, with only 
2 or 3 areolae on the surface and 3-5 on the upper margin. Fruit obovate, 6V7 lines long, rose-purple, with a shallow 
umbilicus, oftened crowned with the blackened remains of the flower; areolae almost obliterated; red pulp very gluti¬ 
nous, including 1-3 or at most 5 seeds, which are regularly shaped, lenticular, with a narrow but thick and very 
obtuse rim. By its pulpy fruit, this species is widely removed from O. fragilis, to which its tumid and fragile joints seem 
to ally it, uor can it be confounded with any other species, though allied to O. vulgaris and O. Rafinesquii. 
* An account of this species was given in the Transactions of the St. Louis Acad. 2, p. 201 (1863). 
t This pretty species was afterward collected, 1867, “among the sage brushes” of Nevada, by Mr. William Gabb 
and in the following year by Mr. S. Watson “frequent in the valleys of Western Nevada from the Trinity Mountains 
to Monitor Valley, 4-5,000 feet alt.” 
Botanical 
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