BOTANICAL REPORT. 
441 
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Opuntia sph^rocarpa, Engelm. and Bigelow, Pac. B. Pep. IV, Cact. p. 47, t. 13, 
fs. 6-7 ; Sgn. Cact p. 44. Var. ? Utahensis : diffusa, lsete-virens, articulis orbiculato- 
• °bovatis, crassis, junioribus ssepe globoso-obovatis; areolis subapproximatis; foliis min- 
utis subulatis divaricatis; setis brevissimis paucis stramineis; aculeis nullis seu parvulis 
nunc singulo longiore recto robusto albido; floribus sulphureis, ovario obovato areolis 
fusco-tomentosis sub-25 instrueto, sepalis exterioribus transversis obcordatis cuspida- 
tis; petalis 8 late-obovatis emarginatis; stylo vix supra stamina exserto; stigmatibus 
8 brevibus erectis; bacca obovata areolis plurimis tomentosis stipata; seminibus nu- 
merosis irregulariter compressis anguste marginatis. 
Pass west of Steptoe Valley, in the western mountains^ of the Basin, found 
July 19 in flower and fruit. Joints 2—3 inches long and of almost the same diameter; 
often over J inch in thickness, sometimes almost terete or rather egg-shaped; areolae 
6 or 8 lines apart; leaves very slender and acute, scarcely 1 line long, smaller than 
in any other of our species except 0. basilaris, also a western form from the Lower 
Colorado. Bristles few, and even in old joints scarcely more than J line long ; spines 
none, or on the upper areolse a few short ones, with here and there a stouter one f-1 
inch in length. Flowers nearly 3 inches in diameter, pale or sulphur-yellow, when 
fading, reddish; fruit about 1 inch long and half as wide, with a deep umbilicus, 
and with 20-25 areola?, which sometimes show a few bristles or a minute spine; seeds 
very irregular, 2, or, in the largest diameter, sometimes 2 J lines wide. 
Unwilling to increase the number of illy-defined species in this most difficult 
genus, I attach this plant to the only species known to me to which it possibly can be 
compared, 0. spharocarpa from Hew Mexico, though its fruit is not spherical, has not 
a shallow umbilicus, and is, at least in the specimen before me, not dry; the latter 
would be an insuperable distinction, if we might not suspect, what in fact is often 
the case, that the fruit later in the season would become dry and brittle. The leaves, 
which heretofore have been entirely too much neglected as a diagnostic char%iter in 
this genus, and the flowers of the original 0. sphcerocarpa, are unknown thus far. 
Opuntia tortispina, Engelm. & Bigelow , l c. p. 41, t 8. fs. 2-3; Sgn. Cact. p. 37. 
Forks of the Platte; in flower in July. The specimens being very incomplete, I 
am not quite sure that this is the same species as that of Captain Whipple’s Expedi¬ 
tion; the joints appear to be somewhat smaller, the areolae closer together, and the 
spines shorter (1-1J inches) and rather weaker; it may possibly prove to be an 
extreme form of 0. Bafinesquii, the area of which extends to the Rocky Mountains. 
Leaves subulate, 2 lines long; flowers 2^-3 inches in diameter, sulphur-yellow; ovary 
long (1-1J inches), with 20-30 areolae, with light-brown wool and short bright-brown 
bristles; exterior sepals obovate, lance-cuspidate; petals 6-8, broadly obovate, obtuse, 
crenulate; stigmas 6—8, short, erect, as long as the stamens. 
Opuntia hystricina, Engelm. & Bigelow, l. c. p. 44, t. 15, fs. 5-7; Sgn. Cact. p. 43. 
A flowering specimen, collected in June between Walker and Carson Rivers, is 
exactly like one found by Dr. Bigelow on the Colorado Chiquito; it has slenderer and 
straighter spines than the one figured in Whipple’s Report, and approaches somewhat 
to O. erinacea, E. & B., of the Mohave region, in which I now recognize the long-lo^ * 
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Botanical 
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