CACTACKE. 
Opuniia. 
249 
ivory-white seeds. — Nutt, in Torr. & Gray, El, i. 155. 0. erinacea; Engelrn. & 
Big. Cact, 1. c. 47, t. 13, fig. 8-11. 
From the Mohave region (Bigelow) to Southern Utah (Palmer), and up the Colorado Valley, 
Nuttall. This plant seems to he ISTuttall’s long-lost ; 0. rutila, and also 0. erinacea of the 
Mohave, tfie flower of which is unknown. Joints 2 to 4 inches long, 1^ to 3 wide, and often, 
especially in young plants, thick and almost terete, thus approaching to 0.fragilis: seeds 3 
+- Joints and fruit pubescent, without spines. 
6. O. basilaris, Engelm. & Big. Low, with obovate often retuse or fan-shaped 
joints, branching only from the base : areolae very close, densely covered with short 
brown bristles : flowers large, rose-purple : fruit subglobose, with deep umbilicus, 
and rather few large and thick seeds. —Cact. 1. c. 43, t. 13,. fig. 1-5. 
From the eastern base of the mountains near San Felipe through the desert and into Arizona, 
Bigelow, Newberry, Palmer, &c. Joints 5 to 8 inches long, and often as wide near the top ; dis¬ 
tinct from all other species of this region in its mode of growth, its pubescence, absence of spines 
proper, and its very large seeds (3J to 5 lines wide), which have a thicker but less prominent rim 
than any other of this section. 
§2. Joints cylindrical, more or less tuberculated: rhaphe usually not prominent, 
therefore seed not margined: embryo forming less than one circle around the 
more copious albumen ; cotyledons inconstant, contrary, oblique, or parallel to 
the sides of the seed. — Cylindropuntia. 
* Low plants with clavate joints, without a firm ligneous skeleton: larger spines 
angular-compressed, without sheaths: berries dry and very bristly. 
7. O. Emoryi, Engelm. Joints long, clavate-cylindrical, with linear-oblong and 
very prominent tubercles : spines numerous (15 to 30) in the upper .biindles, the 
5 to 9 inner ones stouter, angular-compressed : seeds large, irregular, the rhaphe in-' 
distinct.—Cact. Mex. Bound. 53, t. 70, 71. 
Colorado desert from San Felipe (Parry, Bigelow) eastward, and into Arizona (Schott, Palmer) 
and the Peninsula, Gabb. Joints 5 to 9 inches long, 1 to 1J thick; tubercles 1 to 1| inches 
long ; fruit 2 to 2^ inches long ; seeds 2| to 3 lines wide. 
8. O. Parryi, Engelm. Joints short, ovate-clavate with oblong tubercles : spines 
12 to 20, reddish gray, the 3 or 4 inner ones stouter, triangular-compressed : seeds 
smaller, regularly circular, with a broad and distinct rhaphe. — Am. Jour. Sci. 2 ser. 
xiv. 339 ; Cact. of Pacif, R. Rep. iv. 48, t. 22, fig. 4-7. 
Gravelly* plains near the Mohave River (Bigelow), and through the desert to the base of the 
mountains, Parry. Joints 3 or 4 inches long, 1| thick ; tubercles about f inch long. 
9. O. pulchella, Engelm. Joints smaller, slender : tubercles small: spines 15 
to 25, of which usually one only is stouter, flattened, deflexed: flowers purple : 
ovary and fruit with long flexuous bristles : seeds small, with a broad rhaphe. — 
Trans. Acad. St. Louis, ii. 201; Bot. King Exp, 119 ; fig. in Simpson Rep. ined. 
Sandy deserts of Southeastern California and Nevada, and among the sage-bushes of the moun¬ 
tains, H. Engelmann, TV. Gabb, Watson. The prettiest and smallest of the clavate Opuntice, 
the only one with purple flowers ; joints rarely longer than 1 or 2 inches ; flowers 1| to lJr inches 
wide ; seeds 2 lines in diameter. • 
* * More or less erect, much branched: joints cylindric: ligneous skeleton solid or 
tubular and reticulated: larger spines terete, coated with a loose sheath. 
+- Fruit dry and spiny: flowers yelloiv. 
10. O. tessellata, Engelm. Much branched, bushy, from a stout ligneous 
trunk: joints slender, covered with angular flattened ashy-gray tubercles, bearing 
above long single loosely sheathed spines : flowers small, yellow : small oval fruit 
covered with long brown bristles : seeds with a very broad flat rhaphe. — Cact. of 
Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 52, t. 21. 
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