CATALOGUE. 
131 
j %ot : 50, 1 19).—An erect, bushy plant, 10-12° high, with oval or sub- 
°\ylindric joints, bearing on short oval tubercles 3-5 large (V long) and. 
^niariy smaller spines, the larger ones loosely covered by glistening, whit- 
sheatlip purple flowers, small, 1 inch wide; fleshy, greenish berry, 
^ one ^numerous small and very irregular seeds, or often abortive; wood a wide, 
;car celjfragile tube with short meshes. 
Opuntia (Cylindeopuntia) tessellata, Engelm.—Very bushy, from 
pitosep stout trunk, with solid wood, sometimes several inches thick; ultimate 
tuberfibranches as thick as a swan’s quill, covered with angular, flattened, ashy- 
iate ' gray tubercles, the uppermost bearing at their upper end single, long, loosely 
rs,2' tyellow-sheathed spines; flowers small (about f of an inch wide), yellow; 
»no’.|)j 1 ; small fruit, oval, covered with long, soft, brown bristles. Pac. R. Rep; l. c. 
boutS t. 2h —On both sides of the Lower Colorado River, 6-7° high; the yellow, 
shining spines, crowded on the upper end of each year’s growth, together 
g01] ’ s | with the scale-like tubercles, give the plant a singular and striking appear.- . 
Hll ance * ... 
,j ]0 j r There are several other cylindric Opuntia in Arizona, not collected in 
these Expeditions, and for the most part only imperfectly known. It is 
Ai®i 
desired to direct attention to this interesting group, which, on account of the 
bulky forms and forbidding armament, are too much shunned by travellers.— 
Opuntia echinocarpa , Engelm. & Bigel., is a low and very spiny bush, with 
yellowish flowers and dry, spiny fruit. Opuntia acanthocarpa, Engelm. & 
^ ’ Bigel, is taller, with elongated tubercles, or rather ridges, copper-colored 
flowers, and dry fruit bearing few, but stouter spines. 0. mamillata i 
lC11 Schott, and fulgida, Engelm. & Bigel., are allied to 0. Bigelovn, with 
thick tubercles or prominent crests, the former with small, the other 
^ with numerous long and shining, sheathed spines; fruit often abortive. 
' [e; Good specimens with flower, fruit, and good seed of the. same plant 
(so that mixing species and forms may be avoided) are very desirable, 
111(1 as we know scarcely anything more about them than what the botanists 
of the Mexican Boundary Commission (often at the most unfavorable season) 
^ ei: could find out, twenty-five years ago. Opuntia leptocaulis, DC. (0. frutes- 
pens, Engelm.), the most slender Opuntia known, bushy, with branches like 
? pipe-stems, small yellow flowers, and red, somewhat fleshy berries, is common 
