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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 
VOL. 72 
a little later took up as Cerens panic Hiatus. Ever since, the plant 
has usually passed under the latter name, with an occasional reversal 
to the earlier one. 
Until recently, the species has been known only from this old 
illustration and these brief descriptions. The Abbott and Leonard 
material consists of wood sections and herbarium specimens of 
branches, flowers, fruit, and seeds, supplemented by living specimens 
and by fruit and flowers in formalin, together with several habit 
photographs. These convince us that the plant belongs to neither 
Cactus nor Cereus, but to an undescribed genus. In habit it resem¬ 
bles J) end roc ere us, its branches resemble Acanthocereus, and the 
small limb of the flower resembles Leptocereus; but the plant differs 
from all of these in bearing several flowers at the ends of terminal 
branches and in developing a kind of cephalium. In the last respect 
it approaches Neoraimondia, near which we would place it in our 
present classification. 
Although at first Neoabbottia is weak and only 4-angled, suggest¬ 
ing Acanthocereus, it forms ultimately a thick woody trunk. The 
full-grown plant in habit and branches much resembles Dendrocereus 
nudidorus of eastern Cuba, but it has much smaller and different 
flowers and seeds. 
The following remarks are from the careful field notes of Mr. 
Pilkington, made in December, 1920. 
“ Grows to a height of 50 feet, in light sandy arid soil of recent 
ocean bottom. Known to natives as 4 Gadasse/ No use is made of the 
plant except burning the dead branches for torches. The wood so 
used is called 4 Bois Chandelle ’ or 4 Bois Flamboyant ’— 4 Candle- 
Wood 9 and 4 Flaming-Wood/ from the bright smokeless light. Fruit 
falls when ripe; rind soon decays, leaving seed in a mass retained 
in shape by a mucilaginous pulp. The young plant develops a bul¬ 
bous root with a simple upright stem made up of several joints and 
later giving off lateral branches which come off from the upper end 
of other branches; the main stem is 4 to 6-winged, but as it grows 
older becomes square, pentagonal, or hexagonal, according to the 
original number of ribs on each joint, and in age terete or nearly 
so with the ribs showing as mere lines, bearing the scars of the old 
spines; the branches are more numerous on one side of the main 
branch and these always lie in the same plane, the ribs when of the 
same number being opposite those of the main joint. This dispo¬ 
sition of the joints causes the main stem to bend or curve and the 
whole has a striking resemblance to the flat antlers of moose and 
NO. 9 NEOABBOTTIA, A NEW CACTUS GENUS-BRITTON AND ROSE 5 
elk. This arrangement is shown in the mature tree, although the 
intermingling of the several branches gives the general effect of an 
ordinary tree-top. 
44 The natural pruning of the tree comes about through the death 
of branches caused by epiphytic plants, the breaking off of branches 
by the weight of a clambering cactus, and the attack of insects which 
live in the fleshy joints. These insects are much sought after by a 
red-headed woodpecker. 
44 Flowers are borne at the extreme tip of the terminal joints and 
never from the sides, the fruit appearing therefore always at the 
tips. A single fruit always grows directly in line with a rib, but when . 
several fruits grow from the same terminal bud they are compelled 
to radiate at right angles to the axis of the joint. Four fruits from 
one joint is the highest number observed, two only usually appearing 
to be normal. As the ovary develops the flower shrinks, dries, and 
appears finally as a brown protuberance attached to the apex of the 
mature fruit. The old flowers at length fall off the mature fruit, 
leaving a well-defined umbilicus. The fruit measures 6f to 7 inches 
in circumference. When ripe it is waxy, smooth, yellow with faint 
streaks of pink radiating from the base; flesh same color as rind, 
glutinous, firm, slightly acid to taste, hardly edible. 
44 Seeds are embedded in a secretion which in water produces a 
remarkable bulk of mucilaginous jelly, which is mildly acid and not 
unpleasant to taste. Fruit does not seem to be attacked by birds and 
is never eaten by natives. Successive crops of fruit appear from 
this same bud cluster at the top of the terminal joint, each crop absorb¬ 
ing some of the substance of the joint; the joint shrinks and solidifies, 
the ribs become furrows, the center enlarges, and finally all becomes 
a woody mass of varying dimensions, as long as 3 inches, thus 
forming what you have called a 4 cushion/ but which is reallv an 
atrophied joint after several years of fruit-bearing.” 
The nature of the cephalium is not well understood, but it seems 
to be an abortive joint. It first appears like a large felted areole 
from which several flowers are produced; it slowly elongates and 
finally becomes 7 cm. long or more, still producing the flowers at the 
tip. When very old most of the felt wears off, leaving a stubby 4 
or 5-angled joint; the areoles, however, are not borne on the angles 
as in normal branches, but in the depressions or furrows between the 
ridges. In these furrows the areoles form a continuous band of felt 
from the base to the top of the joint. One of these flower-bearing 
joints which Mr. Pilkington has sent is 5 cm. long and we have esti- 
