Subglobose with a deeply depressed vertex, or becoming
cylindrical, 3 to 8.5 cm. in diameter: tubercles sharply
quadrangular-conical, with densely woolly axils: radial spines 15
to 30, white, very slender (bristly) and radiant, sometimes
coarse capillary, 4 to 7 mm. long, interwoven with those of
neighboring tubercles and so covering the whole plant; central
spines 2 to 4, robust and straight, erect or divergent, whitish
or reddish, black-tipped, 5 to 6.5 mm. long: flowers reddish, 1
to 2 cm. broad: fruit unknown. Type unknown.
From Coahuila and San Luis Potosi to Oaxaca. Fl. May.
Specimens examined: Coahuila (Poselger of 1856; Pringle 3116 of
1890): San Luis Potosi (Eschanzier of 1891).
The central spines are quite variable in number and arrangement.
In case there are two they are vertically placed and are either
erect and parallel or widely divergent. Even three centrals may
occur in the same vertical plane; but more usually the three or
four centrals are arranged about a center and are widely
divergent. The tubercles are apt to persist and to become naked
and corky with age. The axillary wool and the capillary radials
are also apt to be more or less persistent, thus giving the whole
plant a woolly appearance.
3.Cactus brandegei, sp. nov.
Cylindrical: tubercles sharply quadrangular-conical, 6 to 8 mm.
long, with densely woolly axils: radial spines about 10, slender
and rigid, whitish with dusky tips, spreading but not radiant, 7
to 10 mm. long; central spines 3 or 4, stouter and slightly
longer, erect-spreading (sometimes slightly curved),
reddish-brown below, becoming blackish above: flowers small
(scarcely longer than the tubercle?): fruit unknown. Type in
Herb. Calif. Acad.
San Jorge, Lower California. Fl. April.
Specimens examined: Lower California (Brandegee of 1889, at San
Jorge).
The species has somewhat the spine characters of C. palmeri, but
the sharply quadrangular and longer tubercles with axillary wool
free from bristles suggest a very different affinity.
4.Cactus densispinus, sp. nov.
Globose, 7.5 cm. in diameter, simple: tubercles short, with
woolly axils: radial spines about 25, erect-spreading, slender
but rigid, yellow (brownish to black with age), unequal, 8 to 10
mm. long; central spines 6, a little longer (10 to 12 mm.) and
straight, more rigid and darker, black-tipped: seeds obovate,
reddish-brown, 1 mm. long. Type in Herb. Coulter.
Very easily distinguished by its dense, erect spines, which so
completely cover the plant as to give it the appearance of a
large chestnut bur. Another much smaller form, which seems to be
a variety, has stouter and longer ashy-white spines, the centrals
darker-tipped, and the lower centrals slightly curved.
++ One short central spine (rarely two or none): ovaries
immersed: seeds small, yellow and rugulose: simple.
5.Cactus heyderi (Muhlenpf.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 260 (1891).
Mamillaria heyderi Muhlenpf. Allg. Gart. Zeit. xvi. 20(1848).
Mamillaria declivis Dietr. Allg. Gart. Zeit. xviii. 235
(1850).
Mamillaria applanata Engelm. Pl. Lindh 198 (1850).
Mamillaria texensis Labouret, Monogr. Cact. 89 (1858).
Depressed, globose, usually with depressed vertex, 8 to 12 cm.
broad, 2.5 to 5 cm. high: tubercles elongated: radial spines 10
to 22, whitish, 5 to 12 mm. long, the lower usually the longer,
stouter, and often darker; central spine 4 to 8 mm. long, light
yellowish-brown, stout, straight, and porrect: flowers 2 to 2.5
cm. long, reddish-white: fruit incurved, 1.5 to 3 cm. long. (Ill.
Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 9. figs. 4-14). Type unknown.
From the Guadalupe River, Texas, to the mouth of the Rio Grande,
and westward to Arizona and Sonora. Fl. April, May.
Specimens examined: Texas (Lindheimer of 1845, 1847, 1853; Wright
226, also collections of 1849, 1852, 1853, 1855, 1856; Bigelow of
1853; Trelease of 1892; Nealley of 1892): New Mexico (Wright 311;
Bigelow of 1853, Evans of 1891): Arizona (Pringle of 1881): also
growing in Mo. Bot. Gard. 1893; and in the World's Fair
collection of Mrs. Nickels.
The radial spines are somewhat variable in relative length, often
becoming almost equal, while sometimes the upper radials are very
much reduced. The figure referred to in Cact. Mex. Bound. is not
satisfactory as to the general habit of the plant, which is
flat-topped rather than hemispherical.
6.Cactus heyderi hemisphaericus (Engelm.).
Mamillaria hemisphaerica Engelm. Pl. Lindh. 198 (1850).
Differs in being hemispherical instead of flat-topped, in its
fewer (9 to 12) and shorter (4 to 8 mm.) radial spines, and much
smaller less rough and lighter-colored seeds. (Ill. Cact. Mex.
Bound. t. 9. figs. 15-17) Type, the "Goebel's Garden" plants in
Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.
Throughout southern Texas and southern New Mexico, and southward;
not extending so far north or west as the species, and apparently
not so abundant within the United States. Fl. May.
Specimens examined: Texas(Schott 322, 614): New Mexico (Evans of
1891): also specimens cultivated in the Goebel Garden, St. Louis,
in 1847, brought from "below Matamoras on the Rio Grande" by the
St. Louis Volunteers, in 1816.
On account of its convex top the variety becomes somewhat higher
than the species (5 to 7.5 cm.), and the flowers are sometimes
slightly longer (2 to 3 cm.).
7.Cactus meiacanthus (Engelm.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 260
(1891).