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Voie V. JUNE, 1900. No. 1

NOTES ON CACTEA—II*
KATHARINE BRANDEGEE.

Students of other orders than the so called ‘‘succulents’’, especi-
ally Cacti, have not usually a clear idea of the confusion existing
in their nomenclature. It would be possible, perhaps, if all the
species of Astragalus or Senecio were described from specimens
without flowers or fruit, and the types preserved, to identify all
or nearly all of them with living forms, though the labor required
would be immense. If, however, these imperfect types were
thrown away and botanists required to identify plants with only
such descriptions, the identification could but be a series of
guesses. In this predicament are students of Cactacez, and it
seems to me that the time has fully come to set science free
from such a great and unavailing waste of time.

Cacti, as is well known, are in trade to a considerable extent.
Large collections are made in their native places and shipped
to dealers, mostly in Europe, who find numbers of plants that
answer to none of the spine descriptions in their manuals. They
must have names, being unsalable without, and the honest
dealer has recourse to a specialist, and waits with what patience
he may, while the botanist racks his head overa mass of descrip-
tions which do not describe and struggles to find by .a process
of exclusion whether the plants have possibly been described
by some one who threw away the type after inditing a diagnosis
that, but for the generic name, might stand fora sea urchin.
In the meantime the unscrupulous dealer prints his list bespangled
with ‘‘new’’ species to which he attaches his name, dissemi-
nates them to the four quarters, mixing them from time to time

* The first number of this series appeared in Erythea, vol. iii-123.

2 Notes on Cactee. [ZOE

as the exigencies of trade demand; the next monographer pours
all these names into the turgid synonymy, and so the process
continues.

To such an extent has the loose and lawless naming gone that
besides the immense synonymy (Mamillaria centricirrha alone is
credited fifty names), there are in the single genus Mamillaria,
according to Dr. Schumann, one hundred and forty ‘uncertain
species.’’ In reality there are three times as many, because the
synonymy is itself largely uncertain.

The way out of this tangle is difficult but not impossible.

1. All pure nomina nuda should be at once cast out of the
lists. .

>. All names credited to Catalogues or ‘‘Hort’’ should be
credited instead to the first one who describes them intelligently
and preserves the type in herbarium. For so great is the extern-
al resemblance of species of Cacti that very rarely can one be
certain that the plant described is of the same species as the
original one of ‘‘Cat.’’ or “‘Hort.’”? Science has nothing to do
with catalogue names of plants offered for sale, though the
catalogues should and in most cases would be glad to have much
to do with science.

3. Species should not be recognized, even in synonymy, with-
out an authentic type. It is astonishing what an amount of in-
formation the specialist can extract from very unpromising
material, and the man who undervalues types only furnishes
proof of his conviction that no one will ever know more or see
better than himself.

Cacti are nearly always described from living specimens, and
if there be but a single plant in the collection, the owner is usually
unwilling to sacrifice it to the preservation of a type, yet a living
type may at any time be confused by a careless gardener, and if
it dies from disease or age, is so altered as to be of comparatively
little value. It is possible, however, to preserve a fair authentic
type without destroying the plant. A good photograph, two
characteristic, connected areole, three or four bunches of spines
taken from different parts of the plant, a good flower, a fruit with
seed can be taken with little injury from almost any plant, and

VOL. 5] Notes on Cactee. 3

such material glued upon a sheet of paper, attested by the author
and deposited in an accessible herbarium, would be a vast im-
provement on most cactus types in existence.

CrrEeus Emoryi Engelm. often has tuberous roots of a size
approaching those of C. Greggii Engelm. I have tried them
cooked but found them not particularly palatable.

C. striatus Brandg. Dr. Weber has kindly sent me a frag-
ment of the type of his C. Diguetit for comparison. It is identical
with C. striatus, and much more related to C. Greggzi than to
C. tuberosus Pos. The local name of C. striatus is ‘‘Jaramataca.’’
It forms weak branching stems, 6-12 dm. high, all the lower
portion of hard wood, and quite unlike a cactus stem. The
tubers are not closely contiguous to the stems, and if separated
never sprout, although they live for years and become green if
exposed to the light.

C. Orcuttii. Stems erect, branching, bright green, reaching
a height of 3 m. and a diameter of 15 cm. with hard woody
center; ribs 14-18, about 1 cm. high; areolz round, about 6 mm.
in diameter and about half that distance apart, densely covered
with short, light gray wool; spines all slender, spreading, yellowish
brown, irregularly 3-seriate; radials 12-20, about 12 mm. long,
deficient above; intermediates about ro, % to more than twice
longer, less spreading, one of the upper spines of this row usually
stouter and darker, porrect, often reaching a length of 7 cm.;
centrals about 5, porrect-spreading a little longer than the inter-
mediates; flowers greenish brown, darker outside, diurnal, about
4 cm. entire length; petals short-apiculate; ovary densely covered
with short scales, almost completely concealed by thick, rounded
tufts of yellowish wool, in which are imbedded dark brown
bristles 4-6 mm. long; stamens lining the upper half of the
tube; style tips acute; fruit not known.

The plant from which this description is drawn was obtained
by Mr. C. R. Orcutt near Rosario, Baja California, in May, 1886.
It was brought to him by his guide, who found it off the trail
some little distance. The cutting was planted in Mr. Orcutt’s
garden, and is now about 2 m. in height; has flowered but

4 Notes on Cactee. [ZOE

formed no fruit. It is much the finest of the large Cerei of Baja
California, being densely covered with bright, yellowish brown
spines. By its flowers it is obviously related to C. Pringle: Wats.
The guide told Mr. Orcutt that it bore in its season edible fruit
the size of an orange, but it is possible that he confused it with
C. Thurberi. .

C. Scuorrit Engelm. var. australis. Stems more slender and
upright than the northern forms: ribs in the fertile ends, often as
many as ten; areole smalier and more distant, and the long
spines commonly fewer and stouter; abortive spine or gland (?)
below the acute base of areola more conspicuous. ©

Mr. T. S. Brandegee has observed that the southern form of
Pringlei is more slender than the northern one, and I have
noticed the same thing in C. A/amosensis Coult. and apparently
in C. Thurberi Engelm.

I cannot understand how Dr. Schumann is able to refer so un-
hesitatingly to this species C. Palmeri Engelm. in Coult. Contr.
Nat. Mus. iii. got. Engelmann described C. Schottit, which, so
far I know, never has less than 5 ribs at maturity, always gray
spines, and an entirely unarmed fruit, and it is inconceivable
that he himself should describe the same species as having ‘‘3-4
ribs, greenish-brown Spaces: and fruit armed with bunches of
5-8 short, stout spines.’

The figure of the fertile areole of C. Schotttt, Monog. Cact.,
173, appears to be upside down.

C. Schottit, C. pecten-aboriginum and, judging by Engelmann’s
figure of the ‘‘young spines’’, C. giganteus belong to the genus
Pilocereus as limited by Dr. Schumann. The flowering areolze
of C. Pringlei are yet unknown to me. In C. feclen-aboriginum,
now flowering in our garden, the fertile areolaee show a porrect
bunch of spines, not at all spreading andso numerous that I have
not attempted to count them. The woolly groove connecting
the areolz in C. Pringle, C. pecten-aboriginum, &c., is a continu-
ation of its lower border, as may be seen in the occasional
imperfect connections.

C. GEOMETRIZANS Mart. var. Cochal. C. Cochal Orc. Dr.
Schumann reduces this species, but taking Pringle’s No. 3743

VOL. 5] Notes on Cactee. 5

from San Luis Potosi as fairly typical C. geometrizans, the vari-
ety differs in the usually greater number of ribs, longer radial
spines, more approximate areolz, smaller, red fruit and seeds
smaller at base, with much smaller and not so entirely basal
hilum.

ECHINOCACTUS MICROMERIS Weber, Bois Dict. 804, Mamillaria
micromeris Engelm. L£pithelantha micromeris Web. 1. c. I agree
with Dr. Weber that this plant, which bears its flowers near the
tips of the tubercles, is an Echinocactus, as the genus is now re-
ceived. Dr. Schumann appears to dissent from this view princi-
pally on account of the ‘‘evident relationship’’ of the plant with
M. lasiacantha—to which it seems to me.to be in no manner
related. Dr. Engelmann, indeed, placed them in juxtaposition,
but he seems never to have mastered the structure of 4. mzcro-
meris, for he remarked upon its ‘“‘axillary’’ flowers and fruits.
The seeds would indicate a very different relationship. They are
of peculiar form and, though of smaller size, much resemble
those of Echinocactus (Astrophytum) myriostigma.

It is a singular fact that the first species mentioned under each
of Engelmann’s Mamillarian subgenera: should be an Echino-
cactus: £. micromeris under Eumamillaria, and £. papyracantha
under Coryphantha.

ECHINOCACTUS CAPRICORNIS Dietr. A plant in our garden,
having its apex dried and hardened by some injury is flowering
from all the grooves. The flowers are not single, as from areole,
but in clusters, 1-2 cm. distant from the top of the groove.

ECHINOCACTUS VIRIDESCENS Nutt. Mr. C. A. Purpus
brought this winter a ripe fruit of this species, in which a large
number of the seeds had germinated and grown to the length of
4-6 millimetres. I have observed the same thing several times in
the green-fruited Mamillarias.

E. ERECTOCENTRUS Coult. In Dr. Schumann’s monograph
this species is given as a synonym of £. Beguinii Web. in Reb.
Cat., which is described as having its ribs completely separated
into tubercles, while Dr. Coulter says that the ribs of his plant
are tuberculate interrupted. To this species probably belongs /.

6 Notes on Cacte@. [ZOE

Krausei Hildm. (name only) described by Karl Hirscht in M. f.
K. vii. 107. Both &. Krausei and the type of £. erectocentrus
came from the vicinity of Benson, Arizona. £. Krausez of Schu-
mann’s monograph may not belong to the same species. Dr.
Weber’s plant from Coahuila, included by Dr. Coulter in his
type, is unknown to me. Dr. Weber, in Bois Dict. 466, 1893,
under £. horripilus em., says: “L’ E. h. Erectocentrus Web.
(Syn.: E&. Beguinit Web. Mamillaria Beguinit Hort.) est une
forme A tige toujours simple et aiguillons plus nombreux, é€rigés.”’
I think all must agree that this is not a valid description, and
Dr. Coulter’s has priority over all the others that are not nomina
nuda.

A very gorgeously colored chromo-lithograph of this species
(and Cereus pectinatus rigidissimus), under the name of Mamil-
laria Childsi, was issued some time ago as an advertisement by
A. Blanc of Philadelphia, aud was reissued in F. A. Walton’s
Cactus Journal for June, 1899. Names like this should not be
interjected into botanical nomenclature, and the only reason for
mentioning it here is that Dr. Schumann comments upon it in
M. f. K. ix. 117, as a species unknown to him.

MAMILLARIA SCHEERII Muhipf. Professor Schumann in-
cludes this species in his division ‘‘No red or yellow glands in
axil or groove’, and gives as synonyms, J7. Salm-Dyckiana, M.
robustispina and Echinocactus Poselgerianus.

In describing var. valida of M. Scheerit, Dr. Engelmann ex-
pressly states that there are from 1-5 red glands in the groove,
so also runs the original description of JZ. Scheeriz, and so it is
found in my specimens. J. robustispina, to which and not to
M. macromeris, as Dr. Schumann refers it, certainly belongs
M. Brownii 'Tuomey, collected in the same locality, shows only
occasionally a single gland just back of the spines, and the
central spine is often hooked. All these mamillarias have yellow
flowers, yet Dr. Schumann describes the flower as ‘‘bright rose-
red (according to Weber, also yellow)’’. The flower of his
description must therefore come from Lchinocactus Poselgerianus.
In the original description of this latter, the flower was lacking,
but the plant was compared to £. hexedrophorus Lem.

VOL: 5] Notes on Cactee. ”

M. RECURVATA Engelm. JM. recurvispina Engelm, M/. Noga-
lensis Runge Cat. abounds in collections in two forms, one with
bright yellow, the other with much paler or whitish spines. A
character which appears not to have been noticed is the presence,
just back of the spines, in the groove of a large oval gland. By
the kindness of Prof. Trelease I have been able to verify this
upon the type of JZ. recurvispina. In cultivation this species
appears to flower with difficulty, but the few cases noticed show
the flower and fruit to be remote from the centre.

MAMILLARIA PRINGLEI (Coult.) Cont. Nat. Herb. iii. 1og
(under Cactus). The type of this species is not to be found in
the Gray Herbarium at present; it may be misplaced. No plant
of the kind is in our set of Pringle’s, but at my request Mr.
Pringle very kindly sent me for examination the cacti of his
private herbarium. I find among them a plant labelled ‘‘Mamil-
laria, Tultenango Cafion, 17 Oct. 1890, No. .3679,’’ which
agrees with the description—though I should call the flower
purple, not red. It seems to me scarcely to differ from J/.
Carretii Schumann. Both plants are described as having naked
axils, but my specimen of the latter, which came from McDowell,
Mexico, and so probably from the original collection, is more
or less setose.

M. armillata*. Stems somewhat attenuate, reaching 3 dm.
in height, 4-5 cm. in diameter, usually in clusters of 3-12, from
the base, often branching above; tubercles somewhat leathery in
texture; conical, somewhat angled; axils setose and sparsely
woolly; radial spines 9-15, 7-12 mm. long, the inner half whitish
or grayish; centrals 1-4, 1o-20 mm. long, the lower one hooked
and longer, all, and the outer part of the radials dark brown, yel-
lowish or gray; flowers 1-2 cm. long, scarcely spreading, flesh
color; fruit red, clavate, 114-3 cm. long; seeds coriaceous,
dull black, about 1 mm. long, obliquely obovate, constricted
above the more slender basal portion; surface covered with
minute, not closely contiguous pits, the intervening spaces min-
utely wrinkled; hilum basal, narrow. San José del Cabo, Baja

* Plates of the new species of Cacti will appear at the end of the volume.

8 - Notes on Cactee. | ZOE

California. The name is in allusion to the dark bands which
encircle the plant, giving it much the appearance of a raccoon’s
tail.

M. venusta. Simple becoming cespitose in clusters of, in
extreme cases, as many as 40; heads 2-4, very rarely, in center
of large clusters, 6 cm. high, a little less in diameter; tubercles
thick and short, concave at the end, greenish, purplish to nearly
white, glaucous; axils only slightly woolly, soon naked; radial
spines, 9-15, stout, 6-12 mm. long; centrals typically solitary,
IO-I5 mm., sometimes 2 or 3, in a single specimen 4, porrect-
spreading, the three upper very short; flowers about 4 cm. in
diameter, rose-color, widely spreading, tube very short; petals
lanceolate acute, recurved-spreading; style-branches 5, ap-
parently rosy brown; fruit 114-2 cm. long, scarlet, linear, circum-
scissile some distance above the base, nearly dry; seeds oblong-
obovate, rather less than 1 mm. long, constricted above the basal
portion, which is half as long and nearly as wide as the upper;
surface dull, minutely pitted, the pits much obscured by delicate
intervening striz; hilum basal, large and triangular.

Collected by Mr. T. S. Brandegee in the vicinity of San José
del Cabo, Baja California, in Sept., 1890. (No. 240, WM. Good-
richit, of ‘‘Flora of the Cape Region’’); again Sept. 1893, and
for the third time last year in numerous living specimens. It
has been known for some time that it was undescribed, but in
this group complete material is necessary. The spines are from
pure white, barely tipped with brown, to dark brown, whitish
only near the base. The flowers, which appear in September,
hide the whole plant, and it is of such low growth as to look
like a beautiful cluster of flowers springing from the sand. ‘The
fruit appearing in winter is nearly dry and falls very readily
when ripe, leaving most of the seeds in the axillary cup. It is
the only circumscissile mamillaria known to me.

M. Schumanii Hildm. M. f. K. i., 125, abb. bei Pp: 103,
bears some resemblance to J/. venusta, but is a much larger, rel-
atively more slender plant, and presumably came from the main-
land, Dr. Schumann remarks in Monog. Cact. 545, that he has

VOL, §| Forms of Phacelia circinata. 9

not seen it—which means, I suppose, that the type was not pre-
served.

M. fragilis, S.-D. Prince Salm-Dyck, having noted that this
familiar little plant did not agree with the description of JZ.
gracilis Pfr., suggested 7. fragilis as a highly appropriate name
for a plant which sheds its multitudinous offsets on the slightest
provocation. The original description of J/. gracilis reads :
‘Cylindrical, slender, proliferous; axils naked; tubercles short,
obtusely conical, areole nearly naked; radial spines 16, bristle-
like, white; central 2 more rigid.’’ The type presumably was
not preserved. Certainly no one will argue that this description
could apply to J/. gracilis, and if investigation shows that no
type is in existence the unmistakable name proposed by Prince
Salm-Dyck should be adopted.

M. BRANDEGEI Coult. 4/7. Gadbit Engelm. in Coult. Prof.
Schumann includes these in the synonomy of MZ. Leydert
Miihlpf., but they seem to me, from the description, nearer 47.
simplex Haw. A large amount of material brought by Mr. C. A.
Purpus from the vicinity of Calmalli, Baja California, shows the
species to be quite variable in form, color and spines, while agree-
ing in flower and fruit. The plants are usually globose-flattened
or short cylindrical, commonly single, often double sometimes
dichtomous, and occasionally in clusters of 8 or more. In color
the spines vary from nearly white to dark brown; the radials 9-16,
centrals 1-4, most commonly 2, all the number variations often
found on the same plant. Flowers greenish-yellow, about 15
mm. long, tubular, hardly expanded above. Fruit white, more
or less tinged with lilac, commonly bearing 1-5 fringed scales,
with sometimes a tuft of weak spines in the axils.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FORMS OF PHACELIA
CIRCINATA JACQ.

S. B. PARISH.

It would readily be inferred from the extensive geographical
distribution of Phacelia circinata that it would present marked

IO Forms of Phacelia circinata. [ZOE

local variations; and such is, in fact, the case. Some of these are
so distinct in appearance, as to be taken as even specifically dif-
ferent, But on examination it is found that the very nature of
these differences, based as they are on more important identities,
forbid such a view, the diverse aspect exhibited by extreme forms
being due to the degree of development of common characters.

All the forms are alike in the aggregation of most of the leaves
in basal clusters; in a pubescence of two kinds, one long and
strigose, the other short, close and fine; and in floral characters.
The filaments and styles are much exserted, the former sparsely
arachnoid on the exserted part, and the latter hispid on the in-
cluded portion; the appendages of the corolla are joined to the
base of the filaments so as to form pockets behind them, while
their united edges form inverted pockets between the filaments;
the ovary is densely hirsute, and becomes a small (line high)
acute capsule with alveolate seeds.

In different forms the stems may vary from a height of one or
two inches to as many feet, the strigose hairs may quite cover the
finer pubescence, or both may be scanty, and the cymes and cy-
mules may be condensed, orelongated and diffuse. The typical leaf
form is pinnate, with a large ovate or lanceolate terminal lobe,
and a few small lateral ones at base, but these differ in number
and shape, or may be suppressed.

The more pronounced of these forms are perhaps worthy of
varietal names, but these should be bestowed only after the study
of very ample material, and the examination of types of the pro-
posed species that have passed into synonymy.

The purpose of the present paper is merely to note a few dis-
tinct forms growing in various parts of Southern California, which
appear to be fixed in type and exclusively present in the local-
ities where they occur. All our plants are perennial but farther
north there are annual or at most biennial forms, which differ in
no other respect from the perennial ones.

(a) Stems slender and very unequal, 2-12 inches high, sparse-
ly leafy, sparsely hispid, the finer pubescence very short; leaves
lanceolate, 1-2 inches long, all entire, 8-nerved; cymules distant
and short,

VOL. 5] Notes on Cupressus Macnabtana. Fp

Bear Valley, at 6,500 ft. alt., in the San Bernardino Mts. 2,-
957 Parish.

(6.) Stems foot high, equal; very sparsely hirsute or pubescent;
leaves with a pair of large triangular teeth at base, 4-nerved;
cyme diffuse.

Green Valley, 6,000 ft. alt. in the San Bernardino Mts., ZH. M.
Flall.

(c) Stems stout, 6-18 inches high, but nearly equal in‘the
same plant, canescently hispid, pubescence very short; leaves 1-2
inches long, on petioles of the same length, lateral lobes 1—2 pairs,
short, acute; cymes of dense, elongated geminate cymules,

Along the base of the mountains near San Bernardino, at 1,-
200-1,500 ft. alt., 4160 Parish. Type of P. virgata var. (?)
Bernardina, Greene, Eryth. 4.55.

(d) Stems slender, very unequal, 2-18 inches high in the same
plant, leafy and floriterous from near the base; sparsely hispid,
fine pubescence very close and short; leaves'with several scattered
and very unequal acute basal lobes; cymules distant and short.

Stonewall mine, 4,600 ft. alt. in the Cuyamaca Mts. 4423
Parish,

NOTES ON CUPRESSUS MACNABIANA.
ALICE EASTWOOD.

This Cypress is, according to Professor C. S. Sargent (Syl. N
Am. X. 109), one of the rarest trees in California, known only
from a few dry slopes on the hills south and west of Clear Lake,
in Lake County. The specimens from which the species was
described were, however, collected at the southern base of Mt.
Shasta, in 1854. Since then, it has not been found around Mt.
Shasta. Dr. C. Hart Merriam (Biol. Surv. of Mt. Shasta, N.
Am. Fauna, 16, 138) has suggested that the term ‘Shasta’ was
probably used in a rather loose sense, as i ac adjacent moun-
tains not then named.

Recent collections in Mendocino, Lake, and Napa Counties
give new and more definite information concerning the distribution

.

12 Notes on Cupressus Macnabiana. [ZOE

and habitat of this species, showing that it is much more
widely distributed than has been supposed.

In the first place, this Cypress is more partial to the banks of
streams than.to dry slopes and only in moist localities do the
trees attain any size. Generally it is associated with C. Govent?-
ana: but among all the trees that have come under my observation
the two species are distinct and without the slightest trace of
hybridization. Carl Purdy who has found these two species to-
gether on Red Mountain in Mendocino County tells me that,
there, they seem to interniingle.

On the stage road between Hopland and Highland Springs, on
the eastern slope of the dividing ridge, not very far from the sum-
mit, Isaw C. Macnadbiana for the first time. It startled me by
its pale and strange appearance. ‘This first tree was one of the
largest seen and grew along the creek bordering the road. From
there to within three miles of Highland Springs these cypresses
occurred sparingly along the creek, associated generally with C.
Goveniana, At one place, quite a dense grove of small trees
appeared to be climbing up the hillside. ‘These were from five
to fifteen feet high, pyramidal in outline, with the lowest branches
sweeping the ground. The large trees lose this symmetry, be-
come loosely branched and rise to a height of from thirty to forty
feet, with a diameter near the base of the trunk, of between one
and two feet.

A week later, on the road from the toll-house on Mt. St. Helena
to Middleton, in Napa County, not far from the summit of the
ridge, I again found a patch of C. Goveniana on the hillside, near
the road. I wondered whether the other species was to be found
along the creek that could be seen far below at the base of the
hill, and, upon investigation, discovered a few scattered trees
there, but genuine representatives of the species. Several years
ago Mr. John Mc. Lean had brought specimens of this cypress
from the same range of hills, which he had collected on the road
from Calistoga to the Etna mines and had presented to the
Herbarium of the California Academy of Sciences.

In this collection, also is a specimen collected oy Dr CO. C.
Parry at Chico, Butte County,

VoL. 5] Cleistogamous Flowers in Scrophulariacee. 13

No authors who have written of this Cypress have mentioned
the delightful fragrance of the fresh foliage. Probably they have
know only dried specimens from which the charateristic odor
disappears. It is somewhat like sandalwood, but sweeter and not
so strong and with a flavor of pineapple. However, even with-
out this, there ought to be no difficulty in distinguishing C. Mac-
nabiana from its associate C. Goveniana. Its later period of
blooming, its delicate foliage, sprinkled all over with tiny white
glands, and its peculiar cones with their horn-like bosses mark it
as distinct from this as well as from all other species.

CLEISTOGAMOUS FLOWERS IN SCROPHULARIACES.
T. S. BRANDEGEE.

LINARIA CANADENSIS Dum. as it grows about San Diego
has a multitude of cleistogamous flowers on the lower part of the
main and the whole length of the many side branches. These
flowers are from 114-3 mm. long (not equaling the calyx-lobes),
not spurred, usually white, but bluish in transitional forms. The
fully developed flowers are as largeas I have seen in the specise.

ANTIRRHINUM COOPERI Gray. The early flowers of this
plant are often, if not always, cleistogamous, and 4. /ilipes
Gray was evidently founded on such a condition.

A. Wartsonr V. & R. has early cleistogamous flowers.

A. SUBSESSILE Gray. ‘This is the common species about San
Diego and in consequence has been most observed. While cleis-
togamy is the rule in the young plant, it does not always occur.
Transition forms are found in the later flowers, which even though
still cleistogamous often show color; the earlier flowers being .
white and scarcely éxceeding the calyx-lobes.

RECENT LITERATURE.

Gesamtbeschreibung der Kakteen (Monographia Cactacearum)
von DR. CARL SCHUMANN, mit einer kurzen Anwetsung zur
Pflege der Kakteen, von Kart. Hirscut, pps. 1-832, figs. 1-117.
Neudamm, 1899.

Since the appearance of the second edition of Forster’s Hand-
book in 1886, no attempt until now has been made to: bring
together all the described species of cacti. Forster admitted over
nine hundred as valid species; Dr. Schumann enumerates less
than seven hundred, including one hundred and eighty new or
recent ones. He has, therefore, reduced by about one-half the
species of the previous monograph. The work, though more
scientific in form than Forster’s, appears to be intended primarily
for the use of gardeners and amateur cultivators of Cacti. Indeed,
the species are still too little known to admit of settled classifi-
cation.

The descriptions of species are unnecessarily long, the same
phrases being repeated page after page, when by a judicious use
of sections the book might be greatly reduced in size. A more
serious matter is the alteration of the original diagnoses, in
many cases quite obscured by broadening to include descriptions
of other forms, which may or may not be related, or as ina
number of cases the original character is set aside and the
description entirely re-written from living plants, the identifica-
tion of which is not entirely free from doubt. In consequence
the original sources must be consulted, and the botanical interest
of the work consists chiefly in the new species and the grouping.

The sequence of the genera in Forster is, perhaps, to be pre-
ferred. The separation of the Rhipsalide from Cereus and
‘Phyllanthus by the interposition of Echinocactus, Mamillaria,
etc., is quite unnatural. The species of Epiphyllum are distributed
to Cereus (£. obtusangulum Lindb.) and to Phyllocactus (£4.
Russellianum Hook. and #. Gartneri Sch.) leaving -. truncatum
Haw. alone to represent the genus which is kept up solely on
such a trivial character as the obliquity of the flower. It would
seem much better to group together the species by their common

VOL. 5] Recent Literature. 15

character of flowering from the depressed summit, and place
them as a section in Phyllacanthus.

In the Opuntize a more natural sequence would seem to be
Peireskia, Maihuenia, Pereskopuntia Pterocactus, Cylindropun-
tia, Platopuntia, Nopalea. Mahuenia attributed to Phillippi but
no reference given, and no species credited to him, appears to me
better as a section of Pereskia. Pereskopuntia might, perhaps,
include Pterocactus, the ovary being buried in the fruit-bearing
branch, in both; at least it is so in the Pereskopuntias Porteri and
Brandeget.

The proposed division of Cereus by reinstating with altered
boundaries the old genera Cephalocereus and Pilocereus cannot
well be carried out. The plants so brought together are quite
heterogeneous.

Echinocactus as at present received is a somewhat confused
assemblage, some of its members too closely connected with
other genera. By their fruits and seeds, when they are
better known, it may be possible to improve the generic bound-
aries.

The sections of or subgenera are still poorly defined. The
lactescent species are often difficult, and in herbarium specimens
impossible to discriminate. A considerable number of the species
in Dr. Schumann’s § Aydrochylus undoubtedly have milky juice.
Of those which have latex only in the body of the plant discrim-
ination is sufficiently difficult even in life, for the amount seems
to vary greatly with the state of growth.

The subgenus Coryphantha is divided into two sections, Aula-
cothelaze and Glanduliferze, by the presence or absence of glands
in the axil or groove, only five of the twenty-two species being
credited with them, while as a matter of fact they can be
demonstrated in most of the other species.

T’here are occasional errors in citation, quite pardonable con-
sidering the number of references, A curious instance of con-
fused reference is found at the foot of page 495, where he finds it
very strange that Coulter could not find 47. dazmonoceras, for “‘it
is to be found on the same page with J/, ‘mpexicoma, which he
cites, and Prince Salm-Dyck quite correctly, l. c. 131, quoted.”

16 Recent Literature. =: [SOR

On Jooking up the reference in Salm-Dyck, it is found to be
“Tem, Cact. gen nov. p. 5,’’ whereas it should be Lem. Cact.
aliq. nov. 5, an earlier work by the-same author.

Quite a number of names have perhaps by accident been
omitted from the work. Among them are the following new
ones by Prof. Coulter: Cactus alternatus, brunneus, capillarts,
densispinus, Eschanziert, maculatus, Palmeri, Pringlet, radians-
pectenotdes.

The most objectionable feature of the monograph is the refer-
ence of a considerable number of new names to ephemeral trade
catalogues, of which in most cases no number or page is cited.

For example: ‘‘Mamillaria Trohartii Hildm. cat.’’, locality
‘‘Mexico’’, flower and fruit ‘‘unknown’’; ‘‘J/amillaria gigantea
Hildm. cat.’’; synonyms—‘‘J/. McDowellii Hildm. cat. J.
Guanajuatensis Runge cat.’? These references are mostly to

names only, sometimes with a brief unscientific notice, and are
as a rule inaccessible to students, not being offered for sale but
issued yearly to the trade as a list from which customers may
order plants. Fortunately the English and American catalogues
are entirely ignored.

Pittonia, vol. iv., Pt. 22, pp. 105-158. In the first paper Prof.
Greene falls upon Prof. Underwood for stating the fact that
‘“‘Necker’s fern genera [Necker calls them species] are not based
on types and no earlier references are cited.’’ This is true of all
his other ‘‘species’’, and while it is undeniably true that most of
them may be picked out by a process of exclusion, it is also true
that there is a growing number of botanists who wish to have
some portion of their time for investigations which shall add to
the sum of knowledge rather than to waste the whole of it in
profitless researches into nearly forgotten works, from which
about the only good to be derived is a possible change of name.
The present system of change from the plain and well-known to
the obscure and vague, is fast driving botanists towards an inter-
national commission and deposit of all new types in national
museums. ‘The remainder of the number is taken up with
‘‘decades’’ and ‘‘fascicles’’ of new species, forerunners, perhaps, of
centuries and myriads.

NOTES AND NEWS.

Erythea VII, No. 12, pt. r. The announcement is made that
this journal will cease with the next number containing title-page,
index, etc. Its discontinuance is much to be regretted but it is
understood that its superintendence made too great a draft on the
time of the editor, whose duties as Assistant Professor of Botany
in the University of California leave little space for outside work.

In the Botanical Gazette for April, 1go00, Prof. B. L. Robinson
in noticing The Synopsis of Mexican and Central American
Umbelliferze says: ‘The many specific names which the authors
have been obliged to coin, are mostly the simple and familiar
descriptive terms of the glauca, serrata and rigida type, with no
such linguistic jumbles as pseudoparviflora, heterappendiculata,
Saxifragopsis, parvicarpum, etc., which have of late so frequently
marred the publication from other American botanical establish-
ments, although rarely found in the writings of our more classical
transatlantic colleagues. Another point which merits special
mention is the scrupulous care with which the authors have
avoided the publication of manuscript or herbarium names in
their synonymy—a useless practice which, notwithstanding the
emphatic protest of Mr. B. Daydon Jackson and others, is still too
prevalent.’? We commend these remarks to some of our western
botanists who are apparently anxious to condense a page of des-
cription into a specific name.

The Fern Bulletin for 1900 contains a characteristic photograph
and and an appreciative notice by Thomas Meehan of John H.
Redfield. He was the founder of the botanical section of the
Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, and curator of the herbarium.
His books and collections were sold for its benefit. the latter going
to the Missouri Botanic Garden,

Dr. C. A. Purpus has gone fora collecting trip to the bound-
ary region between Utah and Colorado. His botanical collections
made in that region last year were principally from the high
mountains,

ae thee Memuiitaria vennsta, M.. armiliata 5 and other new species s as well
as. the commoner — better known — ae

Attractive ne “will te cued He ‘will Pek bright Aalthy
and will endeavor, generally, to make of every purchaser a friend an well.
wisher. eee is invited upon this: su oie He ines also —

BOTANICAL, SPECIMENS.

; “Salienng that the time ie come, nes tabs sets ‘of plants fom regi regions
already fairly well known are no longer desirable in the larger oe he
offers for sale as desiderata a large number of rare ‘plants colle d

, A. W. Anthony and others. e

"Plants will bei in Ba condition, fi correctly named, and : spec