A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and LophophoraCoulter, John Merle
Science
A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora
Coulter, John Merle
Ariocarpus; Cactus; Peyote; Plants -- North America
The ten preceding forms have evidently entered our borders from
the highlands of Sonora and Chihuahua, with the exception of the
Rio Grande Valley forms, texanus and sphaericus. Another
species, tetrancistrus, is also a Sonoran type which has reached
the eastern slopes of the mountains of southeastern California,
and extended through western Arizona to southern Nevada and
southern Utah, the most extended northern range of any
EUMAMILLARIA. The twelfth form, goodrichii, is Lower
Californian, and extends into California only in San Diego
County. A summarized statement of the distribution of our twelve
EUMAMILLARIA would be that two of them have extended from the low
grounds of Coahuila and Chihuahua and spread along the valley of
the Rio Grande; nine have come from the high grounds of Chihuahua
and Sonora, four of which have extended eastward to the low
levels of southeastern Texas; four have kept to the highlands
west of the Pecos, and one has kept to the Colorado Valley and
its tributaries, while one has a short northern extension from
Lower California.
The nineteen forms of CORYPHANTHA are decidedly more northern in
their distribution, and are our characteristic representatives of
the genus Cactus. Ten of these, however, are but northern
extensions of Mexican forms, and six of the ten have simply that
tongue-like northern extension in the mountains between the Pecos
and the Upper Rio Grande (above. El Paso), viz.: dasyacanthus,
tuberculosus, scheerii (which has also spread somewhat east of
the Pecos), and the three pectinate and closely related forms
radians, echinus, and scolymoides. Of the four remaining Mexican
forms, macromeris is a low ground Rio Grande Valley form,
extending from above El Paso well towards the Lower Rio Grande;
potsii just crosses the border in the neighborhood of Laredo; and
radiosus and neo-mexicanus have by far the greatest northern
extension, stretching from Sonora and Chihuahua to southern Utah
and central Colorado, and eastward to the Guadalupe River of
Texas.
The nine remaining coryphanths are distinctly forms of the United
States, occupying two well-marked regions, viz.: the northern
plains, and the desert region of western Arizona and adjacent
California, Nevada, and Utah. In the former region is found the
widespread viviparus, which extends from the southern borders of
British America to the plains of eastern Colorado and western
Kansas, and even crosses the Rocky Mountain divide into northern
Idaho and northeastern Washington; and missouriensis, which also
ranges from the high prairies of the Upper Missouri to the same
southern limit, and is continued southward into Texas in its
varieties similis and robustior.
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