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A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus,
Anhalonium, and Lophophora by John M. Coulter.
U. S. Department of Agriculture
Division of Botany
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE U. S. NATIONAL HERBARIUM
Vol. III—No. 2
Issued June 10, 1894
Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus,
Anhalonium, and Lophophora.
by
John M. Coulter.
Published by Authority of the Secretary of Agriculture
Washington
Government Printing Office
1894
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
U. S. Department of Agriculture
Division of Botany
Washington, D. C., March 21, 1894
SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication as
Vol. III, No. 2, of Contributions from the U. S. National
Herbarium, a Preliminary Revision of the North American species
of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, by President John M.
Coulter.
Respectfully,
Frederick V. Coville,
Chief of the Division of Botany.
Hon. J. Sterling Morton,
Secretary of Agriculture.
PRELIMINARY REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIESOF CACTUS, ANHALONIUM, AND LOPHOPHORA.Prefatory Note.In the fall of 1890 Dr. George Vasey, then Botanist of theDepartment of Agriculture, arranged with me to prepare a revisionof North American Cactaceae. Owing to the peculiar difficulty ofpreserving material the family was poorly represented, even inour leading herbaria. To secure a large amount of additionalmaterial in the way of specimens and field notes the Departmentauthorized me to visit the region of the Mexican boundary duringthe summer of 1891. Preliminary to this exploration it wasnecessary to examine the Engelmann collection of Cactaceae, inthe possession of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Thiscollection, supplemented by the continual additions made at thegarden, is by far the largest collection of skeletons and livingspecimens in this country, and also contains the large majorityof our types.
In March, 1891, I visited this collection and made such notes asseemed necessary for use in the field, and in June, accompaniedby Mr. W. H. Evans and Mr. G. C. Nealley, I began field work inthe neighborhood of El Paso, Tex. After ten days of explorationit was necessary for me to leave the field work in charge of Mr.Evans, who, with Mr. Nealley, continued work westward, duringJuly and a part of August, to southern California, along theSouthern Pacific Railway. As a result a large number of completeplant bodies was secured, but very few of them were in flower andthe field notes indicated little besides collection stations.During the following fall and winter preliminary determinationsof this material were made by Mr. Evans.In the fall of 1892 critical study of this and other collectionswas begun in connection with my assistants, Dr. Elmon M. Fisherand Mr. Edwin B. Uline, who have ever since rendered constant andmost import assistance in the examination of material andbibliography, which alone has made the work possible in the midstof other pressing duties.
In the spring of 1893 these two gentlemen spent several weeks atthe Missouri Botanical Garden in the critical study of its richmaterial, and during the latter part of their stay I assisted inthe work. Dr. William Trelease, the director of the garden, hadhastened the arrangement of the Engelmann material, and hadmounted in convenient form the large mass of notes left by Dr.Engelmann. These notes contained not only critical remarks uponknown species, but also the diagnoses of many unpublished specieswhich had come into