which are naked or nearly so. (Ill. Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 4)
Type, Wright specimen in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.

From western Texas (with the species) to Coahuila.

Specimens examined: Texas (Wright of 1852): Coahuila (Palmer of
1880).

In the Syn. Cact. Dr. Engelmann merges this variety with the
species, and has been followed in this by subsequent writers, but
the characters seem so (distinctive that its varietal rank has
been restored.

12. Cactus micromeris (Engelm.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 260 (1891).

Mamillaria micromeris Engelm. Syn. Cact. 260 (1856).

With depressed top and very rarely branching, 1 to 3.5 cm. in
diameter: tubercles very small (about 1 mm. long) and wart-like,
crowded, shedding the spines with age and giving the base of the
plant a tuberculated appearance: spines from white to ashy-gray,
1 to 3 mm. long; in young plants and on lower tubercles of adult
plants about 20, equal and radiant; on flower-bearing tubercles
30 to 40, stellate-porrect in every direction, the 6 to 8 upper
ones two to four times longer than the rest (4 to 8 mm.), clavate
toward the apex and acute (the clavate top at length deciduous),
intermixed with loose wool of about the same length and forming a
small tuft on the top of the plant which includes and partly
hides flowers and fruit: flowers whitish to light pink, almost
central, very small (6 mm. in diameter), much reduced (3 to 5