15. Cereus Lagenaeformis Förster
(Bottle shaped Candle Cactus)
Taken from Förster in the 1861 Hamburger Garten- und Blumenzeitung pp 164-165
[Original description]
Type specimen:
One hefty/vigorous ["kräftiger"] European clone, abundantly 12 inch tall, 2 - 3/4 inch and 1 - 1/2 inch in diameter on the thickest and weakest points respectively, erect, actively/vitally light green, robust, 6 ribbed.
Ribs:
Broad/wide, tumescent and rounded; blunt/dull.
Furrows:
spreading outward. Starting from the furrows, delicate and angularly upwards pointed halos
are developing by the formation of a delicate bluish frost on the sides of the ribs which joins/flows together into bent trails.
Areoles are 6-8 Lines [0.6-0.8"] apart from each other and only sparsely covered with grey wool.
Spines:
Partially colored completely horn brown during Adolescence, partially colored completely black brown, overall and within a single areole, later on all are colored in a greyish brown, erect, awl-shaped, very short (the longest 2 Lines [0.2"] long).
Radial spines:
5-6.
Central spines:
Either absent or 1, only present on older Areoles.
This first-rate beautiful species belongs to the Group of the Angulati Pruinosi,
and resembles on the first glance Cereus Bridgesii, but from which it differs not only by the peculiar candle-like growth, which is shown especially in the first year but also by the lighter much more active skin coloration, much shorter spines and more closely spaced areoles.
The Type of Cereus Bridgesii Salm, to which I contrasted it, derives from the rich collection of His Highness the Prince of Salm-Dyck, is more than 2 Foot tall and only has 5 ribs.
The Fatherland of this gorgeous plant is Peru. -
(Price 2 taler [thaler])
Note that this description compares it to the Type of Cereus bridgesii but Foerster does not actually designate any meaningful source data for his Type specimen nor does it mention the existence of an herbarium voucher for lagenaeformis.
To repeat this in different words, Förster's "Type" for lageniformis was a sterile horticultural clone including no origin data other than "Peru".
Ritter's designated Types have been regularly dismissed for having far less problems than this. Preservation of such descriptions is a common cause of the problems readily encountered with the Echiniopsis merger. Grandfathering in such inadequate descriptions and permitting them to serve as part of the basis for a system of naming and classification is poor methodology and shoddy science at best.
My thanks to Patrick Noll for his efforts in creating this translation, also to Martin Terry for help with some of the more problematic passages and last but not least to the Interlibrary Loan Service for persisting through the extreme efforts required to obtain a copy of this paper.
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