Translated from Otto‘s Allgem. Gartenztg. No. 49, 1845 by G. J. Swales (Latin) and E. W. Bentley (German)

Echinocactus caulo ellipsoideo cinerascente lurido-viridi vertice lanato 10 costato, costis parum convexis, pulvillis omnino confluentibus convexis nigro-tomentosis; aculeis exterioribus 5-7 radianter patulis rigidis rectis primo badiis dein cinerascentibus, infimo atque centrali solitario validioribus; floribus luteis, laciniis exterioribus lanceolato-acutis, interioribus erectis obtusis cum mucronulo.

(From the Latin)

Echinocactus with ellipsoid stem drab greyish-green, woolly at the top, 10 ribbed, ribs slightly convex, areoles entirely confluent bearing convex tufts of black felted wool; outer spines 5-7 spreading straight outwards, rigid, straight, at first chocolate brown afterwards becoming greyish; the lowermost and the single central spine more strongly growing; flowers yellow with outer petals acute-lanceolate, inner petals upright, obtuse, with very short terminal point.

(From the German)

The stem is 6½“ high, 3½“ thick, narrowed towards the top and the base, with domed crown which is furnished with dense white wool. It has ten ribs, drab ashen-green, which are rounded off towards the top but flattened nearer the base, with very obtuse grooves between. The broad areoles are almost round, flowing together and covered with black felt. The 5-7 radial spines, of which the lowest is longer and stronger, are more or less standing out in a radiating manner. The single central spine is one inch long and standing straight out; all are stiff and straight, at first chestnut brown, later going ash-grey and under the magnifying glass are seen to be marked with faint lines. The outer flower petals are upright, lanceolate, pointed and of reddish colour, becoming gradually longer and broader above; the inner flower petals are yellow, broad, blunt with a barely noticeable pointed top. The crowded filaments as well as the anthers are yellowish; the style is thick and hollow, the eleven stigma lobes yellow.

Comments
... from H. Middleditch

In regard to the "black“ areoles, no doubt the areoles would become much paler if the accumulated dirt and dust were removed by persistent energetic spraying, as commonly occurs in cultivation. The ellipsoid stem, drab grey-green epidermis, woolly crown and 5-7 radial spines appears to me to be a pretty good description for many plants which we now find labelled Copiapoa lembckei. Backeberg established this species for plants found near Caldera since he was under the mistaken impression that Echinocactus marginata came from near Antofagasta.

When Pfeiffer and Otto published Echinocactus bridgesii they also described several other plants which had been introduced at the same time by Thomas Bridges, one of which was:

EchInocactus columnaris Pfr. - Crassus, columnaris, griseo-viridis, 11 angulatus, vertice convexo, fulvo­lanato; sinubus latis, acutis; costis verticalibus, subcompressis; areolis magnis, rotundis, contiguis, tomento denso nigricante munitis; aculeis intertextis, rigidis, rectis, nigricantibus, exterioribus sub 9 (½" long.), centrali i longiore, crassiore, subpollicari - Diam. 4“, alt. 1.

This translates from the Latin as:

Stout, columnar, greyish-green, 11 angled, convex at the top, with yellowish-brown wool; grooves (between ribs? - H.M.) broad, acute; ribs vertical, almost flattened; areoles large, almost circular, touching, furnished with dense matted blackish hair; spines interwoven, rigid, straight, blackish, outer ones up to 9, 1/2“ long, central one longer, stouter, less than 1“ long. Diameter 4“, height 12“.

Here again, we have the "blackish“ areole wool which can be expected to clean up with suitable washing in cultivation. However on one and the same plant one would hardly expect to see both almost flattened (i.e. very obtuse) ribs and acute grooves between ribs. But here we have the tawny-brown wool in the crown, so common on plants found in cultivation today as C. lembckei. Normally an ellipsoid or perhaps even egg-shaped body would be associated with C. lembckei, but identical plants dispatched from Knize either under the name of Kz 72 streptocaulon or as C. lembckei display the height/breadth ratio of 3 to 1 which matches Pfeiffer‘s description of E. columnaris.

lt would appear that Bridges brought quite a number of plants back to Europe, evidently disposing of them directly or indirectly to Kew, to the Berlin Royal Botanic Garden, to Prince Salm Dyck, to Cels in Paris and Schelhaus in Germany - and possibly elsewhere. lt appears that species names based on these plants were published by a number of the recipients quite independently and quite without any joint consultation to avoid synonymy. Pfeiffer evidently came to the conclusion that his E. columnaris was synonymous with Salm Dyck‘s earlier E. marginatus, for in 1850, he published in his Abbildung und Beschreibung Bluhender Cateen, Vol. II, Plate 30:

EchInocactus marginatus S.D.
Synonym:         Echinocactus marginatus Walpers Repert V.
Echinocactus columnaris Pfeiffer Abbild u. Beschr. Cact. Vol II Part 3. 1846.

Echinocactus caule crasso, columnaris, grieseo-viridi, 10-11 costato, vertice convexo, fulvo-lanato; sinubus latis, acutis; costis verticalibus, subcompressis; areolis magnis, rotundis, contiguis vel confluentibus, tomento denso negricante munitis; aculeis intertextis, rigidis, rectis, nigricantibus, exterioribus 5-9, centrali i longiore, crassiore, subpollicari.

(From the Latin)

Echinocactus with stout, columnar, grey-green stern, grey-green, 10-11 ribs, convex at the top, with tawny wool; grooves between ribs broad, acute; ribs perpendicular, almost flattened; areoles large, almost circular, touching or blended together, provided with dense black felted hairs; spines interwoven, rigid, straight, black, outer ones 5-9, single longer, stouter, central, less than one inch long.

(From the German)

 "The same goes for this distinctive species as has been remarked about the previous one. I named it E. columnaris earlier but my description was published too late, since it had already been described as E. marginatus by Prince Salm-Dyck."

The stem has a great deal of similarity with many cereiform plants, on account of its ellipsoid-columnar appearance; its colour is a drab green and it has 10-11 fairly upright somewhat compressed ribs, separated by a broad sharp groove. The large, roundish areoles furnished with thick blackish felt stand close beside one another or blending into one another. From them stand out 6-10 straight, rigid, black-brown spines later becoming grey, of which always one in the centre is higher and stronger, like the foregoing, almost 1“ long. The outer ones, which vary in number between 5 and 9, and almost ½" long, outstanding-spreading and when 9 outer spines is the principal number - as is the case in many instances - they cross over one another. The flowers rise up from the crown, are fairly small and yellow. The outer petals are lanceolate, pointed at the top, reddish, becoming longer and broader above, the inner ones yellow, broad with hardly noticeable terminal spiny tips. Filaments generally somewhat shorter than the style which divides into 11 yellow lobes.“

In this description we can see how Pfeiffer combined the ellipsoid bodied Echinocactus marginatus S.D. having its crown covered with white wool, with the more elongated Echinocactus columnaris having the tawny wool in the crown, thereby producing a blend of the two descriptions which did not happily fit either sort. Moreover, the Plate accompanying this hybrid description shows a tall slim plant, not the tubby body of a Salm-Dyck‘s description. In this way, Pfeiffer established as early as 1850 the long-honoured practice of getting confused over Echinocactus marginatus. Some years later, Forster-Rumpler placed Echinocactus marginatus as a separate species from Echinocactus streptocaulon. But which marginatus did he mean - the tubby Echinocactus marginatus S.D.? - or the slender Echinocactus columnaris in the plate titled Echinocactus marginatus Pfeiff? - or Echinocactus marginatus Pfeiff., which is columnar in the Latin and ellipsoid in the German? - the Echinocactus marginatus S.D. with the white woolly crown or the Echinocactus marginatus Pfeiff. with the tawny wool in the crown? Here was established the practice of using for purposes of comparison an Echinocactus marginatus whose precise identity was not clearly defined, a practice followed with remarkable thoroughness by almost all subsequent authors, including Backeberg and Ritter.

In his Gesambtbg. der Kakteen, Schumann rewrites the description of this species, as follows:

Simplex semiglobosus dein columnaris lana copiosa vertice clausus; costis usque ad 15 validis acutis plus minus spiraliter tortis acutis vix sinuatis vel crenatis; aculeis radialibus vulgo 7 subulatis rectis, centralibus solitariis validioribus porrectis; floribus infun­dibuliformibus minoribus flavidis, ovario squamoso et lanuginosos.

This translates from the Latin as:

Body solitary hemis­pherical, later columnar, covered at the top with copious wool; ribs up to 15, robust, acute more or less sharply twisted spirally, barely indented to crenate; radial spines commonly 7, straight awl-shaped, solitary central spine stronger, porrect; small funneliform yellow flowers, ovary scaly and woolly.

From the German, Schumann‘s description reads:

Body hemispherical, later more globular, finally columnar, up to 40cm high, rounded top, covered with a dense cap of yellow wool; in the new growth leaf-green or darker at first, later grey-coloured, up to 11cm in diameter and even more. Ribs 12-15, divided above by short grooves, up to 1cm high, flattened below, straight, pretty sharp, not very deeply grooved between ribs. Areoles more or less 8-12mm apart, circular, 6-7mm in diameter or occasionally broadly-elliptical, furnished with a pretty long dense woolly felt soon going grey, remaining a long time and in the crown flowing into that adjoining. Radial spines 7-9 ot which the middle pair the longer, measuring up to 20mm. Central spines 1-2, both spreading, the upper one turning upwards, the lowermost the longest, measuring up to 25mm; these straight, awl-like, rigid, the former radiating, occasionally bent backwards. The spines are dark honey yellow when young, then become black at the tip, finally becoming grey.

This description by Schumann makes no mention whatsoever of areoles being close together, touching, or confluent, One could assume that Schumann had seen plants such as those we now call Copiapoa lembckei, where areoles frequently do not come close together, where spines are often dark honey-yellow, and where the crown wool can be tawny-brown and he appears to have adjusted the description of Echinocactus marginatus, which perhaps explains why his Latin his description, Schumann puts Echinocactus streptocaulon synonymous with  Echinocactus marginatus, which perhaps explains why his Latin description includes "ribs more or less acutely spiralled“ but it does not explain why his description in German omits any reference to spiralling of the ribs. In this way, Schumann continues the practice established by Pfeiffer of producing a hybrid description under the title of  Echinocactus marginatus.

When Copiapoa marginata was described by Britton and Rose in "The Cactaceae“ it was stated that "Dr. Rose, when collecting in Chile in 1914, found these plants very common on the dry hills above Antofagasta.“ Their description included the feature "usually erect, but when old often 60cm long, spreading with ascending tips.“ There seems to be little doubt that no Copiapoa which exhibits this feature can now be found anywhere near Antofagasta, as Ritter himself observes (Copiapoa streptocaulon, ex K.u.a.S., this series). In regard to an entirely different plant, Dr. Rose paid a visit to the Rimac valley in Peru where he saw plants of Espostoa (which possessed a Cephalium) growing alongside shorter stemmed Haageocereus; he subsequently described these two sorts under the one name of Binghamia, even though he saw other Espostoa growing in northern Peru and described them as such. Since he was able to make one glorious misconception in Peru, it does seem quite possible, if not probable, that Rose made another mistake either at Antofagasta or when writing up his observations. No one else before or since Rose‘s visit has described any such mocumbent plant at this location. But, even since 1920, the habitat of Copiapoa marginata has been repeatedly stated by numerous authors as "Antofagasta“. In this way, Rose made his contribution to the long-established practice of confusing the identity of Echinocactus/Copiapoa marginata. The article by Ritter (this series) also states that "Copiapoa marginata grows near Antofagasta“ but from the evidence presented (in this series), this can also be seen to be an error. In his "Die Cactaceae“ Backeberg attributed a tall Copiapoa marginata to Antofagasta, where it does not exist. When an author refers to Copiapoa marginata during a discussion, it is never clear whether he means Echiocactus marginatus Pfeiff., or Echinocactus marginatus S.D., of the Plate of Echinocactus marginatus Pfeiff., or the plant that actually grows near Antofagasta, or something else altogether.

In the Dodonaeus Journals for 1968 there were illustrated some plants found by Knize near El Cobre which he described as Kz 90 "probably identical with Copiapoa marginata (S.D.) Br. and R.“ None of these Knize plants do in fact attain the columnar growth of Copiapoa marginata (Copiapoa columnaris Pfeiff). An illustration of a similar looking plant from near Antofagasta was published by Ritter to accompany his article in K.u.a.S. which dealt with Copiapoa streptocaulon Hooker emend Ritt. Quite a number of plants which match these illustrations have been brought into cultivation from the vicinity of Antofagasta. Because of the constant repetition of the erroneous location of "Copiapoa marginata from near Antofagasta“, it appears to have escaped all post-Britton and Rose authors‘ attention that these plants from Antofagasta have never been described and named. So the whole position may well be clarified by describing these now as Copiapoa atacamensis sp. nov., the original type plant being Rose 19410 (Britton and Rose III p.87); synonyms - Copiapoa marginata (S.D.) Br. and R. pro parte; FR 205 Copiapoa echinoides (Winter catalogue 1955-1956); FR 205 Copiapoa marginata (Winter catalogue 1957 on), Copiapoa marginata sensu Ritter; Kz 72 Copiapoa echinoides (non Kz 72 Copiapoa streptocaulon Hort), Kz 90.

Having established what we are to call the plant from Antofagasta, we can now turn to the oval-ellipsoid grey-green bodied plant with grey-white crown wool and areoles touching or nearly so, which Backeberg descrlbed as Copiapoa lembckei, but which would conform with the description of Echinocactus marginatus S.D. non Pfeiffer, the latter name having priority. Hence we now have Copiapoa marginata S.D. (non Copiapoa marginata Pfeiffer non. Copiapoa marginata (S.D.) Br. and R.) synonym Copiapoa lembckei Backeberg. Little wonder that Backeberg found it easier to dream up a new name rather than have to digest all the foregoing! It is understandable that E. W. Bentley thinks that Backeberg was a menace, but on this group of plants, Backeberg seems to have been in good company.

COPIAPOA ATACAMENSIS H. Middleditch Spec. Nov.

Caule globoso vel elongato-globoso, simplex ad subprolifera, usque 5-8 (-9) capitulis; corpore usque 12cm diametro, cinerascenti viridi; costis 12-16, obtusis ad acutis, leviter crenatis; areolis confluentibus ad 15mm inter se remotis, apici fulvis lanatis, deinde nigris et denique subnudis; aculeis badiis initio, deinde mox nigrescentibus, tandem cinerascentibus; exterioribus 5-7, radians, procurrens, leviter curvatis, 10-12 mm longis, centralibus 1, 33-38 mm longis, circularis, subulatis; flore adhuc ignoto.

Habitat in collibus littoralisbus prope Antofagasta.

Typus - In Horto Botanico Noveboracum sub Nr. Rose 19410.

Globular to somewhat elongated-globular, solitary or clumping with 5 to 8 (-9) heads. Body up to 12cm in diameter, grey-green covered with grey-white coating. Ribs becoming 12-16, obtuse to acute, upright to slightly spiralling, with well-defined acute to obtuse groove between base of ribs. Top of ribs more or less rounded, barely divided into tubercles by slight depressions between areoles. Adjacent areoles usually touching but may be up to i 5mm apart. Young areoles 6-Bmm diameter, covered with soft orange-brown hairs which obscure the growing point, then becoming black and finally appearing to be almost bare. Outer spines 5-7, radiating, projecting markedly, curved backwards slightly, 10-22mm long, the lowest often the longest, together with an occasional one or two short, slender, almost bristle-like spines from the upper part of the areole; central spine one, straight, projecting outwards, 33-38mm long, round, tapering, some 1mm diam. at the base. All spines are chestnut brown in apex, rapidly becoming grey-black and then grey.

Flowers and fruit not yet known.
Type locality: coastal hills around Antofagasta, north Chile.
Type plant: Rose 19410 in New York Botanical Garden Herbarium.

(Further articles in this series, dealing with Copiapoa originally collected by Thomas Bridges, will appear in forthcoming issues of the Chileans).