10 Haseltonia, No. 1, 1993 GEORGE ENGELMANN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CACTACEAE LARRY W. MITICH Division of Botany, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 In the mid-19th century, exploring parties along Carl Victor Schott accompanied Lt. Col. William the western frontier of the United States opened Hemsley Emory to the Gadsden Purchase' and vast unexplored regions to botanists. The com• likewise returned with a rich botanical collection. manders, medical doctors, and naturalists of these Engelmann (Fig. 1) was a medical doctor, well expeditions often sent their botanical specimens versed in botany, who emigrated from Germany. to Dr. George Engelmann of St. Louis for iden• In "Cacteae2 of Engelmann and Gray's Plantae tification. Thus Engelmann was presented with Lindheimerianae," in "Cacteae of Plantae Fend• a comprehensive selection of western flora; lerianae," in his contribution to Frederick A. through his meticulous taxonomy, he became the Wislizenus' 1848 Memoir of a Tour of Northern most important figure of his time in the study of Mexico in 1846 and 1847, and in two treatises American cacti, agaves, yuccas, and numerous on Cereus giganteus, he described over 100 spe• other plant groups. cies of cacti in five genera—among them a new In 1853, Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple explored genus, Echinocereus Engelmann (1848). along the 35th parallel for Pacific Railroad. Dr. Jacob M. Bigelow, the physician and botanist of the expedition, collected new plant material (some 1 A tract of 45,535 square miles, now contained in 1,200 species) and sent it to Engelmann for anal• New Mexico and Arizona, purchased for $10 million ysis. Geologist and author Dr. Ferdinand Van- from Mexico in 1853, the treaty being negotiated by diveer Hayden (1829-1887), with little financial army officer and diplomat James Gadsden (1788-1858). support, explored the upper Missouri and Yel• - "Cacteae" was used for the name of the cactus fam• lowstone regions and discovered northern cacti, ily until about 1850, when "Cactaceae" was adopted. which Engelmann described. Naturalist Arthur Fig. 1. Dr. George Engelmann, St. Louis medical doc• tor and botanist, provided one of the most important Fig. 2. Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer, a German-born contributions ever made on the Cactaceae. He also botanist, was honored in Engelmann's "Cacteae of contributed immensely to the study of agaves, yuccas, Plantae Lindheimerianae." Engelmann named Opun• and numerous other plant groups. tia lindheimeri for him. Haseltonia, No. 1, 1993 11 Fig. 3. Geologist and author Dr. Ferdinand Vandi- veer Hayden explored the upper Missouri and Yellow• Fig. 5. In 1848 Augustus Fendler explored the coun• stone regions and discovered northern cacti, which En- try around Santa Fe and Engelmann described plants gelmann described. from this journey, including Cereus (Echinocereus) fendleri, in "Cacteae of Plantae Fendlerianae." These plants comprised more than a fourth of all cacti known at that time. In just two treatises, Engelmann provided the most important con• tribution ever made on the Cactaceae. Both works were published by the United States Govern• ment in the reports of the Pacific Railroad Ex• pedition and the Mexican Boundary Survey. The first published treatise, "Descriptions of the Cactaceae Collected on Route near the Thir• ty-fifth Parallel," appeared in Lt. Whipple's re• port in Vol. 4 of Reports of Exploration and Sur• veys for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, published in Washington in 1856. In it Engelmann described six mammil- larias with seven varieties, six echinocerei with 11 varieties, six cerei with 15 varieties, and 25 opuntias with 40 varieties. It also contains de• scriptions of the saguaro {Cereus giganteus En• gelmann) and of Opuntia rafinesquei Engelmann, named in honor of Constantine Samuel Rafin- esque (1783-1840), its discoverer. While Engelmann's first treatise stimulated great interest about American cacti in the sci• Fig. 4. Engelmann named Echinocactus (Sclerocac- entific world, it appears insignificant compared tus) whipplei and Yucca whipplei for Lt. Amiel Weeks to his "Cactaceae of the Boundary," published Whipple, commander of the Pacific Railroad Expedi• 3 years later (1859) in Emory's Report of the tion. He died 7 May 1863 from wounds received in United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. the Civil War. Before the appearance of these two works, En- 12 Haseltonia, No. 1, 1993 Fig. 7. Numerous cacti were collected during Major William Hemsley Emory's military reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth, Missouri, to San Diego and on the United States and Mexican boundary survey. Engel• Fig. 6. Opuntia rafinesquei (now O. humifusa) was mann named Cereus (Bergerocactus) emoryi in his hon• named by Engelmann in honor of Constantine Samuel or. Rafinesque, a California naturalist and traveler who discovered the species. work, in Vol. 2 of Emory's report, was published in Washington in 1859 with the famous frontis• gelmann had published his Synopsis of the Cac- piece: "View of the Gila River," depicting In• taceae ofthe United States and Adjacent Regions, dians among giant saguaros (Fig. 8). Roetter based Cambridge, 1856, which mentioned and de• his drawing for this plate on a sketch by German scribed 130 species of cacti. Synopsis of the Cac- painter and author Balduin Mollhausen (Fig. 9), taceae was not illustrated, but in it Engelmann the artist of the Gadsden territory expedition. included immensely valuable information on the In "Cactaceae of the Boundary," Engelmann geographic distribution of the cacti in the United described 146 species and 186 varieties of cacti. States. His "Cactaceae of the Boundary" con• By this time, he had described the genus Echino• tained 76 magnificent steel engravings of cacti. cereus and nearly 300 species of cacti. The United States Congress, realizing the im• From the 1860's until his death, Engelmann portance of Engelmann's botanical investiga• made many contributions to cactus literature: tions, appropriated the extraordinary sum of "Cactaceae of Lt. Joseph C. Ives' exploration"; money needed to publish the Survey; it required "The pulp of cactus fruit"; "Addition to the cac• 5 years for completion. tus-flora of the territory of the United States"; Engelmann chose Paulus Roetter, a very tal• "Cactaceae of Clarence King's exploration of the ented German artist, for the enormous task of 40th parallel"; "Cactaceae of Capt. James Her- making the Survey's illustrations. In recognition vey Simpson's expedition"; and "Report upon of Roetter's service, Engelmann named Cereus United States Geographical Surveys west of the roetteri (now Echinocereus roetteri) in his honor. 100th meridian, in charge of First Lieutenant To the description he added: "I take great plea• George M. Wheeler, U.S. Engineers." sure to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Engelmann's reputation was imperishably modest and faithful artist, Mr. Paulus Roetter connected with the natural history of the Cac• who has adorned this memoir by his skillful pen• taceae, and two species were named for him: cil, by naming this species after him." Cereus [Echinocereus] engelmannii Parry, one of From Roetter's drawings, the Survey's exqui• the most beautiful of this genus; and the robust site steel engravings were made by W. H. Dougal Opuntia engelmannii Salm-Dyck (Boston Jour• in German town, D.C.; Maillard and Conner in nal of Natural History, Vol. 6, 1850). St. Louis; and several European artists—Weber Engelmann perpetuated the names of most of in Berlin; Davesne, Rebuffet, Martin Schmelz, his co-laborers and of the conductors of the var• and the Picart brothers in Paris. Engelmann's ious expeditions in which these plants were dis- Haseltonia, No. 1, 1993 13 Fig. 8. German painter and author Balduin Mollhausen, artist of the Gadsden Territory expedition, made a sketch on which Roetter based the famous illustration "View of the Gila River," used as the frontispiece in "Cactaceae of the Boundary." covered, by naming species in their honor. And Engelmann's exact and incisive work on cacti he was generous with his praise. For example, appeared in many different publications over a commenting on Opuntia wrightii (O. kleiniae), a 30-year period. In later life, he began prepara• species discovered by Charles Wright (Fig. 12), tions to journey to Mexico to study cacti in hab• Engelmann wrote that it "bears a name which is itat, with the purpose of publishing his findings forever inseparably connected with botany of our in one great work. However, illness and old age Southern Boundary." Many of the species have prevented him from carrying out his cherished since been reclassified and some names are in plan. synonymy. Many of the succulent plants which Engelmann died on 4 February 1884, just two Engelmann named are listed in Table 1. days after his 75th birthday. At this time, Pro- Fig. 11. Dr. Lawrence LeConte, entomologist, phy• Fig. 9. Balduin Mollhausen in 1854, at the height of sician, and explorer, mapped the faunal areas of much his western travels. of the West. Engelmann commemorated his name in Echinocactus (Ferocactus) lecontei. Fig. 12. Engelmann named Mammillaria wrightii and Opuntia wrightii (now O. kleineae) for Charles Wright, surveyor, teacher, and botanical explorer, who col• lected numerous plants in Texas. Asa Gray acknowl• Fig. 10. Clarence King's exploration of the 40th par• edged Wright's collecting skills in "Plantae Wrightia- allel provided new cacti for Engelmann to describe, but nae." Photo courtesy of Hunt Institute for Botanical Engelmann never named a plant for him. Documentation. Carnegie Mellon Inst., Pittsburg. Haseltonia, No. 1, 1993 15 Table 1. Cacti named by Engelmann in honor of his colleagues Genus Species Currently Named for Cereus berlandieri Echinocereus blanckii Posel• Dr. Jean Luis Berlandier (1805-1851), ger author and botanist; discovered many plants of the Lower Rio Grande. Ja• tropha berlandieri Torrey also named for him. Bergerocactus emoryi (En• Major William Hemsley Emory (1822- emoryi gelm.) Britton & Rose 1887), Director of the Mexican Boundary Survey (1850-1854) (Fig.