Note 11 — BOTANICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF PEYOTE

From the middle of the last century there has raged an acrimonious debate as to whether there are two varieties of peyote corresponding to Anhalonium williamsii and A. lewinii. The former, it was contended, had seven or eight straight ribs and lacked most of the alkaloids of the latter, which had more numerous (twelve or more) sinuous ribs. This long, somewhat nationalistic debate may be regarded as ended since Rouhier (Monographie, 67) in 1926 figured a bicephalous plant on the same root, one head being a true williamsii, the other a perfect lewinii. It is apparent that the lewinii “variety” is merely an older plant, which often takes the williamsii aspect in its younger stages of growth; the more numerous alkaloids of the former more mature plant is likewise purely a growth-phenomenon, as are the rib-configurations and mammillations, though environmental and seasonal conditions may be involved as well.