Editing Eastern Prickly Pear (section)

==== Historic Information ==== 

The earliest, and the most reliable, record of ''Opuntia humifusa'' living in Beacon Falls, Connecticut comes from the George Safford Torrey Herbarium at UConn which contains a specimen of ''Opuntia humifusa'' collected by E. H. Eames on July 6, 1892.<ref name="gst-herbarium">''The George Safford Torrey Herbarium''. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, n.d. Web. 4 May 2012. <http://bgbaseserver.eeb.uconn.edu/database.html>.</ref>  The collection location is listed simply as "Beacon Falls".  Of note, the herbarium specimen includes a flower bud, indicating that the plant collected by Eames was at least healthy enough to produce flowers.

The next reference to ''O. humifusa'' in Beacon Falls appears in [[The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut, Volume 1]], published in 1896 by Sarah Johnson Prichard, which mentions that "the prickly pear is common on the summit of Beacon Hill, just south of the line of ancient Waterbury".<ref name="waterbury">Prichard, Sarah Johnson. ''The Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut''. 1. Waterbury: The Price & Lee Company, 1896. 11. Print. <http://books.google.com/books?id=U_QLAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover></ref>

Another specimen of ''O. humifusa'' can be found in the Yale University Herbarium (YPM CBS 016314)<ref name="yuh">"YPM Botany - Online Catalog." ''Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History''. Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, n.d. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://peabody.yale.edu/collections/botany>.</ref>.  There is no collection date associated with the herbarium record.  However, the collector of this specimen, H. S. Clark, was also the collector of specimens from other towns that date to 1903 and 1906.  Thus, it is likely that the collection date of this specimen is in the same general timeframe between 1900 and 1910.

The latest reference to ''O. humifusa'' living in Beacon Falls occurs in a 1910 publication, "[[Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Connecticut Growing Without Cultivation]]", authored by Charles Burr Graves.  Graves briefly mentions that ''O. humifusa'' can be found in "Naugatuck and Beacon Falls".<ref name="catalogue-1910">Graves, Charles Burr. Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Connecticut Growing Without Cultivation. 14. State Geological and Natural History Survey, 1910. eBook. <http://books.google.com/books?id=SSQwAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=opuntia&f=false>.</ref>  Graves attributes this assertion to J. K. Goodrich, though I have been unable to find any published material by Goodrich which might provide further information.