very dwarf, succulent, leafless and spineless, resembling E. Caput-Medusæ; main stem globose, up to 6 in. in diam., tuberculate, thickly covered (except at the apex) with numerous radiating and ascending branches, glabrous; branches 3/4–2 in. long, 4 1/2–5 lin. thick, cylindric, tessellately tuberculate; tubercles not very prominent, rhomboid-hexagonal, with a small whitish leaf-scar; leaves rudimentary, soon deciduous; peduncles clustered at the tips of the branches, 2 1/2–4 lin. long, bearing a few bracts and 1 involucre, glabrous, withering and persisting; upper pair of bracts 1 lin. long, spathulate-obovate, ciliate; involucre 3–3 1/2 lin. in diam., very shallowly cup-shaped, scarcely 1 lin. deep, glabrous, with 5–6 glands and 5–6 transversely oblong fringed and ciliate lobes; glands not contiguous, 1–1 1/4 lin. in their greater diam., transversely oblong or elliptic-oblong, with 5–7 subulate processes 1/2– 3/4 lin. long on their outer margin, brown; stamens shortly hairy below the articulation; ovary and capsule sessile, covered with rather long spreading hairs; styles 2/3 lin. long, united for half their length into a stout 3-grooved column, with stout spreading minutely 2-lobed tips; ripe capsule and seeds not seen. null
