a stout succulent leafless bush, 2–6 ft. high, much branched from the base, armed with very long spines; branches erect or ascending, very deeply constricted into subsagittate-ovate or sagittate-reniform segments 2–5 in. long and 2–6 in. in diam., 3-angled, with the solid central part 3/4–1 lin. thick, glabrous, green, not glaucous; angles wing-like, 1–2 1/2 in. broad and 1/6– 1/4 in. thick, wavy, with continuous horny greyish-white margins; leaves rudimentary, minute, scale-like; spines very stout, 1/2–2 1/2 in. long and 1–2 lin. thick at the base, in pairs 1/2–1 1/4 in. apart, widely diverging, greyish or pale brown; flowering-eyes seated midway between the spine-pairs; involucres 3 together, all sessile, or with peduncles not more than 1/3 lin. long (but possibly ultimately elongating), 2 1/2 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, glabrous, with 5 glands and 5 subquadrate denticulate lobes; glands contiguous, 1–1 1/3 lin. in their greater diam., transverse, subreniform-oblong, entire, rugulose on the upper surface, yellowish; ovary and capsule not seen, all the involucres being male. null
