succulent, spineless, but the branches beset with ascending or suberect hardened remains of peduncles, not spines; only dried branches seen, 3 1/2–8 in. long, 5–8 lin. thick, probably much stouter when alive, cylindric, slightly thickened upwards, covered with elongated subrhomboid tubercles 1/4– 1/2 in. long, 1 1/2–2 lin. broad, and about 1 lin. prominent, glabrous; leaves suberect, 1–1 1/2 in. long, 1–2 lin. broad near the obtuse or acute apex, tapering gradually to the base, linear-spathulate, entire, fleshy, glabrous; peduncles solitary in the axils of the tubercles at the tips of the branches, suberect, 1/2–1 3/4 in. long, glabrous, bearing 5 bracts and 1 involucre at the apex; bracts 2–3 lin. long, 1–2 1/2 lin. broad, obovate, obtuse or rounded at the apex, about 3 of them pubescent on the back and ciliate, glabrous within, the others glabrous on both sides and scarcely ciliate; involucre about 7 lin. in diam., broadly cup-shaped, villous-pubescent outside, glabrous within, with 5 glands and 5 rather large subquadrate ciliate lobes, fringed-toothed at the top; glands 2 1/2 lin. long and 3 1/2–4 lin. broad across the tips, broadly cuneate, palmately divided to two-thirds of the way down into 5–7 primary linear forked segments, with very shortly bifid or trifid tips, villous-pubescent on both sides, but with a transverse excavated glabrous gland at the base of the united part, apparently purplish, tips of the segments white; ovary subsessile, included in the involucre, glabrous; styles 2 lin. long, exserted, united almost to the apex into a slender glabrous column articulated close to the base, minutely trifid at the apex; capsule subsessile, about 5 lin. in diam., globose-trigonous, glabrous; seeds 2 lin. long, subterete, slightly conical, truncate at the base, very abruptly and shortly conic-acute at the apex, very rough with minute irregular tubercles, grey. null
