a much-branched succulent shrub or shrublet, leafless and spineless; branches and branchlets all opposite or forking, more or less constricted or jointed at their origin, diverging from each other at an angle of not more than 60°–75°, fleshy when young, glabrous; leaves rudimentary, deciduous, scale-like, opposite, sessile, spreading or with abruptly recurved tips, 1/2 lin. long and more in breadth, very broadly deltoid, acute, scarcely channelled, glabrous; cymes terminal, 1/2–1 in. in diam., formed of 2 diverging branchlets 1/4– 1/2 in. long, each once or twice forking into shorter branchlets, the ultimate bearing 3 involucres; bracts shorter than the involucres, scale-like, 1/2 lin. long, deltoid-ovate, acute or subobtuse, glabrous; involucres sessile, 3/4 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, glabrous, with 5 glands and 5 minute oblong or spathulate-oblong slightly ciliate lobes; glands 1/4 lin. in their greater diam., transversely oblong or elliptic-oblong; ovary ellipsoid, trigonous, narrowing at the apex, glabrous; styles 1/3– 2/5 lin. long, united at the basal half, ascending-spreading above, with bifid tips; capsule about 1 1/2 lin. long and 1 1/3 lin. in diam., trigonous, exserted just beyond the involucre; seed about 1 lin. long, pyramidal, subtruncate at the base, obscurely 4-angled, densely covered with very minute whitish tubercles on a dark brown ground. null
