OPUNTIA. 



205 



10 cm. wide, i to 1.5 cm. thick, light green; branchlets obliquely lanceolate, obtuse, as wide as 

 the branches, but shorter, i cm. thick or less, floriferous at and near the apex; areolcs of the older 

 branches pitted, about i cm. apart, those of very young shoots slightly elevated, the glochids very 

 short, yellowish brown; spines of the trunk 15 cm. long or less, very numerous and densely clothing 

 the trunk, very slender, gray, mostly strongly reflexed, pungent, those of the branches and branch- 

 lets restricted to the areoles on their edges, shorter than those of the trunk but similar, purple when 



Fig. 257. — Opuntia macracantha 



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FiG. 258. — Opuntia spinosissima. 



fruit 



acute 



wme; sepals tlesUy, ovate, acute, 4 mm. lun^ an^ .— , r-- oKr^it oq Inn^r ac the corolla- 



nulate, about 4 mm. wide; stamens half as long as the corolla; style about as long as t^^^ ^^r^^^^^ 

 stigma-lobes oblong, yellowish crimson; fruit compressed-obovoid, 2 cm. long, 1.5 cm. thick, 

 ing one or two spines at most of the areoles. 



