four to five feet long, dark-green, narrow-lanceolate en si- 

 form, one inch broad, concave, not keeled nor striate, with 

 rather distant spines on the margins, which are recurved, 

 gradually tapering to the acuminate apex. Head of flowers 

 axillary, short,' very many-flowered, sunk amongst the leaves 

 near the crown or at the side of the stem, much depressed. 

 Bracts longer than the flowers, erect subulate-lanceolate, 

 spinous-ciliate, whitish, with greenish tips, and brown across 

 the middle. Flowers pale rose-red, an inch and a half long. 

 Ovary smooth. Sepals dimidiate-lanceolate, with often a deep 

 tooth on one side. Corolla tube rather shorter than the linear- 

 oblong, obtuse lobes, which have a thickened two-lobed scale 

 or two tubercles at the base. Filaments subulate, compressed. 

 Anthers linear, with a terminal mucro. Stigmas three, linear- 

 subulate, hardly twisted. — J. D. H. 



Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Corolla tube, lobe, and stamens. 3. G-ermen :— all 

 slightly magnified. 



