drawing, which was made in June, shows the earliest stage of 

 the inflorescence, when a single involucre terminates each flower- 

 ing branchlet. The plant is still in flower in the Cactus-house, 

 and now each branchlet bears an umbel of three rays. The 

 plant is especially remarkable for the curious successive produc- 

 tions of the staminate flowers, of which one or two appear the 

 first day and wither away, to be succeeded next day by about 

 four more ; when these have withered, several more appear in 

 succession on the third and fourth days. 



Fig. 1. Greatly reduced drawing of whole plant. 2. Part of a flowering 

 branchlet. 3. Leaf of barren branch with its podarium :— nat. size. 4. Invo- 

 lucre. 5. Stamen and fimbriated scale: — magnified 



