glabrous face, persistently white-lepidote on the] back, 
armed on the margin with close hooked pungent stra- 
mineous spines. Flowers very numerous, forming a dense 
globose nearly sessile central head two or three inches in 
diameter; outer bracts ovate-cuspidate, spine-margined, 
slightly tinged with red; inner oblanceolate-oblong, white, 
scariose, shorter than the calyx, Ovary clavate-trigonous, 
glabrous, under an inch long. Calywz-segments lanceolate, 
white, as long as the ovary. Petals lanceolate, bright pink, 
an inch long. Stamens longer than the petals; anthers 
linear-oblong, spreading, bright yellow. Style overtopping 
the stamens; branches very short.—J. G. Baker. 
Fig. 1,’ a complete flower; 2, lepidote scale; 3, petal and two stamens; 
4, vertical section of ovary; 5, apex of style and its branches :—all more or 
less enlarged, 
+ 
