bia is represented by a hundred or more species in Central 
America, the headquarters of the Cactacez, the sections 
Diacanthium and BLuphorbium of the genus Huphorbia, 
which simulate the Cactacez so closely, are not repre- 
sented in that region. 
Descr.—A fleshy, erect or straggling, thornless shrub, 
one to two feet high. Stems and branches usually 
cylindrical, clothed with spirally arranged, fleshy “* poda- 
ria” or leaf-bases. eaves minute, ovate, acute, scarcely 
a twelfth of an inch long, falling soon after development. 
Peduncles short, bearing a single head of flowers. Invo- 
lucre campanulate; lobes white, hairy, fringed; glands 
fleshy, two-lobed ; lobes crenulate, Stamens (male flowers) 
interspersed with plumose filaments. Ovary hairy; style 
glabrous; stigma broadly three-lobed; lobes crenulate. 
Seed-vessel unknown.—W. B. H. ~ 
Fig. 1, an inflorescence; 2, part of involncre laid open; 8, an involucral 
gland; 4, one of the feathery filaments which are interspersed with the male _ 
flowers; 5, a male flower; 6, a female flower and bases of stalks of male 
sro th el enlarged; 7, whole plant, as it was when drawn :—about half 
natural size. : 
