sinuous angles, its more distant and less marked constric- 
tions, and its shorter spines. Like the other species of 
Euphorbia which share its habit, it grows very slowly, but 
it flowers freely every year in late autumn under ordinary 
tropical conditions, : 
_Descriprion.—Shrub, succulent, branching, soon leafless, 
3 ft. or more high, quite glabrous. Branches sharply 5-7- 
angled, 14-3 in. thick, slightly narrowed at intervals of 
from 3-8 in.; angles not or only slightly and at intervals 
hardened along the edge; grooves between the angles 
rounded concave. Leaves minute and scale-like, } lin. long, ° 
1 lin. wide, wide rounded, soon disappearing. Spines in 
pairs, divergent, 2—4 lin. long, brown at first but becoming 
ash-grey, the pairs 4-3 in. apart. Cymes bearing each 
three involucres, usually several in each axil, clustered, their 
stalks about 1 lin. long; bracts scale-like, 1-1 lin. long, 
wide rounded or oblong and slightly truncate, minutely 
denticulate at the tip. Involucres 14-2 lin. long, obconic, 
truncate, glabrous, yellow; central male; lateral bisexual ; 
glands transversely oblong, entire, about } lin. long, 3 lin. 
wide ; lobes quadrate, fimbriately toothed Ovary glabrous; 
style trifid to the middle, its arms thick, linear, obtuse and 
emarginate or shortly bifid at the tip. 
Fig. 1, a cyme; 2, longitudinal section of an involucre ; 3, lobe of involucre; 
4, male flower, with bracteoles ; 5, entire plant, showing habit :—1-4 enlarged, 
5 much reduced. 
