EiijjhorUa^ eupiioebiace^ (Brown). 343 



cylindric, with 6-9 broadly rounded ribs or angles, slightly pro- 

 minent on the upper part scarcely so below, and sliglitly crenate, 

 glabrous, dark dull green, with a more or less evident Avhitish 

 scurfy coating, probably produced by a thin waxy exudation; 

 leaves rudimentary, :|-| lin. long, deltoid or deltoid-ovate, acute, 

 dark brown, decicluous j spines (modified peduncles) solitary, 3-10 

 (usually 5-6) lin. long, very spreading, bearing 2 or more very 

 minute scale-like bracts, glabrous to the eye, but under a lens 

 thinly and most minutely powdery-puberulous, black ; peduncles 

 about 2 lin. long, otherwise like the spines, bearing 3 bracts and 

 1 involucre at their apex ; bracts spreading, ^-^ lin. long, ovate, 

 acute, dark purple or purple-brown; female involucre about 1]- lin. 

 m diam. and not quite 1 lin. deep, male probably larger or deeper, 

 cup-shaped, glabrous outside, rather thinly pubescent within, with 

 glands and 5 subquadrate finely toothed rather large lobes ; 

 glands not contiguous, erect in the only dried flower seen, J lin. in 

 their greater diam., transversely elliptic, not pitted ; ovary sessile, 

 glabrous ; styles united into a column 1 lin. long, with stout 

 spreading arms \ lin. lonf?, very broadlv cuneate, bilobed and \ lin. 

 broad across their stout diverging tips; fruit and seeds not seen. 



Central Rkgion : Priuce Albert Div. ; near Prince Albert, Pearson ! 



Described from a small living plant sent in 1912 to Kew by Prof. 

 H. H. W. Pearson. It is closely allied to F. hcpfagona, Linn., and similar to that 

 species in the only flower seen, but the appearance of the plant is so different that 

 I do not think it can possibly be a variety of it. The angles, instead of being 

 acute and distinctly triangular, are, in £, atrispina, merely broadly rounded 

 crenations in transverse sections, the colour of the stem is of a very dark dull 

 green, with a thin whitish scurfy or powdery coating, and the spines are black. A 

 dead plant of what I believe to be this species was subsequently sent to me by 

 Mr. Pillans from Prince Albert Div. This plant seems to indicate that E, atrispina 

 IS a dwarf species only attaining a height of 3-4 inches. 



137, E. pulvinata (Marloth in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. i. 315 

 and 31 Tj hg. 1); plant forming a dense spiny cushion-like mass 

 about 6 in. high^ composed of crowded succulent leafless spiny 

 branches, sometimes several plants are aggregated into masses 2— i ft. 

 in diam., dioecious; branches 1-5 in. long, 1-1^ in. thick, at first 

 globose, becoming cylindric, constantly 7-angled in the specimens 

 seen, very obtusely rounded at the tips with the apex slightly 

 depressed, green, glabrous ; angles subacute, slightly crenate, with 

 broad triangular furrows about 1^-2 lin. deep between them, which 

 flatten with age ; leaves rudimentary, 1 (or under cultivation 2) lin. 

 long, linear-lanceolate, acute, deciduous, leaving small white scars ; 

 spines (modified peduncles) ^-i in. long, sohtary and irregularly 

 scattered along the angles, usually l~^ in. apart, sometimes more 

 closely placed, with a few minute scale-like bracts scattered along 

 them when young, glabrous, dull red, becoming brown or grey with 

 age; involucres clustered at the apex of the branches, sessile or 

 very shortly pedunculate, in the male plant about 2 lin. and in the 

 female about 1^^ lin. in diam., shortly and broadly cup-shaped, 



