362 Key to the System of 



1590. Almost glabrous. 



A nearly herbaceous forest-plant, somewhat tall or depressed; 

 prickles reddish-yellow, numerous all over the plant ; 

 leaves rather large, quite thin, in outline from almost 



. ovate to lanceolar-elliptical, acutely lobed ; flowers in 

 often short racemes or sometimes reduced to two or even 

 only one ; corolla violet, beset with stellular hairlets out- 

 side ; fruit spherical', whitish- and green-mottled outside. 



S. armatum. 



Beset with stellular hairlets 1591 



1591. Vestiture consisting of mostly scattered hairlets. 



A nearly herbaceous forest-plant, never tall ; prickles 

 reddish-yellow, numerous all over the plant ; leaves 

 rather large, thin, from roundish- to elliptic-ovate, with 

 usually short acute lobes ; flowers two together or solitary, 

 without any stalk to the stalklets ; corolla violet ; fruit 

 yellowish outside. S. pungetium. 



Vestiture consisting of mostly close-approximated 

 hairlets ... 1592 



1592. Prickles numerous all over the plant. 



A dwarf nearly herbaceous desert-plant, beset with a thin 

 somewhat velvet-like vestiture ; prickles reddish-yellow ; 

 leaves in outline from almost ovate to elliptical, sinuous- 

 pinnatifid, above soon nearly glabrous, their lobes blunt ; 

 flowers few in each raceme or only two together ; corolla 

 deeply cleft into acute lobes ; fruit globular, yellowish 

 outside. S. lacunarium. 



Prickles scantily dispersed over the plant or almost 

 absent. 



A dwarf herbaceous desert-plant, beset with a very thin 

 somewhat velvet-like vestiture ; prickles short, reddish- 

 yellow, occasionally quite absent ; leaves from ovate- to 

 narrow- or lanceolar-elliptical, entire or towards the base 

 slightly sinuous ; flowers few in each raceme or only two 

 together ; corolla violet, short-lobed ; fruit rather small, 

 yellowish outside. S. esuriale. 



X.YCXTT1K. 



1593. Leaves small, turgid and carnulent. 



A rather dwarf desert-shrub, glabrous; branchlets rigid, 

 spinescent ; leaves slightly compressed, broadly clavate, 

 often somewhat clustered, almost succulent ; flowers 

 small, solitary, their stalklets about as long as the calyx ; 

 corolla white, violet-streaked, its tube much longer than 

 its lobes ; stamens of unequal length, all enclosed ; fruit 

 ovate-globular, bright-red outside. L. Australe. 



