ra. 241 



from the uppermost joints of the stem, and above these the 

 oblong-ovate blunt cone is seated on a bare stalk-like portion 

 of the stem, one to two inches long. The stems are round, 

 succulent, pale-coloured, with about twelve slender ridges, 

 and corresponding shallow furrows, nearly smooth, the 

 siliceous particles which coat the surface being too minute 

 to impart much roughness. The sheaths are large and loose, 

 and are divided at the margin into three or four bluntish 

 lobes; their lower half or tubular portion is pale green, 

 their upper half or lobes bright russet ; they have an equal 

 number of ribs, with the ribs on the stem. The slender 

 branches, which are deflexed, grow to about a couple of 

 inches in length, and produce from their joints a series of 

 secondary branches, which grow from about half an inch to 

 an inch in length. The average height of the fertile stems 

 is about one foot. 



The barren stems are more slender and less succulent 

 than the others ; they also produce more numerous whorls 

 of branches. These grow from fifteen to eighteen inches 

 high, and are ribbed like the others, only somewhat more 

 prominently. The sheaths fit closer than those of the 

 fertile stems, but in colour and in the division of their 

 margin they resemble them exactly. The whorls of branches 



