106 CACTUS CULTURE FOR AMATEURS. 



trunk is a hollow cylinder, perforated with numerous holes, which 

 occur in a regular spiral. The appearance of a full-grown specimen 

 is very striking, the oval joints, thickly covered with needle-like 

 spines, hanging in clusters, more suggestive of spiny fruit than 

 branches. Requires stove treatment. 



O. boliviana. 



Stem 1 foot high, gouty, erect, branches composed of 

 roundish, pale green joints, with small, round tubercles, and long, 

 white, flexible spines, sometimes as much as 4 inches in length ; 



Pig. 54. Opuntia boliviana. 



cushions about 1 inch apart. Flowers 1| inches across, yellowish. 

 Bolivia. It often assumes a yellow hue even when in good health. 

 Requires stove treatment. (Fig. 54.) 



O. brachyairtlira. 



A dwarf -growing species, stem with short, tumid joints from 1 to 

 2 inches thick. The shortness of the joints, together with their 

 growing on the top of each other, has been not inaptly compared 

 to a jointed finger. Cushions close together, composed of short, 

 white and yellowish bristles, and stout, terete spines, 1 inch or 

 more long, set on little tubercles. Flowers 1 inch in diameter, 

 with about five sepals, nine petals, and a five-rayed stigma ; they 

 are borne on the topmost joints. New Mexico. May be grown in 

 the open, also in the cool greenhouse. (Fig. 55.) 



O braziliensis. 



Stem straight, erect, slender, firm and stiff, from K) to 30 feet 

 high, tapering from the base upwards, and furnished all the way 

 up with short, horizontal branches, candelabrum-like. Spines long, 



