NAT. ORDER. CACTE^. - 
181 
patent ; the outer ones short, thick, and fleshy, the inner from half an 
inch to an inch long- ; slijle^ long-er than the stamens, pale yellow, 
thickish, swollen downwards, solid, or with only a thread-like, central 
liollow towards the top ; stigma of g-enerally five, sometimes four, pale- 
yellow, finally ferrug-inous bordered, erect, subconnivant, ovate lobes ; 
filaments and anthers pale ; germen half or three-quarters of an inch 
long', cup-shaped at top, uneven, bearing- a minute, fleshy, ovate-g-lobose, 
yellowish, deciduous leaf at the summit of each irregular tubercle, in- 
side of which is a fascicle of short, minute, chestnut bristles ; a verti- 
cal section discovers the central, subtriangular, cell-like ovarium, con- 
taining" from one to five ovules ; fruit subglobose, approaching- to oval 
more or less, with the cup-shaped hollow at the top obsolete, so as to 
be often truncate, from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, the 
color of a Magnum-bonum Plum ; perfectly even, but furnished with 
short, dense fascicles, tufts, or branches, of rich chestnut-colored 
bristles, contrasting- beautifully with the delicate transparent yellow of 
the thin, smooth skin ; a few of these are twice as long- as the rest ; 
all are extremely deciduous, brittle, and acute, so as to render the ex- 
amination of the fruit more than ordinarily troublesome. It is hardly 
possible to touch the plant when in fructification v/ithout g-etting the 
skin or clothes full of these bristles ; inside of the fruit pale yellowish- 
white, containing- in the middle from one to four, much flattened, rather 
larg-e round seeds, three or four lines in diameter, enveloped in a sin- 
g-ular, dense, cottony mass of fibres ; the fruit is rather ag-reeable, juicy, 
with a fine acid, somewhat resembling- an indifferent, hard-fleshed, or 
unripe Plum, with a smell and slight flavor like the leaf-stalks of g-ar- 
den Rhubard. Its principal flowering- season is May and June. 
