NAT. ORDER. 
Cactece. 
CACTUS FLAGELLIFORMIS. CREEPING CACTUS 
Class XII. Icosandria. Order I. Monogynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, superior, many-cleft. Segments, imbricate. 
Petals, numerous, inserted in several series ; the interior ones 
larger. Stigma, many-cleft. Berry, one-celled, many- 
seeded. 
Spe. Char. Leaves, fleshy and spine-like. Stem, angular, two 
edged-like. 
The sepals of this plant are numerous, usually indefinite, and 
confounded with the petals, either crowning the ovarium, or cover- 
ing its whole surface ; the petals are numerous and indefinite, 
arising from the orifice of the calyx, sometimes irregular ; the sta- 
mens are indefinite, more or less cohering with the sepals and 
petals ; the filaments are long and filiform ; anthers ovate, versatile ; 
ovarium fleshy, inferior, one-celled, with numerous ovula arranged 
upon parietal placentas, equal to the lobes of the stigma ; the style 
is filiform ; the stigmas are numerous, collected in a cluster ; fruit 
succulent, one-celled, many-seeded, either smooth or covered with 
scales, scars, or tubercles ; seeds parietal, or, having lost their adhe- 
sion, nestling in the pulp ; ovate or obovate, without albumen : 
embryo either straight, curved, or spiral, with a short, thick radicle ; 
cotyledons flat, thick, foliaceous, sometimes almost obsolete (in the 
leafless species), succulent shrubs, very variable in form; stems 
usually angular, or two-edged, or foliaceous ; leaves almost always 
wanting : when present, fleshy, smooth, and entire, or spine -like ; 
Vol iii.— 35. 
