314 
38. CACTACEiE. 
and attenuated to the base. Spines scanty feeble short weak 
and slender, and except from their whiteness subinconspicuous, 
5 ~f in., rarely quite 1 inch, long, though sometimes in hot ex- 
posed situations or on dwarf stunted pi. and especially on strong 
vigorous young joints thrown out from the base of the old st. 
they are more developed both in length and quantity, — single, 
or even in luxuriantly growing pi. none at all on the disk or 
middle of the joints, and for the most part only 2-3- sometimes 
4-5- rarely 6-fascicled towards or at their edges, more or less 
divaricate or deflexed, at first pale yellowish or straw-colour, 
but very soon bleaching into almost pure opake w., except at 
their tip and base, which remain subpellucid strawcolour or yel- 
lowish. The less copiously and shorter-spined state of the pi. 
passes so gradually into the more spinous, and is indeed often 
so transitory in the same individual, that although it has been 
mistaken for O. monacaniha Willd. by one botanist of the highest 
eminence, and distinguished by Webb as a var. /3, I cannot 
even follow the latter. It is indeed perhaps rather the more 
normal or at least usual form of the sp., especially as seen in 
cultivation, though Webb makes it var. (3 of the more spinous 
form, his a. But nothing can be more inconstant : not only the 
same pi. at different periods, but even different parts of the 
same pi. at the same period, exhibiting both the sparingly and 
copiously spined states. The spines, whether single or 2- or 
3-5- or 6-fascicled, spring from thick tufts of pale yellowish or 
tawny-y. bristles ( seta ) 2 or 3 lines long, like those of the fr., 
and equally penetrating and caducous on the slightest touch, 
leaving a short dense grey or whitish cottony wart or knob. 
They are renewed annually, even on the older joints, at the 
usual time of growth or flower-season, when an additional spine 
or two is also commonly put forth. Close below each tuft of 
bristles on the quite young fresh-developed joints is a small in- 
conspicuous subulate fleshy Sediform 1. 2-4 or 5 lines long, which 
almost immediately withers and falls off, and then the spines 
are developed in or close above its axils. FI. diurnal scentless 
rather large conspicuous, 2 in. in diam., produced most abun- 
dantly from the euges of the terminal joints, of a peculiar dull 
orange- or flame-red i. e. between orange-red and dark wax or 
honey-colour, appearing clearer orange-y. by transmitted light ; 
basket- or cup-snaped without any tube. Fet. erect or erecto- 
patent, set like a crown on the top alone or rim of ov., imbricate, 
the outer shorter and smaller with a broad green fleshy midrib 
at the back, or gr. altogether, the inner 1-1| in. long, 1 in. 
broad, ovate or oval retuse or notched, often sublacerate. Stam. 
much shorter than pet. ; outer fil. pale or., inner pink ; anth. 
pale y. Style as long as stam. pink upwards, pale much swollen 
towards and again contracted at the base, listulose throughout ; 
stigmas 7 or 8 pale yellowish erect connivent into a close sub- 
