Description:—Plant 6-8 in. high in the specimens seen (12-15 in. according to Barkly), bushily branched; branches 1-1½ in. thick, with 12-15 tuberculate angles, glabrous, green, somewhat glaucous; tubercles tipped with a slender pale brown spine 3½-5 in. long; flowers 1-2 together, glabrous in all parts; pedicels ¼-½ in. long; sepals 2-2½ in. long, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate; corolla in bud hemispheric at the basal part, 5-winged above, truncate, with a short central point, when expanded 2½-3 in. in diameter, cup-shaped, about 1 in. deep, subtruncate at the margin with 5 subulate or awn-like points 1½-3 in. long, glabrous, smooth, not papillate on the central part, light yellow or pale buff, sometimes tinged with pinkish or very pale purple; tube obsolete, represented by a slight depression from which the blackish corona is exserted or its margins resting upon the rim, when dried contained in a very small cup; outer corona 1¾-2 in. in diameter, cupular, 5-lobed; lobes ¼-⅓ in. long, nearly 1 in. broad, emarginate; inner corona-lobes ⅖ in. long, oblong, obtuse, closely incumbent upon the backs of the anthers and not exceeding them, dorsally connected to the inflexed sinuses of the outer corona; follicles 4-5 in. long, 4-5 in. thick, terete-fusiform, tapering to a beak, glabrous, smooth; seeds 3-3½ in. long, 1½ in. broad, ovate, flat, with a slightly thickened margin, glabrous, smooth, light brown. Flora Capensis (National Herb. Pretoria 2592).
Plate 93.—Fig. 1, bud; Fig. 2, transverse section of stem; Fig. 3, corona; Fig. 4, pollinia.
F.P.S.A., 1923.
M. Page del.