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Ribs eight or nine in number, rounded, somewhat undulated, and bearing spine-tufts nearly 1 in. apart; each tuft contains about ten spines, which are almost equal in length, fine, stiff, brown, and persistent; there is a little cushion of white wool about the base of the spines.
The stem is oval, dark green, with fourteen well-defined ribs, as regular as if they had been carved with a knife. The spine-tufts are small; spines short, black-brown, about nine in each tuft, one of which is central, the others radiating; they are less than ½ in. long.
When young they bear small fleshy leaves along with the spine-tufts; but the former fall off at an early stage, whilst the spines are altered in length or number as the joints get old. In one or two kinds the spines fall away when the joints begin to harden, and in O. subulata the leaves are large and persistent.
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