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Stem oval in shape, broad at the base, 4 in. high, unbranched; tubercles swollen, ½ in. long, deep green, cone-shaped, becoming flattened through pressure of growth. Spines set in a tuft of white hairs, falling off from the lowest mammae, as happens in many of the thick-stemmed kinds.
There are two species of ever green shrubs which I first met with at the grand rappids of the Columbia and which I have since found in this neighbourhood also; they grow in rich dry ground not far usually from some watercourse. the roots of both species are creeping and celindric. the stem of the 1st is from a foot to 18 inches high and as large as a goosqull; it is simple unbranced and erect. it's leaves are cauline, compound and spreading. the leafets are jointed and oppositely pinnate, 3 pare & terminating in one, sessile, widest at the base and tapering to an accuminated point, an inch and a quarter the greatest width, and 3 inches & a 1/4 in length. each point of their crenate margins armed with a subulate thorn or spine and are from 13 to 17 in number. they are also veined, glossy, carinated and wrinkled; their points obliquely pointing towards the extremity of the common footstalk. The stem of the 2nd is procumbent abot the size of the former, jointed and unbranched. it's leaves are cauline, compound and oppositely pinnate; the rib from 14 to 16 inches long celindric and smooth. the leafets 21/2 inches long and 1 inch wide. greatest width 1/2 inch from their base, to which they are regularly rounded, and from the same point tapering to an accute apex, wich is mostly, but not invariably tirminated with a small subulate thorn. they are jointed and oppositely pinnate, consisting of 6 pare and terminating in one, sessile serrate, or like the teeth of a whipsaw, each point terminating in a small subulate spine, being from 25 to 27 in number; veined, smooth, plane and of a deep green, their points tending obliquely towards the extremity of the rib or common footstalk.
This is a beautiful flowering plant, more like an Echinocactus than a Mamillaria. It should be grown in a warm greenhouse all the year round. Old stems develop offsets from the base, by which the species may be multiplied. This is closely related to M. bicolor, but differs in having an unbranched stem and numerous richly-coloured flowers.
Others have a single unbranched stem, six or seven feet high, the upper part clothed with the spirally arranged leaves, and bearing a single terminal fruit ac large as a swan's egg. Others of intermediate size have irregular clusters of rough red fruits, and all have more or less spiny-edged leaves and ringed stems.
When without its star-shaped, handsome flowers, the stem is remarkably ferocious-looking, the spines upon it being quite as thick and as strong as on a hedgehog. Stem erect, 10 ft. or more high, unbranched, unless compelled to do so by the removal of the top.
In the dense and gigantic forest of Abies Brunoniana and silver fir, I measured one of the former trees, and found it twenty-eight feet in girth, and above 120 feet in height. The Abies Webbiana attains thirty-five feet in girth, with a trunk unbranched for forty feet.
In rare cases the main axis is unbranched and ends in a flower, as, for instance, in the tulip, where scale-leaves, forming the underground bulb, green foliage-leaves and coloured floral leaves are borne on one and the same axis. Generally, flowers are formed only on shoots of a higher order, often only on the ultimate branches of a much branched system.
A great authority on the botany of India suggested that it was originally introduced from the district of Papaya, in Peru, and that "papaw" is merely a corruption of that name. The tree is, as a rule, unbranched, and somewhat palm-like in form.
There is a Species of bryor which is common in this neighbourhood of a green colour which grows most abundant in the rich dry lands near the water courses, but is also found in Small quantities in the piney lands at a distance from the water Courses in the former Situations the Stem is frequently the Size of a mans finger and rise perpendicularly to the hight of 4 or 5 feet when it decends in an arch and becoms procumbent or rests on Some neighbouring plant or Srubs; it is Simple unbranched and celindric; in the latter Situation it is much Smaller, and usially procumbent. the Stem is armed with Sharp and hooked bryors. the leaf is peteolate, ternate and resembles in Shape and appearance that of the purple Raspberry common to the atlantic States.
Crowded cultures as a rule, will give weak plants with thin stems, mostly unbranched and bearing only small capsules. According to the rule, these will produce imperfect crowns of secondary pistils. The result of any culture will thus be dependent to a high degree on the number of individuals per square meter.
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