g their edges. The flowers are
freely produced from the woolly apex; the tube is scaly and brown, and
the petals are arranged like a saucer about the cluster of
orange-coloured stamens. The colour of the petals is bright yellow, and
the width of the flower is nearly 3 in. This plant is a native of Mexico,
and is usually cultivated in a tropical temperature, but it would
probably thrive in a warm greenhouse. It flowers in summer. As we have
stated, large specimens do not live long in this country; and as the
flowers are only borne by such, the plant, except only for its stems, is
not to be recommended for ordinary collections.

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--ECHINOCACTUS VISNAGA.]

E. Williamsii (Williams's); Bot. Mag. 4296.--A very distinct dwarf
species, often called the "Dumpling Cactus," from the puffed-out, tumid
appearance of its stems, which frequently branch at the base, so as to
form a tuft of several heads; these are turbinate, 3 in. or 4 in. high,
and 2 in. across the top, where the smooth, pale green flesh is divided
into about half-a-dozen rounded tubercles, pressed closely together, and
suggesting a number of small green potatoes joined by their bases. Each
tubercle bears several tufts of short hairs. The flowers proceed from
the young tubercles near the centre of the crown, their bases being
enveloped in pale brown wool, the petals spreading out daisy-like to the
width of 1 in., with a short disk of stamens in the middle; they are
white, tinged with rose, and are developed in the summer months. Native
of the rocky hills of Mexico, whence it was introduced in 1845. The
stems of this plant are its most distinctive feature. It thrives on a
shelf in a warm greenhouse, if kept perfectly dry in winter, and it
should be potted in a compost consisting of broken brick two-thirds,
loam one-third.

E. Wislizeni (Wislizen's); Fig. 49.--A large-stemmed kind, second only
in size to E. Visnaga. Young plants have depressed stems, those in older
specimens being cylinder-shaped. A specimen at Kew is 8 in. high by 18 in.
in diameter, with twenty-one ridges, which are regular and sharp-edged,
and bear bunches of spines at regular intervals, the outer and shorter
ones being spreading and white, whilst from the middle of each tuft
arise four longer and stouter spines, three of them 2 in. long, and one
3 in., with the point hooked, and as strong as if made of steel. The
flowers, which are developed only on large plants, are greenish