Scolosanthus crucifer C. Wright

Scolosanthus crucifer C. Wright; Sauv. Anal. Acad. Ci. Habana
6: 126. 1869.
A densely branched shrub or small tree, the branches stout, grayish, the branchlets stout, olivaceous, papillose-scaberulous, the leaves mostly fasciculate, the spines stout, 8-15 mm. long, trifurcate at or below the middle, their lateral branches divaricate; stipules minute, deltoid; petioles 1-2 mm. long; leaf -blades broadlj' oval, oval-ovate, oval, elliptic, or obovate-oblong, 6-9 mm. long, 2.5-6 mm. wide, rounded or obtuse at the apex, rounded to attenuate at the base, rigid-coriaceous, glabrous, the nerves obsolete, above green, lustrous, the costa prominulous, beneath pale and dull, the costa prominent, the margin revolute; flowers fasciculate, short-pedicellate; calyx and hypanthium 1.2 mm. long, glabrous, the calyx-lobes semiorbicular, ciliolate, less than half as long as the hypanthium; corolla 2.5-3 mm. long, the tube strongly arapliate above, glabrous outside, the lobes rounded, very short, erect.
Type locality: Cuba.
Distribution: Dry limestone hillsides, Oriente and Matanzas, and perhaps elsewhere in Cuba.