196 



THE CACTACEAE. 



/ 



J 



3 soon dropped out. 

 develoD lone terminal 



some 



first collected by R. H. Peters in 1907. It was again 

 Quirigoa in 1 9 1 2 , who sent living plants to Washingt 



Mrs 



September 27, 1917, and in 1920 Harry Johnson sent us living specimens from Guate- 



mala 



Illustration: 



lectcd by R. H. Peters in Guatemala 

 specimen, photographed in Washingt 



J. Dyer sent from Honduras what seems to be thi; 

 U. S. Nat. Herb. 16: pi. 69, as Hylocereus minutifl> 



owering branch of the type specimen, 



igure 



Fig. 272. — Wilmattea minutiflora. Xo.6. 



SELENICEREUS 



909 



Slender, trailing, climbing or clambering, elongated cacti, the joints ribbed or angled, irregu- 

 larly giving off aerial roots ; areoles small, sometimes elevated on small knobs, bearing small spines 

 or in one species spineless ; flowers large, often very large, nocturnal ; flower-tube elongated, somewhat 

 curved; scales of ovary and flower-tube small, usually with long felt, hairs and bristles in their axils; 

 upper scales and outer perianth-segments similar, narrow, greenish, brownish, or orange; inner 

 penanth-segments broad, white, usually entire; filaments elongate, weak, numerous, in two clusters 

 distinctly separated, one cluster forming a circle at top of flower-tube, the other scattered over the 



long, slender throat; style elongated, thick, often hollow; stigma-lobes slender, numerous, entire; 



fruit large, reddish, covered with clusters of deciduous spines, bristles, and hairs. 



Type species : Cactus grandiflorus Linnaeus. 



The name is from the Greek and signifies moon-cereus, the plants beine nisht-blooming. 



clambering 



shrubs 



of them have very large flowers; in fact, one of the largest flowered species of the family 

 macdonaldiae) belongs here. Several of the species, such as 5. hamatus. S. 



Most 



pte 



grandifl^ 



amateurs 



In our studies of the genus we have had several hundred growing 

 representing all the species, and specimens of all have bloomed. 



from southern Texas through eastern Mexico, Central 



America, the West Indies and along the northern coast of South America 



from Argent 



ecognized 



