Tap. 4559. 
ECHINOCACTUS VisnaGa. 
Visnaga or Monster Cactus. 
Nat. Ord. Cactace®.—IcosaNDRIA Mono@ynNIa. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4124.) 
Ecurnocactus Visnaga ; tranco maximo late elliptico multangulato sinubus an- 
gustis profundis angulis sinuato-tuberculatis, vertice lanatissimo, areolis 
approximatis rhomboideis umbilicato-immersis glabris pallide fuscis, aculeis 
validis 4, centrali erecto longo (biunciali), reliquis 3 deflexis brevioribus, 
floribus copiosis, ovario elongato densissime lanato superne aculeis mollibus 
sparsis, petalis serratis flavis. 
Ecuiocactus Visnaga, Hook. in Ill. Lond. News, for 1846, with a figure, aid 
in Kew Garden Guide, ed. 7. p. 53. 
Ecurnocactus ingens, “ Zucc.” Pfeiff. Enum. Oact. p. 54 et 180? Salm-Dyk, 
Cact. p. 27? (name only). 
One of the most remarkable plants in the Cactus-house of 
the Royal Gardens of Kew, and that which chiefly attracts the at- 
tention of strangers, is the subject of the present plate. It bears 
the name of Visnaga with us (Visnaga means a tooth-pick among — 
the Mexican settlers, and the plant is so called because * that 
little instrument is commonly made of its spines), and under 
that name, believing it to be a new species, we had described it 
and it was figured in the ‘Illustrated News’ for 1846. I had, 
at one time, been disposed to refer the species to the Fchino- 
cactus ingens, of which a brief and most unsatisfactory cha- 
racter is drawn up by Pfeiffer (for Zuccarim does not appear 
to have noticed it) from some “dried flowers,” and a hving 
Specimen “ six inches high ;” but it can scarcely be that, for the — 
angles of the plant are said to be eight, the aculei nine in a~ 
cluster, and the petals obtuse. Our plate, at fig. 1, represents” 
a very diminished figure of a specimen unfortunately no longer 
existing, but which in 1846 was an inmate of our Cactus-house, 
and apparently in high health and vigour. Its height was 
nine feet; and it measured nine feet and a half in circumference : — 
its weight a ton! After a year of apparent health and vigour, 
JANUARY Ist, 1851. 
