Tab. 7205. 

 cereus procumbens. 



Native of Mexico. 



"Nat. Ord. Cacte,e. — Tribe Echinocacte^e. 

 Genus Cereus, Haw.; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Plant., vol. i. p. 849.) 



Cereus (Echinocereus) procumbens ; humilis, caule subterete v. 4-5-gono 

 ramosissimo articulato glauco-virescente, tuberculis distinctis spiralibns 

 seu 4-5-faris, areolis parvis orbicularis, aculeis 4-7 radiantibus brevibua 

 rigidis albis apice fuscis, centrali nullo v. longiore, floribtis sub apice 

 ramoram lateralibus amplis, ovarii pulvillis sub 25 albido-villosis 

 aculeolos rigidos 6-9 breves variegatos gerentibus, sepalis tubi exte- 

 noribus 12-15 aculeoliferis, superioribus sub 15 lineari-lanceolatis 

 acuminatis,_ petalis 18-30 roseis patulis lineari-spathulatis acutis v. 

 obtusis erosis v. integris, staminibus densissimis, antheris minutis flavis' 

 stigmatibus 10-14 viridibus, bacca ovoidea, semiuibus parvulis lenti- 

 calaribus basi bilo oblongo truncatis verruculosis. 



C. procumbens, Engelm. in Plant. Fendler, 50 (1810) j Plant. Lindheim 

 pt. n. (1850) p. 203 ; Synqps. of Cartas of U. States, &c. p. 30; CacUe Mex. 

 Bound. Surv. p. 38, t. 59, f. 1-11 ; Trelease & A. Gray, Bot. Works of 

 G. Engelman, pp. 114, 120, 139, 200, t. 59, fig. 1-11 ; Young Fl. Texas, 

 p. £io. 



The beautiful plaut here figured, though undoubtedly 

 the Cereus procumbens, differs in a few points from the 

 elaborate description of the accomplished monographer of 

 North American cacti, in the larger flowers with more 

 numerous petals, rose (not violet) in colour, in the pale 

 glaucous green colour (not " perviridis "), in the great 

 length of the central spine of the pulvilli, which Engelman 

 describes as either absent or hardly longer than the radi- 

 ating spines. The only species with which it could be 

 confounded is C. Berlandieri, Engelm., a native of the 

 adjoining district of Southern Texas, but that species has 

 very narrow, almost linear, petals. 



G. procumbens is a native of the neighbourhood of Mata- 

 mores in Mexico, a town on the banks of the Rio Grande 

 del Norte, which separates Texas from Mexico, and is 

 about thirty miles from the embouchure of that river. 

 Plants of it were purchased for the Royal Gardens from 

 Mr. J. H. Erkener, of San Antonio in Texas, in 1885 

 which flowered in May of the present year. 

 November 1st, 1891. 



