species botanically in the American Journal of Science and 
Arts (November, 1852), when he named it C. giganteus. 
In that account he observes that ‘‘ it is no doubt the same 
plant of which Humboldt makes mention in his work on 
_ New Spain (vol. ii. p. 225), where he says that the Spanish 
missionaries found at the foot of the Californian mountains 
nothing but sand or rocks, on which grew a cylindrical 
Cactus (Organos del Tunal) of extraordinary height.” In 
a subsequent account of the plant in the Report of 
Whipple’s Expedition on a route along the thirty-fifth 
parallel, at p. 37, doubts are expressed as to the probability 
of Engelman’s surmise being tenable, on the ground of 
Humboldt having given no other characters for his 
“Organos del Tunal” beyond its size and edible fruit; — 
but surely if it be granted, as it must be, that C. giganteus 
is the tallest of all Cacti, and bears an edible fruit, it is 
natural to suppose that it is that referred to by Hum- 
boldt’s informants, and that to this illustrious traveller 
- we owe the first allusion to its existence. 
C. giganteus inhabits the dreariest and most torrid 
deserts of the American continent, in Southern California 
and Arizona, from the William’s and Gila rivers to 
Honors, Lat. 85° t6 26% N.. There trons of ff nse 
described as “ giving the landscape a very peculiar ap- 
pearance. As far as the eye can reach, in the valleys or 
on the mountains, little else but rocky boulders, and the 
stately yet awfully sombre aspect of this Cereus can be 
seen.’ Individual plants are said to attain a height of 
sixty feet, with scarcely a branch, and nearly two in 
diameter, and as if to add to their uncomeliness the thick 
fleshy substance of the upper part frequently rots away, 
exposing a woody interior framework, which breaks up 
into a crown of brush-like fragments that wave about in 
the wind. Young plants are globose and very slow of 
growth, they are found only under the shade of the “ Green 
bark Acacia,” Cerridium floridanum, a starved bushy tree 
that is scattered over the desert. Dr. Engelman mentions 
having one such infant Cereus of this Species which he 
believed to be eight or ten years old, but which was only 
five or six inches in diameter. ? 
The flowers, which are produced when the plant attains 
