Tas. 8426. 
CEREUS Srvvesrrnu. 
Argentine Republic. 
CAcTACEAE. Tribe EcHINOCACTEAE. 
Crnevs, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 849. 
Cereus Silvestrii, Speg.in Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, vol. xi. 
p. 483; affinis C. procumbenti, Engelm., sed caulibus gracilioribus, pulvillis 
confertioribus, spinis numerosioribus et gracilioribus, floribus minoribus et 
miniatis differt. 
Herba; caules prostrati vel centrales adscendentes, 3-10 em. longi, 9-14 mm. 
crassi, 8-angulati, pallide virides; pulvilli 1-5-2°5 mm. sejuncti; aculei 
16-20, setacei, 1-5-2 mm. longi, albi. Flores laterales, erecti, infundibuli- 
formes ; tubus 2°5-8 cm. longus, rectus, apice 9-10 mm. diametro, rufescens, 
squamis ovatis acutis perparvis longe pilosis laxe obtectus; segmenta 
3-4-seriata, patula, 1-3-2 cm. longa, 4 mm. lata, lanceolata, acuta, pulchre 
miniata. Stamina inclusa; filamenta rubra; antherae ochroleucae. Stylus 
ochroleucus, stigmatibus 8-9.—N. E. Brown. 
The very beautiful Cereus which forms the subject of our 
plate is a native of Argentina, where it was originally 
discovered in the provinces of Tucuman and Salta by Dr. 
Philipp Silvester, in whose honour it was named. A 
member of the group of forms to which belongs C. procum- 
bens, Kngelm., figured at t. 7205 of this work, it is readily 
distinguished from that species by its more slender stems, 
its more closely approximate cushions of spines, the spines 
themselves being smaller; it differs also in having smaller 
flowers which are very unlike those of C. pubescens in colour. 
The plant which supplied the material for our illustration 
was purchased in the spring of 1911 for the Kew collection 
from Messrs. Haage & Schmidt, of Erfurt. In the catalogue 
of this firm a figure of the plant is given; that figure 
represents it as a compact many-stemmed herb of semi- 
dependent habit growing in a hanging pot. At Kew it 
flowered freely in May, 1911, in the house devoted to 
succulent plants, The elegance and the bright orange- 
scarlet colour of its flowers, exceptional in the genus, fully 
Maron, 1912, 
