Tas. 4707. 
CEREUS MacDona.p1. 
Mrs. MacDonald’s Great Night-flowering Cereus. 
Nat. Ord. Cactacrm.—Icosanpria Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4417.) 
Cereus MacDonaldie ; ramis elongatissimis repentibus teretibus vel obscuris- 
sime angulatis subtuberculatis, tuberculis sparsis irregularibus parvis ple- 
rumque spina brevi fusca solitaria, floribus speciosissimis, calycis tubo 
elongato striato parce squamoso, squamis parvis villosis, sepalis numerosis 
reflexo-patentibus lineari-acuminatis aurantiaceis, petalis albis lanceolatis 
erecto-patentibus acuminatis, stylo staminibus longiore. 
When our readers are informed that the flowering portion of 
the specimen here represented exhibits only half the natural di- 
mensions, they may form some idea of the vast size. of the 
flowers of this Night-blowing Cereus, for such it is, like its near 
relative the well-known Cereus grandiflorus : and certainly of the 
many floral spectacles that have gratified lovers of horticulture 
at the Royal Gardens of Kew, of late years, few have been more 
striking than this, to those who were privileged to see the blos- 
soms in bud and fully expanded. The plant was received from 
Honduras through the favour of Mrs. General MacDonald, and 
planted at the back of the Cactus-house and trailed against the 
wall ; it first showed symptoms of blossoming in July 1851. A 
casual observer might have passed the plant in this state, as 
an unusually large-flowered “ Night-blowing Cereus ;” but the 
slightest inspection of the stems and branches, and the dif- 
ferent nature of the flower-bud, the patent petals, and. above 
all the great size of the flowers, fourteen inches in diameter 
from tip to tip of the calyx-sepals, and fourteen inches long from 
the base of the calyx to the tip of the stigma, all indicate a most 
distinct species, and one which I have in vain endeavoured to 
find described in the Prince de Salm-Dyck or other authors on 
the Cactus-family. 
Dxscr. So rapid is the growth of this plant that the cutting 
APRIL Ist, 1853, 
