Descr. This curious plant forms a succulent mass, twelve or 

 fifteen inches high, and ten inches in diameter ; in the generality 

 of our specimens, of a dark and rather lurid green colour, ovate 

 in form, cut into from twelve to twenty deep furrows, and as 

 many rather acute angles, which are armed with a regular series 

 of stellated spines, about five in number (exclusive of lesser aculei 

 or bristles) ; and of these five, the three lower ones are the 

 largest. They scarcely exceed three lines in length, and are of 

 a dusky brown colour. On the summit of this large, ovate, 

 leafless stem, is a cylindrical crown, not half the breadth of the 

 stem, and from three to five inches in height, composed externally 

 of innumerable reddish-brown, compact, rigid, acicular bristles ; 

 and within, of a mass of a pale, whitish, cotton-like substance. 

 The upper half exhibits some transverse lines, which appear to 

 indicate a periodical growth. In the summit of these, the flowers 

 are produced, and half imbedded. They are small, red, fleshy, 

 cylindrical, or a little swollen below ; above, divided into a 

 number of spreading and subreflexed narrow segments : the calyx 

 and corolla being combined into one perianth. Anthers numer- 

 ous, sessile, inserted upon the throat of the perianth. Germen 

 inferior, oval. Style reaching to the mouth of the perianth, and 

 there dividing into six or seven filiform styles. Fruit, a small 

 oval, red berry, containing numerous small, black, shining seeds. 

 The noble Cactus here figured differs from Melocactus 

 of authors in its truly ovate, not rounded and somewhat de- 

 pressed, form ; and it may perhaps be deemed worthy to con- 

 stitute a distinct species. It has many times been imported from 

 the island of St. Kitt's, to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens by 

 Capt. Mac Arthur. It grows in very dry and barren places, 

 often on bare porous rocks, into which its tortuose roots pene- 

 trate, if they do not derive nutriment from it. Its increase in 

 size is very slow. The inhabitants of St. Kitt's have observed 

 plants for a long period of years to make no apparent progress, 

 and tradition estimates the age of some of them at from two to 

 three hundred years. When the head is by any accident broken 

 off, a cluster of new Cactuses springs up from the wound, and 

 by removing and planting these, the plant may be increased. 

 Care must be taken that the pots be well drained, for this species 

 is very impatient of moisture. 



De C andolle mentions a var. " oblongus " of Link and Otto, 

 but that is described as being only six inches high, and three and 

 a half broad ; whereas our's reaches a gigantic size, and is always 

 elongated. From Jamaica, we have lately received a Melo- 

 cactus, with a comparatively small, rounded, and depressed 

 stem, which is probably the M. communis, a, of De Cand. and the 

 "Turk's Caps " of Sloane, and which in the Windward Islands, 

 we are told in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Nat. have received 

 the name of " Englishmen 's Heads.' 1 



A. Melocactus communis, reduced to one-third of its nat. size. Fig- ' 

 Flower. 2. The same, laid open to show the Style and Stamens.— Magntfle . 



