180 THE VAST. 



ill the forest tliey trail along the ground, sending forth 

 leaves at intervals, whose sheathing bases we may easily 

 recognise at what we call joints, climb to the summits of 

 trees, descend to the earth, climb and descend again, till 

 some species attain the astonishing length of twelve 

 hundred feet.* 



We are accustomed to consider the various species of 

 Cactus as petted plants for our green-house shelves and 

 cottage-windows ; yet, in our larger conservatories, there 

 are specimens which astonish us by their size. A few 

 years ago there were at the Royal Gardens at Kew, two 

 examples of Echinocactus, like water-butts for bulk; 

 one of which weighed upwards of seven hundred pounds, 

 and the other about two thousand pounds. 



The species of Cereus which with us appear as green, 

 succulent, angular stems, and bear their elegant, scarlet 

 blossoms, adorned with a bundle of white stamens, grow, 

 in the arid plains of South America, to thick lofty pillars 

 or massive branching candelabra. Travellers in Cumana 

 have spoken with enthusiasm of the grandeur of these 

 rows of columns, when the red glow of sunset illumines 

 them, and casts their lengthening shadows across the 

 plain. 



A kindred species in the Rocky Mountains of the 

 northern continent has been thus described by a recent 

 traveller : — 



" This day we saw, for the first time, the giant cactus 

 {Cereus giganteus); specimens of which stood at first 



* Rumjih., v., p. 100. 



