ECHINOCACTUS POLYCEPHALUS. 



MANY-HEADED HEDGEHOG CACTUS. 



NATURAL ORDER, CACTACK.*:. 



EcHiNOCACTUS roLYCEPHALUS, Engelmann and Bigclow — MitUUe-sized or large, globose, at 

 last cylindric, sprouting from the base; ribs thirteen to twenty-one, acute; circular areolae 

 bearing eight to twelve stout, compressed, aiinulated, curved, reddish-gray spines; flowers 

 enveloped in a mass of dense, white wool ; petals about thirty, lance-linear, yellow ; stig- 

 mas eight to eleven, linear ; dry berry, full of large, angular seeds. (Brewer and Watson's 

 Botany of Caii/orniti.) 



HE writer of this once heard a lady of taste exclaim that 

 Nature must have been in a fitful mood when she made 

 the Cactuses. Pettishly, at first, she gave them coarse, ugly, 

 and repulsive forms ; and then, regretting this exhibition of her 

 temper, she endeavored to make amends by adorning them with 

 gorgeously colored and beautiful flowers. The lady's conceit 

 seems to be quite apt and suggestive af first sight; but a more 

 attentive study of the order of Cactacece will readily show that it 

 does not apply in all cases, although these cases may only prove 

 the rule by being exceptions. The species represented on our 

 plate is a good example of one of these exceptions ; and we 

 think that, in the faithful copy from Nature given by our artist, 

 no one can fail to see the peculiar beauty of this plant, to which, 

 as a matter of course, we must not apply the same standard of 

 measurement which we apply to ordinary flowering plants. 

 Following up the lady's idea, we might almost imagine that 

 Nature herself had thought the plant quite handsome enough as 

 it is, and that she had for this reason denied it the splendid 

 flowers which are the glory of so many other species of Cactus; 

 for the flowers of our species are comparatively small, and are 



