13 



CEREUS leucaiitlms. 

 White Torch-thistle. 



ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 

 Nat. ord. Cactace^. 

 CEREUS. Botanical Register, vol. A.fol. 304. 



C. leucanthiis ; caule conico ninltangulari, costis obtusis, spinis 9-13 validis 

 subulatis patentibus fusco-griseis unico centrali subfequalibiis : lana 

 brevissima, squamis tubum floris vestientibiis minimis basi radiatim pi- 

 losis, sepalis petalisque acutissimis staminibus multo longioribus. 



C. leucanthus. Pfeiffer Cact. ji- 74. 



Ecbinocactus leucanthiis. Gillies. 



This fine plant was originally received by the Horticultural 

 Society from the late Dr. Gillies, who found it in Chili ; it 

 flowered in the Society's garden for the first time in 1831, 

 when its blossoms had not gained their full size, and again in 

 August 1836, at which time they had acquired the beautiful 

 form and colour now represented. 



The specimen in question is now between nine and ten 

 inches high, seven inches in diameter at the base, whence it 

 tapers away till its diameter is not more than three or four 

 inches. It has seventeen ribs at the base, and twenty-two at 

 the top, which are obtuse, and a little wavy, but gradually 

 disappear altogether near the ground, where the stem be- 

 comes rotmd. The spines are brownish when young, and 

 spring from the midst of a quantity of brown wool, which 

 becomes grey with age, and at last disappears ; when full 

 with from 9 to 13 in an outer row, and one in the centre, 

 grown they are rather more than an inch long, dull grey, 

 stifi^, terete, a little curved right and left from the centre, 

 which is straighter, but scarcely longer than the others. The 

 flowers are six inches long, pure white inside, but dull olive 

 green on the outside and on the top, with a tinge of pink at 

 the points of the sepals and outer petals. The apex of the 

 plant is so closely covered with wool as to look not a little 

 like a Melocactus. 



March, 1840. r 



