52 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. CACTACEA, 
About two hundred species of Cereus are now recognized ;* they inhabit the dry southwestern 
region of North America,’ the West Indies,’ tropical South America,* and the Galapagos Islands.” At 
least four species with erect columnar stout stems may properly be considered trees; these are Cereus 
gigantcus, the tallest member of the Cactus family and an inhabitant of the arid deserts of the south- 
western territories of the United States and of Sonora; Cereus Pringle,’ a plant of Lower California, 
the islands of the Bay of California, and Sonora, which produces thicker trunks than any other Cactus 
now known; Cereus Pecten-aboriginum’ of the same regions ; and Cereus Peruvianus,’ which in the 
temperate arid parts of Peru rises to a height of forty or fifty feet. 
The fruit of several species is edible, and that of others has reputed medicinal virtues.’ The ribs 
of the woody frames of the stems of the large arborescent species are durable and are used for the 
rafters of houses and for fuel. Several of the species with cylindrical stems are planted in warm coun- 
tries as hedges to protect cultivated fields from grazing animals, and others are everywhere popular 
garden plants,” valued for their beautiful flowers, which are sometimes nocturnal and exceedingly 
fragrant. 
The generic name relates to the candle-like form of the stems of some of the species. 
1 Like other plants of the Cactus family, the species of Cereus 
are difficult to understand and limit unless studied alive, and it is 
not improbable that the number at present established by botanists 
will be reduced when they are better known. 
2 Engelmann, Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, xvii. 278 ; Bot. Mex. Bound. 
Surv. ii. 28. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 540. 
8 Grisebach, Fl. Brit. 1. Ind. 300. 
4 C. Gay, Fil. Chil. iii. 18. — Jameson, Syn. Pl. Equator. i. 260. 
5 Hooker f. Zrans. Linn. Soc. xx. 223. — Andersson, Stockh. 
Acad. Handl. 1853, 95 (Om Galapagos-Oarnes Veg.). 
6 Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xx. 368 (1885). — Sargent, Garden 
and Forest, ii. 64, f. 92. — Brandegee, Proc. Cal. Acad. ser. 2, ii. 162 
(Pl. Baja Cal.).— Vasey & Rose, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. i. 79. 
The little island of San Pedro Marten in the Gulf of California 
is covered with a forest of large trees of this Cactus, called Car- 
den by the Mexican Indians, who grind the seeds and pulp into 
flour which they wrap between corn-husks and boil into cakes. 
The ribs of the stems are used on the island for door-posts and the 
rafters of houses, and supply the inhabitants with their only fuel. 
7 Watson, I. c. xxi. 429 (1886). — Brandegee, Proc. Cal. Acad. 
ser. 2, iii, 141. — Vasey & Rose, J. c. 89. 
The bristly covering of the fruit of this tree, which produces 
trunks twenty to thirty feet high and three feet in diameter, is 
used as hair-brushes by the Mexican Indians, who also grind the 
seeds and mix them with their meal. 
8 De Candolle, Prodr. iii. 464 (1828). 
Cactus Peruvianus, Linnzus, Spec. 467 (1753).— De Candolle, 
Pl. Grasses, t. 58. 
Cactus hexagonus, Willdenow, Enum. Suppl. 32 (1813). 
® Baillon, Hist. Pl. ix. 38. 
10 Nicholson, Dict. Gard. i. 299. — Naudin, Manuel de l’Acclima- 
teur, 200. 
