C A C 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C A C 



219 



sort frequently flowers in July, and in warm seasons will 

 perfect its fruit, which has very little flavour in this country, 

 but is frequently served up at table in the West India islands. 

 See the third species. 



9. Cactus Lunuginosus ; Woolly Upright Torch Thistle. 

 Erect, long, with about nine angles; angles obsolete ; spines 

 shorter than the wool. This is very spiny ; the spines, espe- 

 cially the younger ones, have a brownish wool upon them ; 

 the fruit is of the size and form of a hen's egg, red on the 

 outside, and without spines. A native of America. See the 

 third species. 



10. Cactus Peruvianus ; Peruvian Upright Torch Thistle. 

 Erect, long, with about ten bluntish angles. The stem is 

 a fathom or more in height, almost simple, two or three inches 

 in diameter, blunt at the end, having ten deep angles, set with 

 thorns, crowded eight orten together, about an inch in length, 

 spreading, the inner ones shorter, tomentose at the base. 

 Berry blood-red within, eatable. Native of dry situations on 

 the coasts of Peru and Jamaica. See the third species. 



11. Cactus Royena ; Royen's Upright or Nine-angled 

 Torch Thistle. Erect, jointed, nine-angled ; joints subovate ; 

 spines equal in length to the wool. See the third species. 



*** Cereuses creeping, with roots from the sides. 



12. Cactus Grandiflorus ; Great Night-flowering Creeping 

 Cerevs. Creeping, with about five angles. This species, 

 when arrived to a sufficient strength, will produce many 

 exceedingly large, beautiful, sweet-scented flowers ; like 

 most of this kind, of very short duration, scarcely conti- 

 nuing six hours full blown ; nor do the flowers ever open 

 again when once closed. They begin to open between seven 

 and eight o'clock in the evening, are fully blown by eleven, 

 and by three or four in the morning they fade, and hang 

 down quite decayed ; but during their short continuance, 

 there is scarcely any flower of greater beauty, or that makes 

 a more magnificent appearance, for the calix of the flower, 

 when open, is near afoot in diameter, the inside of which being 

 of a splendid yellow colour, appears like the rays of a bright 

 star ; the outside is of a dark brown ; the petals being of a 

 pure white, add to the lustre ; the vast number of recurved 

 stamina surrounding the style in the centre of the flower, 

 make a fine appearance : add to all this, the fine scent of 

 the flower, which perfumes the air to a considerable distance. 

 There is scarcely any plant which deserves a place in the hot- 

 house so much as this, especially as it may be trained against 

 the wall, where it will not take up any room. The usual 

 season of its flowering is in July ; and when the plants are 

 large, many flowers will open the same night, and there will be 

 a succession of them for several nights together. Sometimes 

 six, eight, or ten flowers, open at the same time on one plant, 

 making a most magnificent appearance by candle-light ; but 

 none of them are succeeded here by any appearance of fruit. 

 Native of Jamaica and Vera Cruz. See the third species. 



13. Cactus Flagelliformis ; Pink-flowering Creeping Cereus. 

 Creeping, ten-angled. This produces a greater number of 

 flowers than the preceding sort ; they come out in May, 

 and sometimes earlier when the season is warm ; the 

 petals are of a fine pink colour both within and without ; 

 they are not so numerous, and the tube of the flower is 

 longer than that of the other : these flowers keep open three 

 or four days, provided the weather, or the place where the 

 plants stand, be not too warm ; and during their continuance 

 they make a fine appearance. This sort has very slender 

 trailing branches, which require a support ; they are not 

 jointed, nor do they extend so far as those of the other sort, 

 ao that they may be easily trained to a little trellis of sticks, 



and the plant may be conveyed into the house whilst in 

 flower, to adorn any of the rooms. The flowers are so beauti- 

 ful, and are produced in such great plenty, that this may be 

 placed in the first class of exotic plants. Native of Peru. 

 See the third species. 



14. Cactus Parasiticus ; Parasitical Creeping Cereus. 

 This is probably the root of some species of Epidendrum. 



15. Cactus Pendulus; Slender Cereus. Pendulous; branches 

 in whorls, round, smooth, without prickles ; stem roundish, 

 green, woody, striated, as big as a goose-quill, divided into 

 several slender, round, striated branches, and they into twigs, 

 at distances of one, two, and three inches ; at which divisions 

 are set little twigs an inch and a half long, in whorls. It 

 grows chiefly on the largest trees in Jauiacia, hanging com- 

 monly to the length of three or four feet. 



16. Cactus Triangularis ; Triangular Cereus, or Strawberry 

 Pear. Creeping, triangular. This climbs up trees to a con- 

 siderable height, supporting itself by throwing out roots ; it 

 also covers shady rocks. The fruit is the best flavoured of 

 any of the sorts, being slightly acid, with a mixture of sweet- 

 ness, and also pleasant and cooling. It has no leaves, but is 

 somewhat irregular with scars. In Martinico, where the 

 fruit is esteemed by the inhabitants, they call it poirier de 

 chardon, or thistle pear. There is a variety of this species, 

 (native of the island of St. Eustatia,) the fruit of which is 

 much larger, of a shining scarlet-colour, and clothed with 

 leaves which are almost entire ; the pulp is white, sweetish, 

 eatable, but has very little flavour ; the seeds are black and 

 glossy. See the third species. 



**** Opuntias, compressed with proliferous joints. 

 - I?. Cactus Moniliformis ; Neck-lace Indian Fig. Proli- 

 ferous jointed ; joints globular, thorny, glomerate. This is 

 a sessile plant, consisting of globular joints growing out of 

 each other, armed with very sharp subulate spines. It is 

 a very singular plant, and the least known of any in this 

 genus. Native of South America. All the Opuntias, except 

 the following, or eighteenth species, are too tender to thrive 

 in the open air in England ; nor can many of them be pre- 

 served through the winter here, unless they have artificial 

 heat, for when they are placed in a green-house they turn to 

 a pale yellow colour, their branches shrink, and frequently 

 rot on the first approach of warm weather in the spring. 

 They may all of them be propagated by cutting off their 

 branches at the joints, during any of the summer months ; 

 these should be laid in a warm dry place for a fortnight, 

 that the wounded part may be healed over, otherwise they 

 will rot with the moisture they imbibed at that part, as is 

 the case with most other succulent plants. The soil in 

 which these plants must be planted, should be composed 

 after the following manner, viz. one-third of light fresh 

 earth from a pasture, another third part sea-sand, and the 

 remainder equal parts of rotten tan and lime-rubbish; 

 these should be well mixed, and laid in a heap three or four 

 months before it is used, observing to turn it over at least 

 once a month, that the several parts may be well united ; 

 then you should pass it through a rough screen, in order to 

 separate the largest stones and clods, but by no means sift 

 it too fine, which is a very common fault ; then you should 

 reserve some of the smaller stones and rubbish to lay at the 

 bottom of the pots, in order to keep an open passage for the 

 moisture to drain off; which is what must be observed for all 

 succulent plants, for if the moisture be detained in the pots 

 it will rot the roots and destroy the plants. When any 

 branches of these plants, except those of the eighteenth 

 sort, are planted, you should plunge the pots into a mo- 

 derate hot-bed, which will greatly facilitate their taking root ; 



