

GARDEN BOTANY. li 



OS. Missouriensis, from Missouri and Texas. Cinereous, very low ; 

 leaves broadly lanceolate ; corolla yellow, 4' to 6' across ; pod 4-winged ; root 

 perennial. 



CE. speciosa, from Arkansas and Texas, with large white flowers fading 

 to rose-color, and club-shaped pods. 



CE. acaulis, from Chili, with very large white flowers close to the ground ; 

 the stem short and creeping ; leaves pinnatifid. 



CE. purpurea, from Oregon and California, a low annual with purple 

 flowers opening in the sunshine ; and some others of the same section (GoDE- 

 TIA), with rose, lilac, or nearly white petals with a purple spot, are occasion- 

 ally raised. 



ORDER CACTACE^E. CACTUS FAMILY. 



Manual, p. 136. Hundreds of species are cultivated by amateurs; the fol- 

 lowing are the most generally met with. 



Stem globular or melon-shaped : flowers immersed in a mass of wool. 1. CACTUS. 



Stem cylindrical and ribbed, or triangular : flowers mostly ephemeral. 2. CEREUS. 

 Stem or branches flat, leaf-like, smooth, and not prickly, often jointed : 



flowers rose-colored, tubular, lasting day after day. ... 3. EPIPHYLLUM. 

 Stem or branches jointed, flat or flattish, bearing prickles or bristles : 



flowers not tubular, mostly yellow. . . . Man. p. 136. 4. OPUNTIA. 



1. Cactus Melocactus, TUKK'S-CAP. Plant melon-shaped, a foot or 

 more high, many-ribbed, with star-like clusters of spines on the ribs, sur- 

 mounted, when about to flower, by a cylindrical woolly mass like a muff in 

 which the small red flowers are partly imbedded. Brought occasionally from 

 the West Indies. 



2. Ce'reilS grandiflorus, NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREFS, with very long and 

 rooting cylindrical stems, and producing a very large flower, with many narrow 

 yellow sepals and broader white petals, opening at night and shrivelling before 

 morning, is only occasionally met with in conservatories. 



C. flagelliformis is more common, as a house-plant, with long and 

 slender flexible stems, clothed with clusters of short and bristly prickles, bear- 

 ing rather small pink-red flowers. 



C. SpeciosissimilS, with erect and only 3 -4-angled stems, very large 

 bright-red flowers with a tinge of violet inside, and white stamens, is one of the 

 most showy of all, and is common. 



3. Epiphyllum phyllanthoides, known by the flat and leaf-like or 

 winged steins, with crenate margins, from which spring the flowers ; these 

 are 4' long, narrow, tubular below, rose-colored, and lasting several days. 



E. truncatum, known by its flat and jointed recurved branches, which 

 are more or less toot bed ; the flowers from the truncate apex of the joints, 

 only 2 or 3 inches long, rose-color, with a short tube, below bearing spreading 

 petaloid sepals, above very oblique ; continuing in bloom for several days. 



ORDER MESEMBBYANTHEMACE^. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM 



FAMILY. 



Mesembryanthemums are fleshy-leaved plants, with an adherent calyx, bear- 

 ing a great many petals and stamens ; the fruit dry and several-celled. 



1. Mesembryanthemum spectabile is the commonest as a house- 

 plant, with long triquetrous and acute opposite leaves, rather woody stems, 

 and large red flowers. 



