504 Garden Notes. 



remained quiet, while the other advanced to expansion, and 

 the flower had fallen. It then started and ran the same 

 course. The plant, in its pot, has stood in the open garden, 

 without much care, except to remove its numerous ofi'sets as 

 they formed, and to give it an occasional watering of soap- 

 suds. About the middle of September, another crop of six 

 buds showed themselves, one on every alternate rib, except 

 the thirteenth, where two sterile ribs came together. As be- 

 fore, when as big as buckshot, all stopped growing till one 

 had pushed forward into bloom and fallen, I expected that 

 they would then start and come forward one at a time ; but 

 to my surprise, the remaining five buds all advanced equally 

 together, and on the morning of the 16th inst., when they all 

 perfectly expanded, and remained so, till the evening of the 

 next day, presenting a spectacle of floral beauty rarely seen, 

 and hard to beat. 



My Cereus Poinsettu has, this year, bloomed for the first 

 time. This plant is about 10 feet high, with only three joints 

 or strictures in the stem, which has eleven ribs, and is about 

 two inches in diameter for three-fourths of its height. It has 

 never put forth any sort of a bra.nch or oflset. It is strictly 

 night-blooming, even more so than the grandiflora, the flower 

 of which resembles that of this, except in color — this being of 

 a uniform, delicate blush. It opened the night before it was 

 expected to do so, and was found withering soon after day- 

 light the next morning. 



Cereus nigricans bloomed with me last year, but not this. 

 It is a day bloomer, and the flower resembles that of qua- 

 drangularis. This plant is 10 years old, about 4 feet high, 

 and about 1^ inches in diameter, showing no joint or stric- 

 ture whatever, except at one place, where it was accidentally 

 broken, and has healed over. It has never made any oflset. 

 It set its fruit — of a globular form, the size of a black walnut, 

 and marked like the surface of the stem — this remained of 

 a dark olive-green color all summer. Some time in October 

 it changed suddenly to a chocolate-color, becoming soon of a 

 deep red. It continued on all winter, but cracked across hor- 

 izontally on one side, showing its glairy, whitish, semi-trans- 

 parent pulp, thickly dotted with rather large, deep black, but 

 not shining seeds. 



