v.J 



REMARKABLE LEAVES. 



full-grown specimens of this species have arrived at 

 the venerable age of several hundreds of years. Dr. 

 Engelmann says: " These trees in abundance give the 

 landscape a very peculiar appearance. As far as the 

 eye can reach in the valleys or on the mountains, 

 little else but rocky boulders and the stately, yet 

 awfully sombre, aspect of the 

 Cereiis giganteus can be seen. 

 Some species of Cerens creep 

 along the ground instead of 

 assuming an erect position. Of 

 this kind is the beautiful Cereus 

 MacDonaldicZ) which flowers 

 only at night. It has a bright 

 orange calyx, and the deli- 

 cate white petals, when fully 

 expanded, measure fourteen 

 inches across. This species is 

 found in Honduras; another and commoner species 

 (C. grandiflorus) grows in the West Indies. 



Belonging to the same class of plants and inhabit- 

 ing the same locality as the last, we have the well- 

 known Prickly Pears (Opimtia), so frequently culti- 

 vated in English windows. There are upwards of a 

 hundred and fifty species of them, all confined to the 

 hot dry districts of America and the West Indies. 

 Brazil, Chili, Peru, and Mexico are their headquarters, 

 but they have been successfully introduced and well 

 established in parts of Europe and Africa. It produces 

 its orange-coloured flowers from the flattened joints 

 of its stem. They are succeeded by the thick fleshy, 

 pear-shaped fruits known as prickly pears. These 



FIG. 77. 



