May."} HOT-HOUSE — of repotting, etc. 153 



but these beauties are of momentary duration. By sunrise 

 they fade, and hang down quite decayed, and never open 

 again.* One of these ought to be in every collection, and, 

 if trained up a naked wall, will not occupy much room, and 

 grow and flower profusely. C. 3Idllisoni Sind C. Scofin are 

 nearly alike, and have beautiful scarlet flowers : it has been 

 gratuitously (to say the least of it) called " The Scarlet 

 Night-blooming Cereus." 0. specwssissimns has most beau- 

 tiful large flowers, about six inches in diameter ; the outside 

 petals are a bright scarlet, those of the inside a fine light 

 purple. One flower lasts a few days, and a large plant will 

 produce every year from ten to fifty flowers, and blooming 

 from May to August. C. 3IaynardU has very large orange 

 scarlet flowers, about nine inches in diameter, blooming dur- 

 ing the day. C. Ficlderii is of a brilliant bluish violet 

 color, even more of the peculiarly blue tints so greatly ad- 

 mired in speciossissimus. C. triangularis has the largest 

 flower of the Cactcse family ; the bloom is of a cream color, 

 and about one foot in diameter. In its indigenous state it 

 produces a fine fruit called " Strawberry Pear," and is much 

 esteemed in the West Indies as being slightly acid, and, at 

 the same time, sweet, pleasant and cooling. 



Epipl^yUums are those species of the Cacteas femily which 

 have flat shoots, or leaves without spines ; from the edges 

 of those leaves the flowers are produced. They are exten- 

 sively cultivated for their profusion of bloom, and are 

 frequently grafted on Cereus triangularis and Pei-^shiay 

 which greatly promotes their growth, and prevents them 

 from so easily damping off by over- watering. The original 

 species are E. specibsum,^m'k; E. phylanHwides or Ilook- 

 crii, white; E. aldtum, white; E. trnncdtum, scarlet; 

 flowers tubular, from two to three inches in diameter. The 

 plant is of a very dwarf growth, and much branched; when 

 in bloom, it is quite a picture, and rendered more beautiful 

 when grafted. There are three varieties of t7'uncdt2(m, dif- 

 fering from it in color, or rather shades of color : Alten- 

 steinii, rosy red ; violacea, very beautiful violet and white ; 



* They may be preserved if cut off when in perfection, and put in 

 spirits of wine, in a glass vase, made air tij4lit, A plant flowered in 

 our collection in May, 1830, at 12 o'clock at noon — the only iustanco 

 of the kind we ever heard of. 



