24 F L O W E 11 S A N I) F R U I T S . 



The properties which Cactuses possess, of living where few 

 other plants can exist, sometimes renders them of great utility to 

 man. The Editor has seen them, in some of the islands of the 

 Caribbean Sea, prove eminently serviceable, at a time when nothing 

 else would flourish, and prepare the ground for other plants, when 

 sufficient rain would fall to allow those plants to vegetate. We 

 are told that on Mt. Etna, the Sicilians employ the same plan to 

 render such desolate regions susceptible of cultivation. The 

 Indian Fig, readily strikes into the fissures of the lava, and soon, 

 by extending the ramifications of its roots into every crevice of 

 the stone, and bursting the largest blocks asunder by its gradual 

 increase, makes it capable of being worked; and still more useful, 

 they sell the cooling fruits it produces, in considerable quantities, 

 and some of the varieties of which are considered to be of great 



o 



excellence. 



The generic name is taken from the Greek, being used by 

 one of their writers to signify an unknown, spiny plant, which 

 was eatable, and therefore considered to apply to some of the 

 species of this genus. 



Our species, the Creeping Cereus, has a roundish, somewhat 

 angular stem, generally about ten distinct angles, which is not 

 strong enough to support itself erect, and consequently weak and 

 trailing, and might, as a writer remarks, be taken, from its long 

 branches, for the tails of some animals, were it not for the gay 

 colored flowers these apparent tails push out from time to time. 

 The flower is of a beautiful rose color, varying little from a 

 fine, deep red, and continues for a long time in blossom, both 

 day and night. The whole plant is closely beset with spiny 

 bristles, making rough and careless handling rather dangerous. 

 From its very easy cultivation,, it is perhaps the best known of all 

 the Cactus tribe in the north, except the Prickly Pear, which 

 grows wild as far north as the Hudson, and is to be seen in all our 

 conservatories. It is the emblem of MODEST GENIUS. 



