THE CACTUS FAMILY. 



221 



pink, to a brilliant scarlet, with that wonderful flush. of metallic 

 purple which characterises C. speciosissimus. In hybridising 

 large-flowered varieties with smaller kinds, care should be taken 

 to select pollen from the smallest or shortest anthers ; and in 

 crossing small - flowered with large kinds, select the longest 

 anthers. The Phyllocacti, Cereus speciosissimus, and others in 

 the same group, and the valuable winter-blooming Epiphyl- 

 lums, flower so readily and so copiously, that we can but 

 wonder that they are so little cultivated ; while there is yet a 

 noble and wide field of labour for the intelligent hybridist 

 in this order. Some of the Mammillarias vary very much in 

 habit and colour, even when raised from seed, self-fertilised 

 or fecundated with their own pollen ; and there is no limit to 

 the varieties and forms which cross- 

 breeding may yet afford. Echino- 

 cactus Ottonis produces seeds very 

 freely, as also do nearly all the Ma- 

 millarias. Cereus Maynardi is the 

 name of a hybrid raised in this 

 country in 1845 by Mr E. Kenny, 

 gardener to Mr Maynard, and is said 

 to have been the result of a cross 

 between the white - flowered Cereus 

 grandiflorus as the male parent and 

 C. speciosissimus. The flowers are 

 described as pale rose-flushed, with 

 purple in the centre ; and the flowers 

 remain open as long as those of the 

 female parent, which it resembled in 

 habit. Is this plant in cultivation, or 

 is it lost? In 1832 a hybrid from C. 

 speciosissimus made its appearance on the Continent, and this 

 was named C. Guillardeti by M. Jaques, presumably after the 

 raiser. Mr R. Errington obtained a beautiful Cereus with 

 large full flowers of a delicate rosy colour, each petal tinged 

 with purple in the centre (see 'Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1844, 

 P- 733)- This was thought to be a hybrid between Cereus 

 longissimus crossed with C. truncatus. About 1848, several 

 beautiful hybrids were obtained by M. Grisard, who fertilised 

 Cereus Acker?nanni (itself a hybrid) with pollen from the 

 "Rat's-tail" ( Cereus flagelliformis). These were more or less 

 cylindrical in habit, the stems being deeply fluted, the flutes 

 or angles thus formed being more or less crenulate, as in the 

 female parent. The flowers were very diverse in form some 

 tubular, others inclined more or less to the rotate form of the 



Seedling Opuntia, three montlt& 

 old. 



