APPENDIX. 



691 



stamens are numerous, and slightly tinged with green. 

 Its fruit is a round or oval berry of a dark purple 

 colour. 



Fig. 8. — Oerms Peruviamis, var. monstrosua. This 

 curious monstrous variety of Oa'eus Pernvianus is a 

 native of Peru and other hot parts of South America; 

 it grows to the height of ten or twenty feet, with an 

 erect, flesliy, branched, and irregularly furrowed stem. 

 The flowers are Uke those of Cereus Peruvianus, but 

 larger and more spreading. 



Fig. 9. — Ocreua grandijlorus, the "Night-flowering 

 Cereus." (See p. 364.) 



Fig. 11. — Echinocactus oxygonus. — This species is 

 a native of South Brazil ; it has a fleshy, round, or 

 oval stem, about six inches or a foot in diameter. 

 The flowers spring from the areoles of some of the 

 upper fascicles of spines ; the tube of the calyx is very 

 long, narrow at the base, but widening out towards 

 the apex, and becoming trumpet-shaped ; its segments 

 are narrow, sharp-pointed, and of a deep rose colour : 

 the petals are white, tinged with rose colour at the 

 tips, and their segments are much broader than those 

 of the calyx. 



Fig. 12. — Echinocactus myriostigma is a native of 

 San Luis Potosi. It differs from all the other species 

 of the genus, in not being furnished with spines. In 

 its native country it sometimes grows to the height 

 of fifteen or sixteen inches, but the specimens in 

 European gardens are only about five or six inches 

 high, rather oblong, and depressed at the top. The 

 flowers are produced from areoles at the top of the 

 plant ; they are about two inches in diameter. 



Fig. 13. — Echinocactus hclophorus, a native of the 

 south of Mexico, about San Luis Potosi ; its stem is 

 nearly spherical, somewhat depressed at the top, 

 about eighteen inches in diameter, and of a light green 

 colour. The summit of the plant is covered in the 

 centre with a light brown wool-like substance, from 

 amongst which the shining yellow flowers are pro- 

 duced. 



Fig. 14. — Mclocactua communis. This plant is a 

 native of the West Indian' Islands, growing in dry, 

 barren places near the sea, and upon porous rocks, 

 into which its roots peni^rate, but from which it seems 

 almost impossible that they can derive any nourish- 

 ment; indeed, it has been asserted by some persons 

 that this and other species of cacti derive the greater 

 part of their nom'ishment from the atmosphere; but it 

 has been proved, by careful analysis, that this opinion 

 is eiToneous. Its stem attains the height of from 

 one to two feet, is either round or somewhat ovate, 

 and has twelve to eighteen fuiTOWs ; the ridges are 

 armed with spines, arranged in stellate fascicles, or 

 bundles, at certain regular distances from each other; 

 each bundle contains from five to ten pale or dusky- 

 brown coloured spines of unequal size, the lower ones 

 being largest. Upon the top of the stem there is a 

 cylindrical cap, or crown, about one-third the dia- 

 meter of the stem, and from this the flowers are pro- 

 duced; this crown, or top, is generally known by the 

 najne of "Turk's cap " or " Turk's head;" hence the 

 vernacular name of the plant is " l\irk's cap Cactus." 

 In some places they are called " Englishmen's heads" 



and "Popes' heads." It is composed of numerous 

 reddish-brown coloured spines, imbedded in a white 

 wool-like substance; the flowers are imbedded in 

 this mass of spines and wool, and protrude only a 

 short distance beyond the spines; they are very 

 small, tubular, and of a red colour; the calyx and 

 corolla are combined into a single perianth, which is 

 divided into many segments: the anthers are sessile, 

 and inserted into the throat of the perianth. Its 

 fruit is a small, ovate, oblong, wedge-shaped berry, 

 which, like the flower, is also imbedded amongst the 

 spines and wool, constituting the "Turk's cap;" but 

 when perfectly ripe they are gradually ejected from 

 it; the seeds are numerous, small, black, and shining. 



PLATE XV, 



FUniT AND OBNAMKNTAL THEES. 



Fig. 2. — Chamarops cxcelsa, the hemp palm, a na- 

 tive of Nepaul. Fig. 3. — Cupressus ftinebris, fun^raX 

 cypress. Mr. Fortune, in his work on the Tea Coun- 

 tries of China, including Sunglo and the Bohea Hills, 

 describes this weeping cypress as the most beautiful 

 tree found in that district, growing to the height of 

 about sixty feet, with a stem as straight as the Nor- 

 folk Island pine, and weeping branches like the wil- 

 low of St. Helena. Its branches grow at first at 

 right angles to the main stem, then describe a gi-ace- 

 ful curve upwards, and bend again at their points. 

 From these main branches others, long and slender, 

 hang down perpendicularly, and give the whole tree 

 a weeping and graceful fonn. It reminded the tra- 

 veller of some of the large and gorgeous chandeliers 

 seen in theatres and public halls in Europe. — For 

 other figures, see Index or List of Plates. 



PLATE XVI. 



PALMS, PINKS, &0. 

 Fig. \.^Araucaria imhricata, the Chili pine, 

 which was brought to this country in 1792, by Jlr. 

 Menzies, the surgeon in Captain Vancouver's voyage. 

 The figure in the plate is a portrait of a fine specimen 

 of this tree in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. The 

 plant grows naturally in dense forests, similar to our 

 woods of Scotch fir. The Chilians eat the seeds of 

 the plant as the Itali.ins do the see<l3 of the stone 

 pine. ITie Araucaria is becoming a favourite orna- 

 mental plant in all parts of the United Kingdom, 

 being sufficiently hardy to withstand our winters. 

 Fig. 7. — Ci/cas revoluta; its stem, like that of C. cir- 

 cinalis, p. 261, produces sago. C. revoluta is a na- 

 tive of Japan. The Cycas is allied to the conifers. — 

 For other figures, see Index or List of Plates. 



PLATE XVII. 



PINE TRESS. 

 Fig. 2. — Pinus Sabiniana, or Sabine's pine, a na- 

 tive of California, and along the western flanks of the 

 Cordilleras of New Albion, at an altitude reaching to 

 within 1600 feet of the line of perpetual snow, where 

 it was first discovered by the late lamented Mr. David 

 Douglas, in 1S26, and again in 1831, when he sent ripe 

 seeds of it home to the London Hortioultm-al Society, 

 from which plantswere abundantly raised and liberally 



