CEREUS. 85 



or, in warm seasons, yet earlier. They are of a fine pink 

 colour, and keep open three or four days. This plant has 

 very slender branches, which should be trained to a little 

 trellis frame of sticks. The flowers are so beautiful and 

 so numerous, that it deserves some care to cherish it. It 

 may be preserved through the winter in a warm inhabited 

 room, and towards the end of May may be set abroad. 

 Very little water must be given in summer, and scarcely 

 any in the winter. About the middle of September it 

 should again be removed into the house. If there be 

 much rain or sharp winds in the summer season, this plant 

 must be sheltered ; and it must always be in a warm situ- 

 ation. It will flower better if it can conveniently be placed 

 within the room even in summer, if near to an open win- 

 dow. It should not have a very large pot, or a rich soil. 

 This plant is a native of Peru : the former species, of Ja- 

 maica. 



The Six-angled Upright Cereus, or Torch-thistle in 

 French, le cactier de Surinam was the first which became 

 common in English hot-houses. This plant, if not cut 

 down, will grow forty feet high ; but wherever the stems 

 are cut, they put out others from the angles immediately 

 below the wounded part. The flowers are white, and as 

 large as those of the hollyhock. It does not often flower ; 

 when it does, it is generally in July. It is a native of Su- 

 rinam, and may be preserved in the same manner as di- 

 rected for the Pink-flowered species. The cochineal insect 

 feeds chiefly upon plants of this genus, and the Indians 

 frequently propagate them for the sake of those insects ; 

 particularly that which is called the Cochineal Indian-Fig. 



