RHIPSALIS. 127 



minute cushions. Branchlett, usually fascicled and spreading. 

 Flowers white, 1 inch across, produced in spring, on the sides of 

 the young joints. Central America. An easily- grown plant, 

 sturdy, rather straggling, but very free-flowering. In old speci- 

 mens the branches become semi-pendulous. Syn. R. grandiflora. 

 (Fig. 65.) 



R. Houlletil. 



Stems long, graceful, branching freely, round and twig-like, or 

 with broad wings, as in Phyllocactus. Winged or flattened portions 

 notched. Flowers springing from the notches in November ; 

 stalkless, with pointed, straw-coloured petals, forming a shallow 

 cup about J inch in diameter. Stamens and pistil white, with a 

 tinge of red at the base. Brazil. Under cultivation, it forms a 

 small, straggling shrub, about 3 feet high, but in its native woods 

 its stems are many feet long, hanging from the branches of trees. 

 It may be grown in a pot, and its branches supported by a stake, 

 or it may be fastened against a piece of soft fern- stem, into which 

 it will root freely. In the winter it should be kept almost dry. 

 The flowers remain fresh for several days, and are fragrant. A well- 

 grown plant, when in flower, is a pretty object. 



R. Knightii. 



Stems and joints as in R. commune. Wings of joints usually 

 broad, with red margins, and the hair in the notches in a dense tuft, 

 nearly 1 inch long, pure white, and silk-like. Flowers small, white. 

 Brazil. It forms a straggling plant about 1 foot high. Syns. 

 Lepismium Knightii, Cereus Knightii. 



~R. mesembryanthemoides. 



A small, compact plant, with woody stems, densely covered 

 with little fleshy, conical joints, resembling very closely the leaves 

 of some of the Mesembryanthemums. They are green," with a few 

 red dots, each bearing a very small tuft of the finest hair-like spines. 

 The flowers, which are developed in March, from the joints, are 

 J inch across, and yellowish-white. Fruit a small, white, round 

 berry. South America. When grown in a warm house, in a small, 

 round, wire basket, filled with peat and sphagnum, it forms a tuft, 

 which in the spring produces large numbers of white, star-like 

 flowers. 



B. xnyosurus. 



Stems dependent, several feet long, branching freely, jointed, 

 with three or four angles or wings ; the angles flattened, reddish, 

 notched in the margin, and bearing a tuft of white, silky hairs in 

 each notch. Flowers small, yellow, tinged with red, springing 

 from the notches ; produced in July. Brazil ; introduced in 1839. 

 Grows freely and flowers annually if planted in a basket of fibroua 



