126 CEREUS GIGANTEUS AND C. THURBERI. 
The flowers are produced near the summit of the plant, but not on it, and the fruit is usually 6-12 inches 
from it. The dried flower communicated by Mr. Thurber is 3 inches long ; but the drawing represents the flowers as 
fully 4 inches in length and diameter. The ovary in the dried specimen is ? of an inch long; the lower naked part 
of the tube 1 inch, the upper staminiferous much widened part ? of an inch long. Upper sepals fleshy, greenish 
white, 3 of an inch long, below 2, above 4 lines wide. Petals of a light cream color, an inch long, 6-7 lines wide 
above, very thick and fleshy, and very much curled. Filaments light yellow, adnate to the upper half of the tube: 
anthers 0.8 to 0.9 of a line long, linear, emarginate at the base and apex. Style not seen ; the drawing represents the 
numerous (15-20 ?) stigmata as half an inch long, suberect, of a green color. The flowers appear to be open night and 
day, and probably for several days in succession. 
The fruit sent by Mr. Thurber (in alcohol) is obovate 24 inches long, by 14 in diameter, beset with about thirty 
scales, having short brownish wool in their axils, but entirely destitute of spines. Mr. Thurber informs me that this 
specimen is unusually long: the fruit, he says, is usually 2 or 3 inches long by 1} to 2 in diameter ; the color is 
green, reddish towards the summit ; the remains of the flower fall off, leaving a broad and convex scar. The pericarp 
has the hardness of a green cucumber, somewhat softer towards the apex, and is about 2 lines thick: it bursts 
open on the plant with 3 or mostly 4 irregular, interiorly red valves, which spread mec een and appear like 
a red flower when seen at a distance, which accounts for the report of this species having red flov The crimson- 
colored and rather insipid pulp has the consistency of a fresh fig ; it completely separates from the rind, and drying up 
from the heat of the sun, falls to the ground, or is beaten ives, when it is collected by the natives and rolled into 
balls, which keep several months, or is pressed for the thick molasses-like saccharine juice which it contains. The 
innumerable seeds are 0.7 to 0.8 lines long. 
Another, dicen nearly allied species, was collected in Northern Sonora. From the half of a 
flower before me, together with Mr. Thurber’s meagre notes (other specimens unfortunately having been [234 (4)] 
lost), I have sat to make out the following description : 
THURBERI, n. sp.: erectus, elatior, e basi ramosus sub-14-costatus, sulcis parum -profundis, aculeis 
brevibus nigricantibus ; floribus tubuloso-campanulatis virescenti-albidis ; ovario globoso sepalis 80-100 carnosis 
squamiformibus triangulari ibus acute imbricatis ad <a villone stipato ; sepalis tubi inferioribus 24 lanceolatis 
acutiusculis axilla nndis, sur 20-25 orbiculato-ob jpetalis 16-20 obovato-spathulatis obtusis crassis. 
Collected in June 1851, in a rocky cafion near the mountain pass of Bacuachi, a small town on the road to 
Arispe, in Sonora ; afterwards found with Cereus giganteus, near Santa Cruz : it abounds also near Magdalena and Ures. 
Santa Cruz appears to be the northern limit of this species, which does not extend to the Gila River. Stems 4 to 12 
feet high, many from the same base, 6 to 10 inches in diameter, sometimes articulated, occasionally branching above, 
with about 14 ribs and shallow grooves. Flowers greenish-white, borne about a foot below the summit of the stem. 
Dried flower 2} inches long ; the tube narrower, and more elongated than in C. giganteus ; the globose ovary and the 
and staminiferous part of the tube each about ? inch long ; free part of petals : i same length, and 4 lines 
wide. Anthers much larger than in the foregoing species, 1.3 to 1.4 line long. Style no 
I have dedicated this to the collector, Mr. George Thurber, of Rhode Island, an ee botanist, who has 
kindly furnished me with the materials for this article. 
eus Thurberi and C. giganteus appear to be closely allied species. They have high and erect stems, flowers 
with a a tube, half of which is naked, the filaments occupying only the upper half of the tube ; both have short 
and fleshy sepals on the ovary, with short wool in their axils, unaccompanied by any bristles or spines ; in both the 
petals are whitish, obtuse, and fleshy. 
, and especially (@. giganteus, stand very near the Pilocerei on account of the great height of the stem, the 
short Makiwols tube of the flower, and the thick petals; but they have not the least indication of a cephaliwm (or 
woolly head) nor of any particular development of wool ; their flowers spring from the axils of the ordinary and 
unaltered areole ; and the seed is quite different, at least fom that of Pilocereus senilis, the only species of that genus, 
I believe, which has been well examined ; these seeds are said to be obliquely thimble-shaped, densely dotted, and to 
have an embryo with thick globose cotyledons: It is also said that the filaments cover the whole inside 
of the tube of the flower, and even the free upper part of the ovary. In all the Cerei and Echinocacti [235 (5)] 
examined by me, I find the lowest part of the tube free, the filaments being adnate to some distance above 
the ovary. It is not improbable that the Chilian velvety Cerei (Velutini, Pr. Salm. ) are to be classed near our species. 
The flower of what appears to be Cereus Chilensis, Pfr., obtained near Valparaiso, and figured by the artist of the U.S. 
Exploring Expedition, greatly resembles that of C. Thu rberi: it is a little larger, but has the same shape, and the 
fest closely naar sepals on the ovary ; the tube has about 100 sepals, and the white petals are acute ; whether 
y or not 
