rise from the ground, which are at first round, but soon dilate into 
fleshy flat lamine, or become triangularly expanded. The margins are 
broadly crenate, with a tuft of short hair, and occasionally a few spines 
in the sinuses. The branches are contracted at intervals, and fresh 
branches appear jointed upon them, round below, gradually becoming 
multangular, but soon ending in trigonal or flattened expansions like 
the rest. Lowers not very numerous, from the sinuses of the flat- 
tened and trigonal branches, 4 to 5 inches long, of a bright crimson 
and lasting, after expansion, for 4 or 5 days. Segments of the perianth 
not strictly separable into calyx and corolla; the outermost retaining 
the character of bracts, and the rest gradually becoming more and 
more petaloid as they proceed inwards. They cohere below into a 
fleshy tube which completely invests the ovary and extends for some 
distance beyond it. .The segments of the limb are more or less 
laneeolate, slightly patent. STrameNns very numerous, nearly as long 
as the perianth. The filaments adhere to the tube; but the greater 
part of them become free at about one third the distance from the 
mouth and hang out in a separate bundle from the rest, which cohere 
through the whole length of the tube and form a distinct whorl at its 
summit. They are whitish, with yellow anthers and white pollen. 
Ovary unilocular, with numerous ovules on long twisted funicular 
chords, attached to the paries. Sry1z one, filiform, branched at the 
apex into 7-9 stigmata, a little longer than the stamens. Fruit a pul- 
py berry with fragrant smell and taste, ripe at the time when the new 
flowers expand. Seeps with a hard, dark, shining punctate testa and 
a thin membranous tegmen: no albumen, a fleshy embryo with thick 
radicle and incumbent cotyledons. J.S. Henstow. 
N. B. In the Natural Order of Cactex, as defined by De Candolle, 
the genus Rhipsalis constitutes a distinct tribe (Rhipsalidez), whilst 
all the other genera may be considered as sub-genera of the old genus 
Cactus, and form the tribe Opuntiacee. Our plant belongs to the 
group, whether genus or sub-genus, termed Cereus. This group has 
been further subdivided artificially into minor groups, one of which 
constitutes Mr. Haworth’s genus Epiphyllum, where the stem is flat 
and foliaceous. De Candolle, however, remarks in his treatise on the 
Order, in the Mem. du Musée. Vol. 17. p. 55, that this group cannot 
be formed into a distinct genus from such a consideration alone, and 
the — plant most completely confirms his opinion, as we find 
some of its stems are trigonal, whilst others are flat. It is not strictly 
