THE CACTACEAE. 



as thick at top as at base; limb short; outer perianth-segments linear, about 10, nearly twice as long 

 as the inner ones; inner perianth-segments narrowly oblanceolate, acute or acuminate; filaments 

 not extending beyond the inner perianth-segments ; 

 limb short; fruit 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, spiny. 



Type locality: In the swampy woods near 

 Manaos, Brazil. 



Distribution: Very abundant and widely 

 distributed in the swampy forests of the 

 Amazon, Brazil. 



We have in our collection a part of the 

 type material. 



The following account of this very re- 

 markable plant is from the pen of Karl Schu- 

 mann and was published in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle in 1901 p. 78: 



"Among the numerous novelties which the 

 last decade of the past century brought to Europe, 

 the above named is surely one of the most inter- 

 esting for both the amateur and the professional 

 cultivator. I received this curious plant through 

 the kindness of Mr. N. H. Witt, of Manaos, 

 Erlado do Amazonas, Brazil. He told me long 

 before he was able to send specimens that a climb- 

 ing species of a genus he was not able to determine, 

 grew in the swampy forest, or Igape, on the Amazon 

 river. Closely appressed to the stems of the trees, 

 and fixed to them by numerous roots, in the 

 region of the yearly inundation, there creeps a 

 cactus with the habit of a Phyllocactus, but 

 armed with very sharp spines. It is so closely 

 connected with the plant on which it grows that 

 one must look carefully to distinguish it. 



" When I had the specimen in my hand after it was taken out, I did not at all know how to class 

 it. I was not able even to indicate the genus. It could not belong to Phyllocactus, however much 

 the form of the leaf-like joints suggested that genus. Perhaps it might be a very abnormal species 

 of Rhipsalis, but the flowers or fruits being absent, the question could not be answered. 



"Last autumn I was fortunate enough to get, by the aid of Mr. N. H. Witt, plentiful specimens 

 of the plant. After having carefully examined it, I found two fruits of ovoid form as large as a 

 pigeon's egg, beset with very sharp prickles. This organ had all the characteristics of the genus 

 Cereus, and I could now name the species, and did so in honour of the finder, Cereus wittii. The 

 species is very interesting, because it is the 'missing link' between the genera Phyllocactus and 

 Cereus. The form of the joints is perfectly typical of the former; the characteristics of the fruits 

 and spines are those of a Cereus. 



" Some days ago I received a notice from Dr. E- Ule, a botanist, whom I had sent from Manaos 

 to the river Furna, a tributary stream on the right side of the Amazon — that he had found a peculiar 

 cactus in the upper part of the swampy forest, densely appressed to the tree-stems. His further 

 description of the plant informed us that C. wittii is widely distributed. He told me that the older 

 joints of C. wittii turn from green to a beautiful wine-red or purple colour, a peculiarity which I had 

 also seen on the plants we cultivate in the Royal Botanic Garden of Berlin." 



Illustrations: Card. Chron. III. 29: f. 17; Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 10: 155; 12: 139; 15: 

 25; Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen Nachtr. f. 6, all as Cereus wittii; Contr. U. S. Nat. 

 Herb. 16: pi. 84. 



Figure 302 is a copy of the plate above cited (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 10: 155) 



-Strophocactus wittii. 



