Cereus senilis. 551 



ever did any of Adam's race, but I expect, ere the winter sets 

 in, he will be partly clothed by his own delicate white hairs. 



The Cereus senilis was introduced to this country nearly 

 twenty years ago, and named very appropriately by the late Mr. 

 Haworth, a botanist well known for his devotion to the succulent 

 tribes of plants. It has since been acknowledged to be a Cereus 

 in this country and on the Continent ; and yet we now see that 

 it ought to stand in the genus Echinocactus of Link and Otto, 

 according to the rules laid down by these great manufacturers 

 of hard names for the natural genus Cactus of Linnaeus, when 

 divided into artificial genera. 



The genus, or this group of prickly plants, is laid down by 

 the unerring hand of nature in four grand natural divisions ; 

 and each of these divisions, again, is so natural in itself, that 

 a child might be taught in a few hours to place all the species 

 belonging to the genus, hitherto known to us, in their respective 

 sections, without any difficulty whatever. There is not a genus 

 in the catalogue whose divisions are more natural than those of 

 the genus Cactus. Grouping the plants of extensive genera into 

 natural divisions, for assisting the memory, or for arranging 

 them for culture, or for the effect they are capable of pro- 

 ducing, is one of the most serviceable labours of the scientific 

 botanist, and one which is always hailed by the gardener and 

 amateur as a real assistance to their labours. The practice of 

 grouping the species of a genus, or the genera of certain families 

 of plants, cannot be too highly valued, provided such divisions 

 are formed on natural or sound principles ; but, when such 

 groupings are produced in opposition to these principles, as the 

 sections of the genus Cactus stand at present, they amount to a 

 public nuisance. The plants belonging to the first division of 

 the genus Cactus are the most natural in the world ; but, as they 

 now stand, they figure away and are associated with plants of 

 other sections of the genus, to which they have no resemblance 

 whatever. They are all round or oval bodies, with vertical or 

 spiral angular ribs, on which are produced tufts or fascicles of 

 spines. This division includes all the Melocacti, and a great 

 portion of the Echinocacti. How any man, or set of men, 

 could divide a group of plants so obviously natural, must be 

 accounted for by their endeavouring to form genera where only 

 one genus naturally existed, and by fixing on a less essential 

 character before a greater or more natural one, as a generic 

 distinction ; just, as a countryman would say, by placing the 

 cart before the horse. Instead of fixing on the outward or 

 natural appearance of the plants for sectional distinctions, the}' 

 depend on the size, shape, or position of the flowers as a ge- 

 neric character. Some species of each natural section pro- 

 duce their flowers exactly alike, and every attempt to reconcile 



