The Ni^ht- Blooming Ceretis. iji 



The fiower seems a heavy weight for the thick stem, and the 

 lovely blossom sways slightly with a motion that seems voluntary. 

 The fragrance is not noticed until the flower is nearly half-opened, 

 but then it grows constantly more powerful. It resembles the per- 

 fume of tuberoses, but it is more delicate and subtle. If two or 

 more buds open in the evening and the room is small and crowd- 

 ed, the fragrance is oppressively sweet. At midnight or earlier 

 the process is completed, the corolla curls back as the calyx did 

 some hours before, the stalk partially breaks and the lovely flower 

 hangs withered and drooping. The next morning, the petals have 

 turned back again and the blossom looks like an enormous with- 

 ered water-lily. If the blossom is cut before it begins to droop, it 

 can be kept several hours on ice, but care has to be exercised in 

 thus preserving it, for the perfume will cling persistently to the 

 vessel in which it is placed. 



The plant can be raised from a single leaf and usually begins to 

 bear flowers after three years' growth. After that time, the buds 

 appear each year. The beauty of the flowers repays the waiting, 

 and the plant can be raised without greater expenditure of time 

 and labor than most house plants require. — A?i7iie /. Handy, in 

 Good Cheer. 



We take the above pleasing description of the opening of a 

 night-blooming Cereus blossom, belonging to the same variety 

 evidently watched by a large company at J. H. Orcutt's Chollas 

 valley nursery. We judge the name of this variety to be Phyllo- 

 cactus latifrons. the flowers measuring from seven to ten inches 

 across, the petals of a delicate creamy white, the sepals and tube 

 tinged with pink, while the stamens, about 200 in number, are 

 arranged in a peculiar manner. We are told of large plants bear- 

 ing hundreds of these blossoms in a single night in the Sandwich 

 Islands and in Mexico, and the beauty of such a profusion can be 

 imagined. A magnificent red-flowered species has been reported 

 as found in Mexico. 



We present our readers with a picture of the true night-bloom- 

 ing Cereus, the famous Cereus grandiflorus, which it will be ob- 

 served, differs from the above description. The illustration is of 

 a two-year- old plant grown in a six-inch pot from a three-inch 

 cutting, which shows how easily it is propogated. Instead of flat 

 stems as in the preceeding, this has round stems with a number of 

 parallel ribs armed with clusters of spines, which are not trouble- 

 some however. The stamens in this, a true Cereus, are arranged 

 in a regular manner around the pistil, as shown in the picture, 

 which is not the case in the Phyllocactus night-bloomer. 



The flowers of either may be preserved in large glass jars filled 

 with alcohol and water for a very long time, preserving perfectly 

 their great beauty as well as their exquisite perfume. 



Editor. 



