46 CACTACEOUS TLANTS. 



berries ; indeed the plant has been called the Strawberry Pear. This is often, 

 grown trained to the roof of a house, and some specimens so treated at Kew 

 have a most beautiful appearance when in flower. One plant has had seven 

 or eight blooms open at the same time, each of these measuring 12 tO' 

 14 inches in diameter, scarcely less handsome than C. grandiflorus. The 

 plants above mentioned usually flower in August or September. C. repandus 

 also has a fruit which is considered to resemble a Strawberry in flavour, and 

 the dry stems were at one time used as torches to assist the natives in 

 catching fish. C. macrogonus is a quick-growing species, and is therefore 

 useful for grafting many other Cacteae upon, as has been already noted^ 

 C. candicans is notable for its slow growth, and as far as I can ascertain it 

 has never flowered in this country. Mr. Major has a plant in his collection 

 at Cromwell House which is nearly thirty years old, and is not 2 feet high — 

 one of the most extraordinary instances of slow growth whicji has come 

 under my observation. 



The climbing or slender-growing species, which include some of the 

 most beautiful and useful of the Cereus in a horticultural point of view, 

 are numerous, but the following may be named as particularly worthy of 

 culture : — 



C. GRANDiFLOBUS, BmooHli. — The Night-flowering Cereus has gained a- 

 f ime which entitles it to prominent notice, and plants might well be included 

 in every garden, for its flowering is a source of interest to the least observant 

 persons. In the character of producing its blooms at night it is not alone,, 

 as several of the slender-growing species have a similar habit, but none 

 equal this in beauty and fragrance. 



" That flower, supreme in loveliness and pure 



As the pale Cynthia's beams, through which unveiled 

 It blooms, as if unwilling to endure 

 The gaze by which sucli beauties are assailed." 



The flowers are really magnificent, and a plant with a dozen or two 

 expanded at the same time has a superb appearance, particularly in the early 

 evening when the flowers first expand, and the powerful fragrance they emit 

 is very agreeable, having been not inaptly compared to Vanilla. The stem 

 is nearly cylindrical, with a few faintly marked ridges, bearing small clusters- 

 of spines, and rarely exceeds 1 inch in diameter, but attains a length of 

 many feet, freely branching. The flowers vary in size from 6 inches to 

 12 inches in diameter, the usual size being 8 or 9 inches; the sepals are- 

 narrow, acute, and spreading, about one-quarter of an inch broad, 4 to 

 5 inches long, and thirty to forty in number, forming a beautiful fringe 

 round the broader pure white petals, which are more in the form of a cup, 

 the stamens being extremely numerous with very long filaments. Mr. Major,, 

 however, informs me that he has seen two very distinct forms, one having 

 the petals distinctly cupped, and the other with them spreading more like- 

 the sepals, the two forms also differing slightly in colour. 



