TJie Cactus. 213 



from the light of this kind of torch, when the negroes were hunt- 

 ing the Land Crab at night. Perhaps there are few plants more 

 resplendently beautiful than the showy Cactus when covered, as 

 it often is, with hundreds of its large rosy blossoms. But there 

 are many species more magnificent in their individual flowers, 

 as for instance, the Night-bloomimg Cereus — Cereus Grandi- 

 florus. This has a creeping, jointed, five-angled stem, which 

 sometimes grows several yards in length in the hothouses. The 

 flowers proceed from the side of the stem, with their large, trum- 

 pet-shaped tubes cut at the border into starry segments of 

 the most dazzling white, the purity of which is increased by the 

 tassel of pale yellow stamens that occupies, and also by the 

 contrast of the beautiful flowers and the mis-shapen, dingy, 

 snake-like leafless stems, from which they spring. They be^in to 

 open at about seven or eight o'clock in the evening, are full blown 

 by eleven, and at four or five the next morning are quite withered. 

 When expanded, it is more than a foot in diameter. The Cac- 

 tus Cochinillifer — Cochineal Fig, we have seen growing in 

 its native regions to the height of four or five feet. It produces 

 a fruit which is highly esteemed, on the top of which grows a 

 red flower, which, when the fruit is ripe, falls down on the top 

 of it, so that no rain or dew can wet the inside. A day or two 

 after, the flower being scorched up by the heat of the sun, the 

 fruit opens wide, and the inside appears full of red insects, which 

 are caught and dried. We have seen the seeds of this plant 

 whitened by the insects, which are often shaken off by changes 

 of wind, and consequently killed. The Cactus is the emblemof 

 Hidden Merit. Mrs. Sigourney celebrates its praise in the fol- 

 lowing lines : 



THE CACTUS. 



Amid a thousand blooming flowers, 



"Where fragrance filled the tempered air, 



A Cactus brought from tropic bowers, 

 Upreared its branches tall and bare. 



Year after year it lived and grew, 

 The jest of many a brilliant flower, 



Yet took no fairer form or hue 

 From burning sun or cooling shower. 



