4 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



vention of Cruelty to Plants. The writer will gladly be a 

 lay member and can talk in meeting. 



Besides the cryptogamic life above mentioned as coin- 

 cident with bark, under this if it is detachable, will be dis- 

 covered a varied and multitudinous animal existence. 

 Some of these creatures are predatory and distructive; 

 others, merely make the tree a temporary home. At this 

 season (December) certain moths (red underwings) or 

 butterflies {Vanessa Antiopa), like to escape approaching 

 cold, and creep under exfoliating bark to hibernate. Many 

 a nice specimen have we in old entomological days — red- 

 letter days— thus secured. 



Providence, R. L 



CEREUS GIGANTEUS. 



BY ALBERTA A. FIELD. 

 The first time that I ever saw these gigantic cacti, 

 called by the Mexicans, Sahuras (pronounced sa-wah- 

 vah,) in the moonlight, I certainly mistook them for a 

 band of express robbers standing in wait to hold up the 

 passengers of our great, yellow-bodied stage coach, which 

 was theading its way through one of the lonely canons of 

 the lower Pinal range in Gila County, Arizona, so boldly 

 did they out-line against the shadowy rocks, it being the 

 hour and place when and where these gentlemen of the 

 road frequently met to operate their special line of busi- 

 ness. But we passed unharmed and unmolested among 

 these tall, many-armed sentinels of the foothills, with 

 never an attempt on their part to disturb our journey- 

 ings. My nervousness began to abate somewhat, and I 

 was able to more carefully observe the strange make-up of 

 these truly wonderful sand-hill growths, which look more 

 than anything else like gigantic candelabrums made to 

 adorn the feast table of some mighty monarch of the 

 mountains. 



In reality, these cacti are of very frail nature, being lit- 

 erally nothing but thin strips of woody growth in cylin- 

 drical form, covered and bound together by an outside 



