4 Dr. Englemann on the Cereus giganteus of California. 
with Mr. Thurber’s meagre notes, (other specimens unfortunately 
having been lost,) I have ventured to make out the following 
description: 
Cereus Thurberi (n, sp.): erectus, elatior, e basi ramosus sub- 
14-costatus, sulcis parum profundis, aculeis brevibus nigricanti- 
bus; floribus tubuloso-campanulatis yirescenti-albidis; ovario 
globoso sepalis 80-100 carnosis squamiformibus triangularibus 
acutis imbricatis ad axillam villosis stipato ; sepalis tubi inferiori- 
bus 24 lanceolatis acutiusculis axilla nudis, superioribus 20-25 
orbiculato-obovatis obtusis ; petalis 16-20 obovato-spathulatis ob- 
tusis crassis. 
Collected in June 1851, in a rocky canon near the mountain 
pass of Bacuachi, a small town on the road to Arispe, in Sonora; 
afterwards found with Cereus giganteus , near Santa Cruz: it 
abounds also near Magdalena and Ures. Santa Cruz appears to 
be the northern limit of this species, which does not extend to 
the Gila river. Stems 4 to 12 feet high, many from the same base, 
6 to 10 inches in diameter, sometimes articulated, occasionally 
branching above, with about 14 ribs and shallow grooves. Flow¬ 
ers greenish white, borne about a foot below the summit of the 
stem. Dried flower 2f inches long ; the tube narrower, and more 
elongated than in C. giganteus ; the globose ovary and the naked 
and staminiferous part of the tube each about f inch long; free 
part of petals of the same length, and 4 lines wide. Anthers 
much larger than in the foregoing species, 1*3 to 1*4 lines long. 
Style not seen. 
1 have dedicated this to the collector, Mr. George Thurber, of 
Rhode Island, an excellent botanist, who has kindly furnished me 
with the materials for this article. 
Cereus Thurberi and C. giganteus appear to be closely allied 
species. They have high and erect stems, flowers with a short 
tube, half of which is naked, the filaments occupying only the up¬ 
per half of the tube ; both have short and fleshy sepals on the ova¬ 
ry, with short wool in their axils, unaccompanied by any bristles 
or spines; in both the petals are whitish, obtuse, and fleshy. 
Both, and especially C. giganteus, stand very near the Pilocerei 
op account of the great height of the stem, the short ventricose tube 
of the flower, and the thick petals ; but they have not the least 
indication of a cepkalium> (or woolly head) nor of any particular 
development of wool: their flowers spring from the axils of the 
ordinary and unaltered areolse; and the seed is quite different, 
at least from that of Pilocereus senilis , the only species of that 
genus, I believe, which has been well examined ; these seeds are 
said to be obliquely thimble shaped, densely dotted, and to have 
an embryo with thick globose cotyledons. It is also said that 
the filaments cover the whole inside of the tube of the flower, 
Botanic, 
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