108 
THE FLORIST. 
GIGANTIC CACTI. 
This day—says M. Mollhausen, in his “ Diary of a Journey from the 
Mississippi to the Coasts of the Pacific ”—we saw, for the first time, 
the giant Cactus (Cereus giganteus), specimens of which stood at first 
rather widely apart, like straight pillars ranged along the sides of the 
valley, hut afterwards, more closely together, and in a different form— 
namely, that of gigantic candelabras of six-and-thirty feet high, which 
had taken root among stones and in clefts of the rocks, and rose in 
solitary state at various points. 
This Cereus giganteus, the queen of the Cactus tribe, is known in 
California and New Mexico under the name of Petahaya. The 
missionaries who visited the country between the Colorado and the 
Gila, more than a hundred years ago, speak of the fruit of the Petahaya, 
and of the natives of the country using it for food; and they also 
mention a remarkable tree that had branches, but no leaves, though it 
reached the height of sixty feet, and was of considerable girth. We 
touched, on our journey, the northern limit of this peculiar kind of 
Cactus, which from there extends far to the south across the Gila, and 
is also frequently found in the State of Sonora, and in Southern 
California. The wildest and most inhospitable regions appear to be 
the peculiar home of this plant, and its fleshy shoots will strike root, 
and grow to a surprising size, in chasms and heaps of stones, where 
the closest examination can scarcely discover a particle of vegetable 
soil. Its form is various, and mostly dependent on its age; the first 
shape it assumes is that of an immense club standing upright in the 
ground,'^and of double the circumference of the lower part at the top. 
This form is very striking while the plant is still only from two to six 
feet high, but as it grows taller, the thickness becomes more equal, 
and when it attains the height of twenty-five feet, it looks like a 
regular pillar; after this it begins to throw out its branches. These 
come out at first in a globular shape, but turn upward as they elon¬ 
gate, and then grow parallel to the trunk, and at a certain distance 
from it, so that a Cereus with many branches looks exactly like an 
immense candelabra, especially as the branches are mostly sym¬ 
metrically arranged round the trunk, of which the diameter is not 
usually more than a foot and a half, or in some rare instances a foot 
more. They vary much in height; the highest we saw at Bill 
Williams’ Fork measured from thirty-six to forty feet; but south of 
the Gila they are said to reach sixty; and when you see them rising 
from the extreme point of a rock, where a surface of a few inches square 
forms their sole support, you cannot help wondering that the first storm 
does not tear them from their airy elevation. 
Inside the fleshy column, however, it is provided with a circle of 
ribs, each from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, reaching to 
the summit, and of as close and firm a texture as the wood of the 
Cactus usually is; and these enable it to defy the storm. When the 
plant dies, the flesh falls off from the woody fibres, and leaves the 
skeleton of the giant standing sometimes for years, before it too becomes 
the prey of corruption. The trunk of the Cereus, as well as its 
