NOTICES OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
471 
plant from which the drawing was taken flowered in the collection of 
Sir George Staunton, Bart., at his seat in Hampshire, under the manage¬ 
ment of Mr. Wilson, the gardener. It has the habit of the night¬ 
flowering cereus, as the flowers begin to open about four in the after¬ 
noon and fade about ten the next morning. If anything, it exceeds the 
last mentioned plant in the size of its flowers ; the calyx being green, 
the petals of the corolla a dazzling white, with a broad aggregation of 
stamens in the centre, through which the style and headed stigma 
protrudes. 
We may take occasion to remark here on the unaccountable tendency 
of these plants to bloom in the night rather than in the day, a tendency 
diametrically different from the generality of plants. Many flowers 
are so obedient to the sun, that they can only “ open their enamoured 
bosom to his ray,” and close again when he retires, or if only a passing 
cloud intervene. It is certainly a difficult question to answer whether 
it be the excitement of the previous day which causes the night 
expansion, or a certain constitutional provision of nature to guard the 
delicate members of those magnificent flowers from the withering effects 
of solar light and heat. Those of our readers who have the charge of 
the night-flowering cereus might, by a little attention, soon be able, per¬ 
haps, to solve the question above stated. Those well acquainted with the 
plant can almost always tell in the day before that a certain flower will 
be fully out at twelve o’clock on the following night; knowing this, 
they may, by a simple experiment, prove whether the blooming could 
be retarded by light or accelerated by darkness. Let us suppose that 
there is a flower-bud fully swollen, and having every appearance of 
flowering the same evening—suppose again that the plant were en¬ 
veloped in some kind of covering, which would effectually exclude the 
light of day about two o'clock in the afternoon,—qu. would this artificial 
night accelerate the flowering? 
Or suppose that about sunset the same plant were placed in a circle 
of Argand’s lamps or other bright lights, would this artificial sun¬ 
shine retard the flowering till real darkness returned ? Such experi¬ 
ments would be at least amusing, and they might settle the question 
whether the flowers, for their own sake, be or be not afraid of the 
sun-beams. The fruit of the C. triangularis “ is described as being 
quite smooth, of a rich scarlet, and with the size and form of a 
goose’s egg.” 
2. Eutoca viscida. Clammy Eutoca. This plant belongs to the 
natural order Hydrophyllacece, and is a hardy herbaceous annual, found 
in California by Mr. Douglas. The flowers are beautiful, but the 
foliage “ coarse and weedy.” 
