2 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
produce beautiful flowers, but fertile ones. We know of no 
established relation between beauty and fertility,—only we know 
that when, by artificial treatment, we increase the beauty of a 
flower, we always, in nearly the same ratio, diminish the fertility. 
Having said this, we shall proceed to describe Cereus Triangu¬ 
laris ; and for the substance of the description, we are indebted 
to our talented and indefatigable friend, Mr. Don, than whom a 
more efficient priest does not minister in the temple of Flora. 
Cereus triangularis belongs to the Linnaean order Icosandria, 
and to the order Cactece in what is called the “ Natural System.” 
It is one of the night flowerers, and superior both in the colour 
and size to the Grandijiora, the blooming of which is made an 
exhibition ; while this one, owing of course to unskilful treatment, 
has been passed over with neglect. We do not pretend to say 
that the flower from which our figure was taken, was the finest 
that the plant could produce ; but it was, beyond all comparison, 
finer than those produced at Kew and the Horticultural Gardens. 
Our figure is not much more than one-fourtli of the lineal dimen¬ 
sions of the flower, and consequently not much more than one 
sixty-fourth of the volume estimated as a solid. 
The length of the flower was fully a foot from the base of the 
tube to the lips of the petals ; and the diameter of the expansion 
of the inner petals was fully ten inches. When viewed laterally, 
the general colour is greenish white. The scales, or bractese, on 
the tube, are pale green ; the sepals, of which there are several 
rows, are greenish white, with a slight tinge of yellow ; and the 
petals, which are ovate-lanceolate, and very numerous, are of the 
most delicate semi-transparent white : the stamens, which are 
countless, incurved upon the pistil, and filling the tube, are like 
silken threads of the most delicate lemon yellow, which deepens 
where they are crowded on the narrow part of the tubes, but 
softens off toward the anthers. These are of a rich yellowish 
brown, kidney-shaped, with the length across the filaments; 
and they, from the delicacy of the latter, float over them like 
little bees with invisible wings. The pistil is yellowish, with a 
shade of green and brown, and it is stout and fleshy, and stands 
like a queen amid the slender filaments, and the nodding anthers. 
Then, 
-“ what seems its head, 
The likeness of a queenly crown has on 
