es 
SSS os 
Photo bu] [s. i Bastin. j 
TURK’S CAP CACTUS. 
The fez-like extension of the plant 
proper consists of a woolly substance beset 
with soft spines. From it the flowers are 
produced. 
fez of woolly substance thickly set 
Another genus of short, broad 
Photo by] [s. Le Bastin: 
WISLIZEN’S CACTUS. 
Clad with spines as tough as steel. 
Radiating series of shorter white spines 
protect the flesh, and from the centre of 
each cluster stand out longer and stronger 
spines, which keep animals at a distance. 
Marvels of the Universe 
which, known as the Suwarow, attains a height of fifty or sixty 
feet. Its habitat 
Mexico, where little else in the way of vegetation is seen, and 
these look more like telegraph-poles than living plants. As a 
rule, they are unbranched, and are fluted throughout their 
length with from twelve to twenty deep channels and a corre- 
sponding number of ridges. Along the ridges at intervals of 
about an inch are thick yellow cushions, bearing each about 
half a dozen long spines and many smaller ones. It bears 
cream-coloured flowers, three or four inches across, from near 
is the almost desert mountains of New 
the summit of the stem, and these are succeeded by egg-shaped 
fruits containing black seeds embedded in crimson pulp, which 
the Indians gather for food. It is believed that the Suwarow 
lives for two or three centuries. 
are noted for the beauty of their flowers, which open at night. 
We have given photographs of two of these in our first 
Some other species of Cereus 
volume. 
A quaint form is the West Indian Turk’s Cap, or Melon 
Cactus, shown on this page. The plant proper is globular in form, 
about a foot across, with from twelve to twenty ridges running 
from top to bottom, and surmounted by a cylindrical crown or 
with soft spines. The small rosy flowers spring out of the fez. 
and very symmetrical forms is Mammillaria, so called because 
the plants are ornamented with teat-like tubercles, which bear 
the clusters of spines at their tips. 
are shown in the photographs on pages 751 and 754. 
Then there are the Hedgehog Thistles, which are egg-shaped 
or round, some of the latter resembling the Turk’s Cap, except 
They have strong ribs and rounded 
Two examples of this genus 
that they want the fez. 
bosses, which bear the long spines. 
rosettes with usually a straight central spine. Some of them 
are truly terrible in their array of fixed bayonets. The Tooth- 
pick Cactus is a member of this genus. Between sixty and 
seventy years ago a large specimen of this Cactus, nine feet 
high and nine and a half feet in girth, was on view in Kew 
It weighed a ton, and the difficulty 
heavy a succulent plant, in 
bringing it from its native Mexico, caused such injuries to the 
soft flesh that it never got over, and it soon died. Considering 
how slowly these plants increase in size, this specimen must 
have been very old. It was estimated to bear over fifty 
thousand toothpicks or protecting spines. The flowers of all 
this genus are produced from the top of the plant. As 
examples of the Hedgehog Thistles, we give photographs of 
Wislizen’s Cactus, which is rather squat in early life, but later 
assumes a cylindrical form, and becomes very large. Its 
spines, for hardness and toughness, might be made of steel, so 
that the plant has to be approached with caution by man or 
beast. 
These are arranged in 
Gardens for a short time. 
of handling so prickly and 
