CE'REUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Cactacece. It is characterised by its sepals being very numerous, imbricate, adnate to the base of the ovarinm, united into an elon gated tube, outer ones shorter and like a calyx, middle ones longer and coloured, innermost ones petaloid ; the style multifid at the the berry sreolate, tubercular, or scaly from the remains of the sepals. The species are fleshy grotesque shrubs, with a woody axis and soft interior. They possess angles which are vertical and covered with. bundles of spines. The flowers are large, arising from the angles of the spines. They are called Torch-Thistles.
C. the Old Man Torch-Thistle, is an erect plant, having a stem with 20-25 vertical ribs, covered with fascicles of bristles, each fascicle containing from 15-20 radiating hair-formed curled bristles. Its long gray bristles give it the appearance of the head of an old gray-haired man. It is a native of Mexico.
C. fiagelliformie, the Creeping Cereus, has prostrate stems with about 10 angles. It is very common in our gardens, and its trailing stems require the support of trellis-work. It bears an abundance of beautiful red and pink flowers. It is a native of South America, though now naturalised in Asia and Africa.
C. grandifloruo, the Night-Flowering Cereus, has rooting stems, with 5 or 6 angles and fascicles of bristles, with 5-8 in each fascicle. It is a native of the West India Islands, and is found in many parts of the mainland of South America. This plant when cultivated produces very large beautiful sweet-scented flowers. They are how ever of short duration, remaining open not more than six hours. They generally begin to open between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, and are fully expanded by eleven or twelve, and before the next morning they are quite faded.
U. specioeieeimus is an erect plant, 3-4 angled, the angles toothed, the prickles subulato, straight, rising from a white tomentum. It is a native of Mexico, but is very commonly cultivated in our gardens, on account of its large flowers, which are of a beautiful scarlet, the inner petals having a violaceous colour. Nearly 100 species of this beautiful genus of plants have been described, and a fine collection of them exists in the Royal Gardens at Kew. They are of easy culture, and require the same general treatment as the order to which they belong. [CAcrecE2s.]