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Updated: May 29, 2025
The branchlets are exactly the same as those of E. truncatum, but the flowers are not like Epiphyllum at all, resembling rather those of Cereus or Phyllocactus. They are brilliant scarlet in colour, shaded with violet. Tube rosy-violet; petals dark red. Tube and base of petals white, rest salmon-red, shaded with purple. Tube and base of petals white; tips of petals carmine.
Stem woody; branches jointed, flattened as in Phyllocactus, with deep notches; width of joints, 2 in. or more. Flowers small, yellowish-white, borne singly in the notches in November. Fruit a small, white berry, rarely ripened. A sturdy, comparatively uninteresting stove plant, introduced from Brazil in 1830. Syn. Cactus alatus.
We may, therefore, take a plant of Phyllocactus, with which most of us are familiar, and, by observing the structure of its flowers, obtain some idea of the botanical characters of the whole order. Phyllocactus has thin woody stems and branches composed of numerous long leaf-like joints, growing out of one another, and resembling thick leaves joined by their ends.
CEREUS. Stem often long and erect, sometimes scandent, branching, ridged or angular; flowers from the sides of the stem; calyx tube elongated and regular; stamens free. PHYLLOCACTUS. Stem flattened, jointed, and notched; flowers from the sides, large, having long, thin tubes and a regular arrangement of the petals.
We are told by travellers of the splendours of a Cactus haunt during the flowering season, and those who have seen a well-managed pot specimen of Phyllocactus when covered with large, dazzling flowers, can form some idea of what wild plants are like when seen by hundreds together, and surrounded by the green foliage and festooning climbers which associate with them in the forests where they abound.
In some, such for instance as the Rhipsalis, the flowers are small, and therefore less easy to dissect than those of Phyllocactus. The stems of Cactuses show a very wide range of variation in size, in form, and in structure.
For the propagation of the Phyllocactus either the whole plant may be divided at the base, or cuttings of the branches may be used; the latter, after having dried by remaining with their bases exposed to the air for a day or two, should be planted in small pots filled with very sandy soil; they may be placed on a dry, sunny shelf near the glass, and be slightly sprinkled overhead daily till rooted.
As in the case of the Epiphyllums, the principal character by which the Phyllocactus is distinguished is well described by the name, the difference between it and Epiphyllum being that in the former the flowers are produced along the margins of the flattened branches, whereas in the latter they are borne on the apices of the short, truncate divisions.
Then there is the Indian Fig, with branches like battledores, joined by their ends; the Epiphyllum and Phyllocactus, with flattened leaf-like stems; the columnar spiny Cereus, with deeply channelled stems and the appearance of immense candelabra.
The flowers open in the day-time, and are scentless; they last in perfection for two or three days, and may, therefore, be employed as cut flowers for vases, &c. Early summer. In addition to the cultivated species of Phyllocactus there are numerous hybrids and varieties, many of which are beautiful and distinct either in colour or in size of blossom. The most beautiful of white-flowered kinds.
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