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Updated: August 13, 2024
She would have entered into the affairs of a wronged heroine with enthusiastic interest; but what was to be done with those of a possibly guilty one? She was so ready for the unexpected that as she stood at a back window, looking into the garden, it was almost a surprise not to find the night-blooming cereus really lifting its exotic head among the stout spring shoots of the peonies.
When the prickly pear had made a golden garden of the prairie and the heart of Cereus phoeniceus was warm with the intention of lighting its gorgeous crimson torch on the divides; when the arroyo, but lately a pretty streamlet, had told wellnigh all its beads to the sun-god, and had but here and there in its parched length an isolated pool; when the flock at noon no longer flushed the last teal from the creek, because that lingering bird had finally winged its way toward Manitoba or some other favorite retreat northerly, at this time the constant wind, gentle but never-failing, and almost always from the south, was overweighted with a roar of multitudinous bleating and befouled with dust; for shearing was going on at the ranch.
On re-grafting this head on to the Cereus a little lower down, it failed to unite, and, attributing the failure to possible ill-health in the stock, we determined to transfer the Rat's-tail Cactus to a large stem of Pereskia aculeata, the result being a quick union and rapid, healthy growth since.
The whole south east side is composed of black sterile rocks, which are piled together in an extraordinary confusion; even to the environs of the town of Saint Croix, scarcely any thing is seen, on the greater part of these dry and burnt lands, but low plants, the higher of which are probably Euphorbia, or thorny Cereus; and those which cover the ground, the hairy lichen, Crocella tinctoria, which is employed in dying, and which this island furnishes in abundance.
The poisonous manchineel was observed, a drop of whose milky juice will burn the flesh like vitriol. Here the invaders also observed and noted the night-blooming cereus. They were delighted by fruits of which they knew not the names, such as the custard-apple, mango, zapota, banana, and others, growing in such rank luxuriance as to seem miraculous.
It would be useless to attempt such a cross as Epiphyllum with Cereus giganteus, because of their widely different natures; but such crosses as Epiphyllum with Phyllocactus, and Cereus flagelliformis with C. speciosissimus, have been brought about.
Anthea cereus, which contains most algae, probably far outnumbers all the other species of sea-anemones put together, and the Radiolarians which contain yellow cells are far more abundant than those which are destitute of them. Such instances, which might easily be multiplied, show that the association is beneficial to the animals concerned.
Botanists find good specific characters in the size and structure of the seeds, in the character of the fruits, &c.; but for horticultural purposes these are of little or no value. The thirteen species included in the genus Pereskia differ so markedly from all other kinds of Cactus, that at first sight one can scarcely believe they are true Cactuses, closely related to Cereus and Epiphyllum.
In a cottage window this operation may be successfully performed if a box with a movable glass top, or a large bell glass, be used to keep the grafts close till they have taken. For the spherical-stemmed kinds of Mamillaria, Cereus, Echinocactus, &c., a different method is found to answer.
But the most startling result was obtained by the exposure of the common Anthea cereus, which yielded great quantities of gas containing on an average from 32 to 38 per cent. of oxygen.
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