cause or other, and to
save the specimen, a mound was built up of brick rubble and soil, high
enough to surround the base of the plant above the rotted part. In a few
weeks there was a good crop of new roots formed, and the plant has since
flowered most satisfactorily. With almost any other plant, this course
would have proved futile; but Cactuses are singularly tenacious of life,
the largest and oldest stems being capable of forming roots as freely
and as quickly as the young ones.

C. extensus (long-stemmed); Bot. Mag. 4066.--This has long rope-like
stems, bluntly triangular, less than 1 in. thick, with very short spines,
arranged in pairs or threes, about 1 in. apart along the angles, and
aerial roots. The flowers are developed all along the stems, and are
composed of a thick, green, scale-clothed tube, about 3 in. long; the
larger scales yellow and green, tipped with red, and a spreading cup
formed of the long-pointed sepals and petals, the former yellow, green,
and red, the latter white, tinted with rose. The flower is about 9 in.
across. When in blossom, this plant equals in beauty the finest of the
climbing Cactuses, but, unfortunately, it does not flower as freely as
most of its kind. It is cultivated at Kew, where it has flowered once
during the last five years. A native of Trinidad, whence it was
introduced, and first flowered in August, 1843. Judging by the
conditions under which it grows and blossoms in its native haunts, no
doubt its shy-flowering nature under cultivation here is owing to the
absence of a long continuance of bright sunshine and moisture, followed
by one of drought and sunlight. If placed in a favourable condition as
regards light, and carefully treated in respect of water, it ought to
flower.

C. fulgidus (glittering); Bot. Mag. 5856.--In the brilliant deep
scarlet of its large buds, and the bright orange-scarlet of the expanded
flowers, this species stands quite alone among the night-flowering,
scandent-stemmed Cereuses. Its one drawback is its shy-flowering nature,
as it is rarely seen in blossom even when liberally treated, and along
with the other kinds which flower so freely. The history of this plant
is not known; but it is supposed to be a hybrid between C. Pitajayi or
variabilis and one of the scarlet-flowered Phyllocactuses, or, possibly,
C. speciosissimus. It first flowered at Kew, in July, 1870. Stems bright
green, slow-growing, three or four-angled, about 2 in. wide; angles mu