aces. There are many varieties, and as many different
shapes. Some lie on the ground; others, attached to trunks of trees as
parasites, hang from branches like great serpents; but none is so
majestic as the species called systematically _Cereus giganteus_, most
appropriately. The species growing pretty abundantly on the island of
Key West is called candle cactus. It reaches some ten or twelve feet,
and is about three inches in diameter. The angles are not so prominent,
which gives the cylinders a roundish appearance. They form a pretty,
rather picturesque feature in the otherwise barren undergrowth of
shrubbery and small trees. Accompanied by a few flowering cocoa palms,
the view is not unpleasing. The fiber of these plants is utilized in
some coarse manufactures. The maguey, or Agave, is used in the
manufacture of fine roping. Manila hemp is made from a species. The
species whose dried stalks are used by the woodpeckers for their winter
storage was cultivated at Key West, Florida, during several years before
1858. Extensive fields of the Agave stood unappropriated at that period.
Considerable funds were dissipated on this venture. Extensive works were
established, and much confidence was entertained that the scheme would
prove a paying one, but the "hemp" rope which this was intended to rival
could be made cheaper than this. The great Agave plants, with their long
stalks, stand now, increasing every year, until a portion of the island
is overrun with them.

CEREUS GIGANTEUS.

This wonderful cactus, its colossal proportions, and weird, yet grand,
appearance in the rocky regions of Mexico and California, where it is
found in abundance, have been made known to us only through books of
travel, no large plants of it having as yet appeared in cultivation in
this country. It is questionable if ever the natural desire to see such
a vegetable curiosity represented by a large specimen in gardens like
Kew can be realized, owing to the difficulty of importing large stems in
a living condition; and even if successfully brought here, they survive
only a very short time. To grow young plants to a large size seems
equally beyond our power, as plants 6 inches high and carefully managed
are quite ten years old. When young, the stem is globose, afterward
becoming club-shaped or cylindrical. It flowers at the height of 12
feet, but grows up to four or five times that height, when it develops
lateral branches, which curve upward and pre