The Cactaceae : descriptions and illustrations of plants of the cactus family . oles large, 2 to 3 cm. apart;spines various, on old stems and branchesnumerous, at first yellow, often very long,20 to 30 cm. long; flowers nocturnal, large, 30cm. long, white; ovary purplish, bearing afew minute brown scales; stigma-lobes nu-merous, 2 cm. long; fruit large, sometimes 12cm. long by 8 cm. in diameter, bright red,splitting down on one side showing thewhite edible pulp; seeds 3 mm. long, dull,roughened with blunt tubercles. Type locality: Brazil. Distribution: Brazil. Planted in theWest Indies; perhap
The Cactaceae : descriptions and illustrations of plants of the cactus family . oles large, 2 to 3 cm. apart;spines various, on old stems and branchesnumerous, at first yellow, often very long,20 to 30 cm. long; flowers nocturnal, large, 30cm. long, white; ovary purplish, bearing afew minute brown scales; stigma-lobes nu-merous, 2 cm. long; fruit large, sometimes 12cm. long by 8 cm. in diameter, bright red,splitting down on one side showing thewhite edible pulp; seeds 3 mm. long, dull,roughened with blunt tubercles. Type locality: Brazil. Distribution: Brazil. Planted in theWest Indies; perhaps naturalized onsome islands. Cereus jamacaru is one of thecommonest cacti in Bahia and is foundin all kinds of situations from the coastto the inland desert. It is always large,10 meters tall or more, usually muchbranched. When living in dense for-ests it has a simple stem or only a fewbranches, growing tall and erect, thebranches have few ribs, but these arehigh and at first very blue, covered withformidable spines said to be 30 cm. longat times, although we have seen none. CEREUS. 9 which measured more than 19 cm. in length. The flowers are large and white, open-ing at night; the perianth cuts off early from the ovary, leaving the style, which ispersistent. The woody trunk may be 6 dm. in diameter, and boards suitable for boxes,picture frames, etc., are sawed from it. In most of the smaller houses in the country thecross pieces upon which the tile roofing is laid are from this cactus, which is called man-dacaru and mandacaru de boi. The specific name jamacaru, said by some writers to be thevulgar name of the plant in Brazil, is doubtless a corruption of mandacaru. It is some-times planted about country houses, often as a kind of hedge. In times of great droughtthe farmers cut off the young branches from these cacti to feed to their cattle. Cereus horridus Otto (Pfeiffer, Allg. Gartenz. 5:370. 1837) and C. thalassinus Ottoand Dietrich (Allg. Gartenz. 6:34. 1838), referred to
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbrittonn, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1919
