C.W.  Plass, Esq., of Napa City, California, had an interesting example of the habits of the California Melanerpes displayed in his own house.  The birds had deposited numbers of acorns in the gable end.  A considerable number of shells were found dropped underneath the eaves, while some were found in place under the gable, and these were perfect, having no grubs in them.

The picture shows a very common scene in New Mexico.  The columns, straight and angular, are often sixty feet in height.  It is called torch cactus in some places.  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