years ago, Sir Wm. Hooker said:  “Certainly, of the many floral spectacles that have gratified lovers of horticulture at the Royal Gardens, Kew, of late years, few have been more striking than this to those who were privileged to see the blossoms in bud and fully expanded.  The plant was received from Honduras through the favour of Mrs. MacDonald, and was planted at the back of the old Cactus-house, and trained against a wall.  It first showed symptoms of blossoming in July, 1851.  A casual observer might have passed the plant as an unusually large form of the ‘night-blooming Cereus’ (C. grandiflorus), but the slightest inspection of the stems and flowers, the latter 14 in. in diameter by 14 in. long, shows this to be a most distinct species.”

C. Napoleonis (Napoleon’s); Bot.  Mag. 3458.—­This is very like C. grandiflorus, and is slightly and not very agreeably perfumed.  The flowers sometimes open very early in the morning and fade in the afternoon, so that they may be enjoyed during the day-time.  The flower tube is 6 in. long, curved upwards, and clothed with rose-tinted scales, which become gradually larger towards the top, where they widen out into a whorl of greenish-yellow sepals, above which are the white petals forming a broad shallow cup, 8 in. across, with a cluster of yellow stamens in the centre.  The stems are three-angled, light green, and bear clusters of short stiff spines along the angles at intervals of 2 in.  Flowers in autumn.  Mexico (?), 1835.

C. nycticalus (flowering at night); Fig. 15.—­Stems four to six-angled, 2 in. wide, dark green, bearing little tufts of hair and thin white spines along the angles, and a profusion of aerial roots.  Flowers as large as those of C. grandiflorus; tube covered with tufts of white hairs; sepals or outer whorl of segments bright orange, the inner pure white, and arranged like a cup.  They open at about seven o’clock in the evening, and fade at seven on the following morning.  This plant may still be met with in some old-fashioned gardens, but only rarely as compared with its popularity a generation ago, when it was to be found in almost every collection of stove plants.  At that time, the flowering of this Cactus was looked upon as an event, and it was customary for the owner to invite his friends to meet and watch the development of the flowers, and enjoy to the full their almost over-powering but delicious fragrance.  So bright are the colours of the flowers, that a sort of luminosity seems to surround them when at their best.  Flowers in autumn.  Mexico, 1834.

[Illustration:  Fig. 15.—­Cereus nycticalus.]