Plants solitary, with an upright trunk, branching only at top, the branches spreading or drooping; ribs numerous, low; young and sterile plants formidably spined; flowering branches naked or bearing only weak bristle-like spines; flowers solitary at the areoles, nocturnal, large, with slightly curved tubes; stamens and style shorter than the perianth-segments; flowers nearly white; ovary and flower-tube covered with large, thin, fleshy scales, these naked in their axils; fruit slightly acid, yellow, becoming naked by the falling away of the scales; seeds black, strongly papillose.
This genus does not closely approach any other. In the thin scales of the ovary and flower-tube there is a hint of Escontria of Mexico, but the scales are not chartaceous and the flowers are otherwise different. The ovary and perianth perhaps most resemble those of Hylocereus.
It is named in honor of W. E. Browning, formerly director of the Instituto Ingles at Santiago, Chile, who for many years did efficient educational work in Chile, and who was the friend of all Americans who visited Santiago.
Cereus candelaris Meyen, Allg. Gartenz. I:211 1833
Stems 3 to 5 meters high, with a simple trunk sometimes 3 dm. in diameter at base, tapering gradually upward; trunk when young strongly armed with many long spines, but when very old shedding the spines and in some cases becoming nearly naked; ribs 30 to 34, rounded, about 5 mm. high; branches from and near the top usually many, sometimes as many as 50, but sometimes as few as 3 to 6, in whorls or pseudo-whorls, slender, often spreading at right angles to the trunk, sometimes erect, or sometimes touching the ground; areoles circular, usually about 1 cm. apart, 5 to 15 mm. in diameter and, when old, much elevated; spines of the trunk areoles normally about 20, very unequal, the longest ones 6 to 10 cm. long, but sometimes 50 or more, the longest 15 cm. long, at first brownish, then gray or black; spines on flowering branches weak, yellow, sometimes bristle-like or even wanting; flower-buds globular, obtuse, covered with thin imbricating scales; flowers opening in the evening, closing in early morning, not fragrant, 8 to 12cm. long, a little curved; scales on ovary and flower-tube large, numerous; throat of flower rather narrow, 3 to 4 cm. long, covered with filaments; tube proper 4 cm. long; inner perianth-segments narrow, about 2 cm. long, brown or rose-colored or the innermost pale rose to white; filaments cream-colored, numerous, the lower 3 cm. long, the upper 2cm. long; style slender, 7 cm. long, cream-colored; stigma-lobes about 12, 4 to 5 mm. long, cream-colored; fruit said to be edible; seeds 2mm. broad.
Type locality: On mountain slopes along the way from Tacna, Chile, to Arequipa, Peru, up to 9,000 feet (2,740 meters) altitude.
Distribution: Southern Peru and northern Chile.
The name. Cactus candelaris Meyen (Reise 2: 40. 1835), occurs in Meyen's narrative, where he states that it was first found in the Cordilleras of Tacna (now in Chile) in isolated examples, confined between 7,000 and 9,000 feet altitude. This plant is very conspicuous in the desert below Arequipa and was collected there by Dr. Rose in 1914 (No.18794).
Figure 92 shows a flower collected by Dr. Rose below Arequipa, Peru, in 1914; figure 93 shows the young fruit and persistent withering perianth from the same plant; figure 94 is from a photograph taken by T. A. Corry near Arequipa, Peru, in 1917; the plant immediately in front is Trichocerceus fascicularis.
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| Figure 94 | Figure 92 and Figure 93 |
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