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Show II Rare NTight-blooming ;ii Cereus Occasion ! of a Reception ji CORONA. Cal.. Oct. 2. In honor of if a llower, a reception more imposing ij than any jn honor of a human for r years in Corona was held at the rosi- ) i dence of Mrs. George N. Bacr, a bot- ! anist and cactus connoisseur, who is-1 sued invitations to a lursc number of 1 ) friends to witness the nnoning or a ' rare night-blooming cereus. fc ; As tho cereus, sometimes called : I "The Eastern Star," although known 1 to botanists as cereus grandiffourus. blooms only one night in the year and f as this particular species is rare, the knowledge that it was to open had for y vpeks caused as much interest among flower-lovers as the advent of a new pomc-t does to astronomers. I t Mrs. Baer watched It carefully and , when indications were that the night of its blossoming had arrived, she hur-' hur-' rlcdly telephoned her invitations. The result was a throng which gathered at ) 8 o'clock and remained until after midnight. - t) 1 On this specimen, which Mrs. Baer y, has carefully nutured for years until V it covers a trellis six feet high, were ? ten buds and shortly after S o'clock on ' this night, the calyx, composed "of many slender fllment-like sepals, be-I be-I gan to show signs of animation, ac- l tually, so some of those present de- l clared, twisting apd squirming. And by j the time an hour and a half had pass- 4 ' ed, the sepals -were carefully parted, J disclosing tho rare beauty of the pure- . white coralla, shaped something like a teacup and with a long, peculiar stamen, reminispent of a bit of Ivory filigree. Then, for a few hours, the blossom remained truly a thing of beauty but with dawn came a quick fading. 1 This particular plant is a species l of cactus, of which botanists have tabj ulated 62 varieties. They are natives of Ecuador and other west coast countries coun-tries of South America, where they thrive in the high, dry atmosphere, and, next to the orchids of tho Amazon, many botanists say, they aro the most gorgeous floral beauties of the western hemisphere. Cereus grandiflorus raroly produce more than four buds in a season but this particular plant of Mrs. Baer's more than doubled the number, maturing matur-ing ten. |