Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A large genus of cactaceous plants, of the tropical and warm regions of America, including 200 species, 30 of which are found in the United States. They are oval or columnar plants, with spiny ribs or angles, large tubular funnelform flowers, and small black exal-buminous seeds. They vary greatly in form and habit, the columnar species being either erect or climbing, and the flowers are often very large, as in the night-blooming cereus group, C. grandiflorus, C. Macdonaldiæ, etc., which is well known in cultivation. The old-man cactus, C. senilis, is so called from the long gray hairs covering the top of the stem. The most remarkable species are those with tall columnar stems, from 25 to 50 feet high, found chiefly ill northwestern Mexico and Arizona, some of them bearing large edible fruit. The best-known of this group is the giant cactus, C. giganteus, of Arizona. See cuts under
Cactaccæ . - n. [lowercase] Any plant of the genus Cereus.
- n. In zoology, a genus of sea-anemones, of the family Actiniidæ.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A genus of plants of the Cactus family. They are natives of America, from California to Chili.
WordNet 3.0
- n. genus of much-branched treelike or shrubby cacti with pronounced ribs and rounded needlelike spines and nocturnal flowers usually white
Examples
“There are a number of night-flowering species and varieties, but the one especially known as the Night-blooming Cereus is _Cereus grandiflorus_, which, when in full bloom, presents a rare sight.”
“It is well adapted for grafting on to the stem of some kind of Cereus, and in this way may be made to look very singular, as was shown in Mr. Peacock's collection of succulents some years ago, when a fine specimen, over 1 ft. across, was successfully grafted on to three stems of C. tortuosus, and had much the appearance of a melon elevated on a short tripod.”
“Cereus operated out of a front business called Western Electrik Kompani.”
“Archie Coleman, who filled his quarters with Turkish antiques and tended to be a braggart, was put in charge of overseeing another chain of agents code-named “Cereus,” after a night-blooming cactus in the American West.”
“Cereus would soon infiltrate agents into Romania and Bulgaria “to stimulate widespread sabotage” and spark a “revolution.””
“The agent who managed the Cereus network for Coleman was Dogwood, a Czech engineer the British spy service turned over to Macfarland in July who had lived in Istanbul for a long time and who claimed his real name was Alfred Schwarz—although the OSS always thought it was an alias.”
“Seven months after arriving in Istanbul, Macfarland sent a secret memo to OSS headquarters predicting spectacular results with Cereus.”
“• Cereus, an oracle priestess, will ply her powers of dark magic and seduction in her quest for immortality.”
“The saguaro cactus (Cereus giganteus) is by far the most recognizable Sonoran Desert species.”
“You'll definitely lose weight if you get lucky enough to land one of the possibly tainted cans: "Slim-Fast: Now With Bacillus Cereus!”
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