Bot. [L. cēreus waxen, resembling wax, f. cēra wax.] A large genus of cactuses, natives of tropical America, remarkable for their singularity of form and the beauty of their flowers; the Torch-thistle.
1730. Stack, in Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 462. This Cereus … exposed in open air all Summer, grew without pushing forth Branches.
1767. J. Abercrombie, Ev. Man Own Gard. (1803), 382. The tenderer sorts of cereuses.
1844. Tupper, Heart, iv. 38. Lustrous to look upon, even as the night-blowing Cereus.
1872. Reade, Put yourself, &c. II. xi. 173.
