The Night-Blowing Cereus

Though his attempt to publish The Temple of Flora bankrupted him, Robert Thornton earned enduring fame for his efforts. Of the lugubrious setting for what we know as the night-blooming cereus, he said, in the night-blowing Cereus… you have the moon playing on the dimpled water, and the turret-clock points XII, the hour at night when this flower is in its full expanse.