296 THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



of its white pellucid but dangerously hooked spines. It is rare, and 

 I never had a good plant of it but from Mr. Atkins, of Painswick, 

 the celebrated Cyclamen grower, though I dare say M. Pffersdorf 

 will have a few, as he had mauy kinds of extraordinary rarity and 

 value. His crested kinds, too, would surprise many of our raisers. 

 Some of the Mammillarias assume the cockscomb form. These he 

 grafts on some of the Cereus tribe in the way of hexagonus, and 

 thus you may see many symmetrical green and fluted shafts crested 

 with a white and densely spiny cockscomb of Mammillaria, which 

 grows stronger on the Cereus than on its own roots, and forms one 

 of the most striking objects in existence. Then, again, there are 

 normal forms of the same kinds grafted on cylindrical stems of 

 green Cacti, and forming a jutting round spiny nob on the end of 

 the little green shaft, and putting it almost out of sight when looked 

 down upon. Only fancy some of such with a corona of crimson 

 buds — perhaps succeeded by bright scarlet fruit ! 



I have said before that to make a collection of such plants would 

 be unwise, but there are many out of the neat lot enumerated by 

 Sigma that will repay cultivation, and add a charming variety to the 

 indoor department. Many Grasterias, Haworthias, and Apicras, for 

 instance, are remarkably neat and singular in their habit ; some of 

 the Euphorbias too, particularly the globular Euphorbias that sit on 

 the pot like little melons placed on the soil, and are furnished with 

 spines big enough for a Gleditschia, are most extraordinary. Then 

 there is Echeveria metallica, now used as a bedding plant, and others, 

 not to speak of such tiny and miscellaneous pets as Monathes 

 polyphylla, some of the Crassulas with pink margined glaucous 

 leaves, the ciliated and tabuliform sempervivums, and a host of other 

 beauties. 



The best plan for the amateur about to commence their cultiva- 

 tion is to go to Kew and have a quiet hour or two there in the Cactus 

 house, and ten minutes in the Mesembryanthemum house, which 

 contains a fine collection of this genus, not a few of which are of 

 extraordinary shape and beauty, although, strange to say, the species 

 that are met with in private gardens are usually the least remarkable 

 and least interesting of the family. Then he should note down the 

 neatest, most striking, and most diverse in each family, going 

 regularly through the collection, taking care to put down no two 

 species that approach each other, but, on the contrary, to pick the 

 very cream of each genus that seems worthy of culture, and after- 

 wards collect and cultivate them. As I have occasionally recom- 

 mended plants in this journal which readers could not obtain from 

 their nurserymen, it may be well to indicate where good kinds are 

 to be bought. A few choice kinds may now and then be picked up 

 in an old nursery, or even in the newest of nurseries, for I have seen 

 a number in Messrs. Carter's nursery at Sydenham. A lot of neat 

 and good kinds may be picked up for a mere trifle at Covent Garden 

 — I mean the popular kinds supplied by M. Pffersdorf and sold by 

 Hooper in the Middle Row ; and not a few others, even the corn- 

 dealers, in some streets, keep them for sale. When I first noticed 

 these little Cacti in London, I wondered where the deuce they came 



