866 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE CACTI. 



BY TEEDEEICK OTTO. 

 {Translated from the Oarten Zeitung.) 



JHEEE has already been so much written in this periodical 

 I on the cultivation of the Cacti, that it might be thought 

 that everything relating to this group of plants was tho- 

 roughly known, and the subject almost exhausted. But 

 this is not the case ; and a great deal not yet made known 

 remains to be investigated. 



In almost every garden where Cacti are cultivated, a different 

 method is followed ; and it is always that which the cultivator finds 

 to be the most suitable and effectual in promoting the growth and 

 vigour of his plants. It is true that, for the cultivation of this 

 famijy, there is, up to the present moment, no general rule which 

 seems to be commonly received everywhere. According to the 

 latest accounts of the most recent travellers and collectors, the 

 Mexican Mammillarias are found in such a variety of situations, and 

 in such different soils (as may frequently be seen by the earth 

 attached to the roots of the original plants when they first come 

 over), that a great deal more attention should be paid to their soil 

 than has unfortunately been tbe case hitherto. Many of the species 

 are found on lime, chalk, and the fragments of stones or rocks that 

 have become broken by tbe action of the atmosphere ; and among 

 these may be mentioned the Mammillarias discovered in Mexico in 

 1840, called M. Parlcinsonii Wireiih. and 3f. SchlechtendaUi, both of 

 which were found growing on a chalky range of hills in Mexico, 

 near San Onofi'e in Mineral del Doctor ; and according to the 

 Linnoea, vol. xiv. p. 375, 31. Kitmholdtii is also found on a chalky 

 range of hills between Tzmiquilpan and Mestitlan. I^chinocactus 

 turbinifbrmis seems wedded (so to speak) to bare and precipitous 

 rocks ; and the Ariocarpus retusus flourishes on a moory soil, where 

 it is always moist. "Were all these plants, therefore, put in a soil 

 that the gardener might fancy was congenial to them, it stands to 

 reason that they could not grow, as such a treatment would be totally 

 against their nature. If he try to excite the roots by a change of 

 soil, or by putting the plants in a hot-bed full of vapour, he will not 

 succeed ; and unfortunately too many gardeners fall into this error, 

 and by this means the best and rarest plants, which have been pre- 

 served during a long voyage, have been totally lost by a wrong mode 

 of culture. 



Where nature cannot be imitated exactly, the most earnest wish 

 of the gardener should be to approach her as near as possible, and in 

 this consists the great art of the cultivator. The different kinds of 

 soil are not alone necessary for the growth of the plants : situation 

 and temperature must also be taken into consideration. Eor some 

 years back, collections of Mammillarias, from whatever parts of the 

 world they came, were grown in our hot-houses, and many of them 

 are still kept there. The AYest Indian species, such as M. simjyle^v, 



