GIANT MEXICAN CACTUS. 



223 



ger quantity, than into any of the larc^er 

 cities east of the Alleghanies. Mr. Long- 

 worth of Cincinnati, who has much merit 

 as a horticulturist, has, probably, the most 

 extensive vineyards in the country. His 

 fourteen vineyards contain about seventy 

 acres, and are mostly under the care of Ger- 

 mans, who have been familiar with vine- 

 growing and wine-making in their own 

 country. He prefers the northern exposures 

 of the hills, and thorough ploughing to 

 trenching. His attempts to acclimate the 

 foreign grape have proved unsuccessful, 

 and more reliance is placed on our native 

 varieties, many of which answer well both 

 for wine and table use. He plants his rows 

 in the vineyard six feet apart, and his plants 

 from three to four feet in the row, and cul- 

 tivates with the plough. Mr. Longworth 

 has been also a prime mover in the question 

 of the distinction of sex in the strawberry 

 plant, and has driven, with a steam power, 

 most of his opponents from the field. 

 Comparatively little attention has been 



paid to the cherry in southern Ohio, and the 

 same may be said of this fruit all over the 

 state ; though there are few portions which 

 are not well suited for its culture. The same 

 remarks apply to the pear. Probably more and 

 finer varieties of the cherry are exhibited at 

 the Cleveland Horticultural Society's shows, 

 than can be found elsewhere.* Apple or- 

 chards are multiplying rapidly in most of 

 the counties, and a great disposition is ex- 

 hibited to change the numerous seedlings 

 into palatable fruit. When England be- 

 comes an important market for Ohio apples, 

 as it probably will before many years, the 

 superior advantages afforded by the Lake 

 region, over other parts of the state, must 

 render it the great apple-growing portion. 

 One of the advantages we have already re- 

 ferred to ; the other is the easy water com- 

 munication afforded for shipment to the At- 

 lantic, through and by Lake Erie, the Wel- 

 land canal. Lake Ontario and the St. Law- 

 rence, without necessity of transhipment. 



Toledo, Sept. 27, 1846. W. H. ScOTT. 



GIANT MEXICAN CACTUS. 



There is, perhaps, no countr}^, excepting 

 Central Africa, that naturalists have at all 

 penetrated, which is richer in rare, novel, 

 and interesting plants, than Mexico. The 

 variety of soil and climate embraced within 

 its limits, is very great. Sandy, arid de- 

 serts—rich, deep watered valleys — high, 

 ''old mountainous tracts — all abound, each 

 covered with its appropriate vegetation. 



The Eoyal Garden atKew, near London, 

 has lately received from Mr. Staine, a col- 

 lector employed in Mexico, some specimens 

 of the Cactus family, which are of enormous 

 proportions. 



The district where Mr. Staine found 



these monster Cacti, is in the neighborhood 

 of San Luis Potosi. The division of the 

 Cactus family, called EchiTWcactus, Hedge- 

 hog Cactus, (from eckinos, a hedgehog,) is 

 naturally almost entirely confined to Mexico, 

 and abounds in gigantic proportions in the 

 neighborhood of San Luis Potosi. 



The first large specimen, which Mr. 

 Staine sent to the Kew gardens, proved to 

 be a new species, and was named by Sir 

 Wm. Hooker, Echinocactus stanesii, in honor 

 of its discoverer. It was the largest of the 



• One-third more varieties were shown at the Dutchess 

 County, N. Y., Hortiouhural Society's exhibition in June last, 

 all of the finest quality— Black Tartarians three inches In cir- 

 cumference. — Ed. 



