62 ON THE CULTURE OF THE GENUS CACTUS. 



ARTICLE IV. 



ON THE CULTURE OF THE GENUS CACTUS. 



.B\ G. N. 



A Correspondent inquires in the November Number, 1840, how to 

 manage his Cactus plants ; as no one has yet answered him, the fol- 

 lowing remarks may be of service. 



Four years ago I turned my attention to them on seeing Jenkinsonia 

 in bloom ; I had previously seen the Speciosas and Flagelliformis, but 

 they were like his plants in lime-rubbish, and grew very slowly in- 

 deed. I now determined to try something better. I let the plants 

 remain as they were till they began to push in spring ; I then turned 

 them out of , the pots and shook away all the old soil, and repotted 

 them into the following compost : — old rotted frame dung, that had 

 laid till it resembled peat-soil, mixed with as much fine sand as made 

 it resemble sandy peat ; they were then watered and kept moist all 

 summer, like the Geraniums, and they made fine wood. Next 

 season they flowered, not amiss, and have bloomed well every season 

 since. 



I am averse to turning them out in summer, as the snails eat all 

 the tops off the shoots and disfigure the plants. 



They may be checked to throw them into bloom by keeping them 

 dry during winter, and not giving much water in spring till the buds 

 are advanced a little, as I find they run to wood if water be too freely 

 given. At first my plants are solely grown in the greenhouse, and I 

 find that many of them will do very well without stove-heat ; Spe- 

 ciosissimus may be flowered every year by giving the plant a good 

 situation and keeping it dry in winter and spring till the buds arc 

 formed. I have Jenkinsonia and Harrisonia with shoots nearly four 

 feet high, and Speciosas nearly as tall, and which has had in one 

 season fifty-four fine flowers on it. 



It would I am sure be useful to any one who intends trying his 

 skill on this neglected tribe of plants, if some reader would give a 

 list, like the Camellia list in last number, of the Cactus as now grown, 

 saying which would succeed in a greenhouse. 



[We hope some of our readers will favour us with such a list at an 

 early opportunity. — Conductor.] 



