112 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



season ; during the former vegetation receives a surprising impetus ; 

 during the latter it flags, and appears almost burnt up and destroyed. 

 Cactuses may be seen shrivelled up through the heat of the sun 

 and the dryness of the soil, but it is to this circumstance they owe 

 their abundance of flower-buds. The wet or moist season returns, 

 and pushes those buds into a glorious life. How different is this 

 natural treatment from the plan adopted in windows, and often in 

 greenhouses ! The plants are kept wet all the year round ; they 

 have no cessation in their growth, but they form no flowers. Let 

 nature be followed, and the desired result is sure. My Cactuses 

 were put away in the autumn into a lumber-room, and have had no 

 water since until the middle of last March. They were then brought 

 out covered with dust, cleaned, and gradually supplied with water. 

 They are now as plump as can be wished, and are covered with 

 flower-buds. They will be kept supplied with moisture until the 

 flowering is over; then they will take their chance in a sunny part 

 of the garden, against a south wall, until cold weather comes and 

 consigns them again to the lumber-room. A light soil, composed of 

 brick rubbish mixed with loam and leaf-mould, is best for them, and 

 need not be changed every year, if the top is removed and a fresh 

 layer put on every spring. Large Cactuses cannot be grown well in 

 windows, and my plan with them is to put them out-ot'-doors every 

 day, where they will have all the sun, and to bring them into the 

 sitting-room just as they are about to flower. The whole tribe is 

 easily propagated. The cuttings should have the wound healed 

 before being potted, and no water should be given for a month or six 

 weeks afterwards. Such is my simple plan. 



LTJCULIA GEATISSIMA. 



|'NE of the most lovely, as well as one of the most odori- 

 ferous, plants known in gardens is the Luculia gratis- 

 sima ; nevertheless, we seldom meet with it in anything 

 like perfection. 



In most collections, if existing at all, it presents so 

 miserable an appearance, that even possessors of large gardens cease 

 to care for it, alleging that it is impossible to grow it in anything 

 like a creditable or healthy state. 



It is a plant that does not require a high temperature, for it 

 comes from the cooler parts of India, and the want of success may 

 in some instances result from its being roasted to death. A few 

 particulars, therefore, respecting the successful culture of thi3 truly 

 beautiful plant may not be unacceptable to my amateur readers. 

 The most certain mode of increasing the Luculia is by layering. If 

 the young shoots are slightly slit, in the manner pursued with 

 respect to carnations, and pegged down in a small pot an inch 

 under the surface of the soil, they will root readily, more especially 

 if it is layered in autumn. Toung plants so produced, if carefully 

 preserved during winter, may be grown into fine flowering speci- 



