CHAP. XI.] CLIMBING PLANT?. 321 



eatable fruit ; and it is always found on al- 

 most barren hills, growing in narrow chinks 

 among rocks, where there does not appear 

 sufficient soil to nourish a blade of grass. In 

 some cases these plants grow nearly to the 

 verge of perpetual snow. The Pereskias, which 

 have leaves distinct from their stems, grow in 

 similar situations, and require only a moderate 

 degree of heat; but the Melocacti and the 

 Rhipsalis are only found in the hottest part of 

 the tropics. 



All the Cactacese should be grown in pots 

 well drained with cinders, and in soil composed 

 of a little sandy loam mixed with lime rubbish. 

 Thev should all be watered regularly and 

 abundantly when they are growing;, or comino- 

 into flower, and kept nearly dry during 

 their season of repose; and they all enjoy 

 having their pots plunged in a slight hotbed, 

 which makes them throw out abundance of 

 roots. 



The Australian Plants, of which so many 

 beautiful kinds have been introduced within 

 the last few years, should nearly all be grown 

 in a mixture of sand and peat : and they should 

 have their pots filled one-third with potsherds. 

 They require abundance of water, but they will 

 perish if water be retained about their roots. 

 Most of the Australian plants (particularly the 

 acacias) are very tenacious of life, and, if cut 

 down when thev appear dead, they will gene- 

 rally spring up again from the collar of the 

 root. 



TJte principal herbaceous Climbing Plants 

 grown in pots are the Maurandyas, the Lopho- 



Y 



