-^ T'lclo^p (i-apd^r) ar)d I^aLcr). ^ 



CACTf, 



I have been requested to 

 offera few remarks on the cul- 

 tivation of cacti, those pecu- 

 har children of the sun na- 

 tives of the warmer portions 

 of this continent; the largest 

 number having been found 

 in Mexico and Texas. With 

 one trifling exception 

 .^^i^'"' th -y are purely Ameri- 

 can. In their 

 native coun- 



tries they grow under very varied condi- 

 tions. The Phyllocactus and Epiphyl- 

 lums are Elpiphytes or Air plants grow- 

 ing on trees without any soil, the wet 

 ground and tropical heat furnishing the 

 necessary moisture. Here they will not 

 grow as air plants but thrive in sandy 

 soil, while the Epiphytal Orchids found 

 in the same localities can only be grown 

 in moss instead of soil and in warm 

 moist conservatories. Nearly all the 

 other varieties of cacti grow on barren 

 sandy plains or in crevices of rocks, in 

 localities where the heat of the sun is 

 intense and the rainy season short. 

 Botanists tell us that the skin or bark of 

 cacti has very few breathing pores, 

 resembling in this respect the skin of 

 apples, pears, plums and other fruits so 

 that they absorb the water through their 

 roots during the rainy season, and enjoy 

 the strong heat where plants with soft 

 porous leaves could not live. 



Growing under such different condi- 

 tions the problem with cultivators has 

 been to find the most suitable soil to 

 grow them in, and the opinions have 

 been nearly as numerous as the cultiva- 

 tors, and as they have done well in very 

 different soils I think we may conclude 

 that they will grow in any soil if suffi- 

 ciently open and porous so that water 

 may pass freely, water-logged soil being 

 certain death to cacti. I have found 

 sods from a sandy knoll suitable, by 



63 



