122 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



want to be kept very dry, and not too warm all through 

 the winter, but quite free from frost. In April they are 

 re-potted, if they seem to require it ; but that is seldom. 

 Once started into growth, they want heat, light, sun, a 

 little nourishment, and plenty of watering and syringing, 

 with rain-water if possible ; hard chalky water is bad for 

 them. When they have done flowering, I plant them out 

 in a good warm border till the middle of August. This 

 does them a lot of good, and helps them very much to 

 make new growth ; they should be well syringed overhead 

 while growing. Anyone really interested in Cactuses will 

 learn all they want to know in a little book called * Cactus 

 Culture for Amateurs,' by W. Watson. The old and long- 

 neglected taste for growing Cactuses is certainly reviving, 

 and some of the finest kinds can be grown with very little 

 trouble or expense. Mr. Watson is Assistant Curator of 

 the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where there is a large 

 collection of Cactuses. He writes as one who knows, and 

 the book is full of practical instructions. 



I have a great many Stapelias, South African plants 

 rather resembling miniature Cactuses in their growth, 

 and requiring the same treatment. They are very curious, 

 and are described in a modern book translated from the 

 German, called the ' Natural History of Plants,' as belong- 

 ing to a group of plants called ' indoloid.' Sometimes the 

 scent of these South African Stapelias resembles that of 

 decomposing mammalian flesh, sometimes of rotten fish, 

 &c. This, of course, attracts insects. Flowers provided 

 with indoloid scents resemble animal corpses in their 

 colouring, having usually livid spots, violet streaks, 

 and red-brown veins on a greenish or a fawn-coloured 

 background. All the same, the flowers are to me 

 curious and rather beautiful, so entirely unlike anything 

 else. 



