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NATURE 



\yMne 6, 1889 



scientific interest attaching to them, should be extensively 

 cultivated. At one time succulents were fashionable. 

 They were grown, and grown well too, in the most un- 

 promising localities — on the leads of London houses, in 

 back yards, in cottage windows. They may still be found in 

 the latter position, where the conditions often seem to 

 suit them better than in more specialized habitations, 

 probably because the plants get full exposure to light, 

 and a dry atmosphere, while they are at the same time 

 relatively impervious to dust. Earring occasional sur- 

 vivals, succulents have, however, " gone out." A collector 

 recently dead did his best to galvanize the public taste. 

 Regardless of expense, he got together a superb collec- 

 tion. With unwonted generosity he lent large assortments 

 to public institutions, where they might be seen of many. 

 With even greater liberality he gave away great numbers 

 of plants to schools and other institutions, as well as to 

 private individuals. He hoped by so doing to revive the 

 public taste for this class of plants. Vain hope ! 

 They are no more abundant now than they have been for 

 the last quarter of a century ; the nurseries have mostly 

 discarded them as unprofitable lumber ; the great col- 

 lections are broken up. Even the assemblage to which 

 we have just alluded has been recently sold under the 

 hammer, and, despite its excellence, realized scarcely more 

 than enough to pay for the hammer. Under these 

 circumstances it was with no little astonishment that we 

 saw a series of articles in the Bazaar some time since, 

 and it is with even greater surprise and pleasure that we 

 now welcome their republication. The publisher, it seems, 

 noting the general absence of cactuses in English gardens 

 came to the conclusion that the reason for their exclusion 

 was to be found in the absence of adequate knowledge 

 as to their cultivation and management. He thereupon 

 commissioned Mr. Watson, Assistant Curator of the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew,to write a series of chapters on the subject. 

 Brave publisher ! may he be amply compensated for his 

 chivalrous efforts ! At any rate, he pursued a wise 

 instinct when he secured the services of Mr. Watson. 

 While private collections have, as we have said, almost 

 disappeared, these plants have always been very well 

 represented at Kevv. The succulent house indeed is, and 

 always has been, one of the most striking features of that 

 grand estabhshment. While of exceptional interest to 

 the naturalist, the cactus house appeals to the atten- 

 tion of the general public more forcibly, if not always 

 more pleasurably, than any other department of the 

 Gardens. Ten years' experience in the care and cultiva- 

 tion of these plants at Kew is alleged by the author as 

 his justification in publishing the present book. But, in 

 truth, the book furnishes its own vindication. It is 

 written for gardeners, not for botanists, but it will be ac- 

 ceptable to both, and we shall not be greatly surprised 

 if the book is more appreciated by the naturalist than 

 by the gardener. Fashion rules in gardening as in other 

 things, and Fashion says now we will haye cut flowers and 

 roses, and we will have orchids ; by and by, perhaps, it 

 will demand cactuses, although they do not furnish " cut 

 flowers," and this demand will, we trust, be furthered by 

 the book before us. 



The naturalist is, if not wholly, still largely, beyond 

 the influence of the caprices of Fashion. For him 

 the limited geographical distribution and the extra- 



ordinary forms of these plants, their surprising adap- 

 tations to the conditions under which they grow, their 

 remarkable metamorphoses, the absence or extremely 

 reduced condition of their leaves, the co-relative thickness 

 of stem and expansion of surface, offer a never-ending 

 source of interest and investigation. The wonderful pro- 

 vision against undue evaporation, the protection against 

 the ill effects of radiation, the amount of green surface 

 exposed to the sun even in the practical absence of leaves, 

 the defence against thirsty marauders afforded by the 

 spines, the singular nature and arrangement of those 

 spines — all these points, to say nothing of the, in many 

 cases, incomparably gorgeous flowers, give these plants 

 claims on the attention of philosophic naturalists beyond 

 those offered by most others. Further, with occasional 

 exceptions they are easily grown, demand relatively little 

 space, attention, or expense, and are therefore specially 

 fitted for the naturalist of moderate means. 



Lastly, we may commend them to the attention of those 

 botanists who have the management of botanic gardens. 

 Those who have visited the smaller University Gardens 

 in Germany or France know what depressing establish- 

 ments they generally are, and how little they seem to 

 contribute to the advancement of science ; but if the 

 managers of each garden were to take up the cultivation, 

 one of one genus of plants, one of another, as means 

 and opportunities permitted, they might do excellent 

 service to botany at little cost, and in these specialties 

 achieve results not possible of attainment in larger and 

 more exacting establishments. The Bromeliads were 

 taken up in this manner in the Li^ge Botanic Garden by 

 Prof Morren, who unfortunately did not live to complete 

 his monograph. We allude to the subject here because no 

 group of plants affords better opportunities for a thorough 

 and comparative study of the inter-relations of structure, 

 development, and life-history generally than does the 

 order Cactaceae. Whilst fashion fades and palls, the 

 interest of scientific investigation is not only continuous 

 but progressive. The cactuses are replete with problems 

 of deep import to naturalists, and we trust that Mr. 

 Watson's book may be the means of bringing about the 

 solution of some of them. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Lehrbuch der Vergleichenden Anatomie zum Gebrauche 

 bet vergleichend anatomischen und zoologischen 

 Vorlesungen. Von Dr. Arnold Lang, Inhaber der 

 Ritter-Professur fiir Phylogenie an der Universitat 

 Jena. Erste Abtheilung. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, \\ 



This " Lehrbuch " is the ninth edition of E. Osca 

 Schmidt's well-known " Handbuch." ' 1 1 has been thoroughll 

 revised —indeed, in parts rewritten. As might be expectel 

 from the Professor of Phylogeny at Jena, the subject i| 

 treated from a quite modern standpoint. We have firg 

 the systematic arrangement of the tribes, orders, and 

 classes of each group or sub-kingdom, with the charac- 

 teristics of each. This is succeeded by some general 

 observations on the group, then the general morphology is 

 described, next we have the details of the various systems ; 

 the illustrations to the descriptive part of each chapter 

 being selected with great care and judgment, and being in 

 most cases refreshingly new. This first part of the 

 volume commences with the Protozoa and ends with the- 

 Vermes. With the immense advance of zoologica 



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