THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



sometimes it blisters, cracks or yellows 

 the leaves. 



The secret of success with cacti lies 

 in giving them thorough drainage, plenty 

 of water when flowering or growing, then 

 thoroughly resting and ripening them 

 by withholding all water except what 

 nature gives them, through the flower- 

 less season. More cactus cuttings and 

 plants fail from over-watering and lack 

 of sunshine than for any other reasons. 

 Most cacti are hardier, too, than we 

 think. Unless flowering, they can be 

 left in an unheated room through all 

 except our most severe winters. The 

 opuntias and some of the pretty red- 

 berried echinocacti are entirely hardy 

 without protection out of doors here in 

 Western Carolina. — American Garden- 

 ing. 



Fig. 1651.— Cacti in Mexico. 



Dicenira spectablis is one of the 

 finest of the hardy herbaceous perennial 

 plants in cultivation and should be in 

 every garden. Nothing is prettier than its 

 graceful racemes of rosy crimson flowers, 

 among its leafy stems in the early sum- 

 mer, and indeed it has been largely 

 planted in our Province. It is suitable 

 for planting along the margin of shrub- 

 beries, or on the borders of walks, along 

 with other perennial flowers. Grows to 

 a height of from 9 to 24 inches. 



In the Niagara district, on the moun- 

 tain side, there are two native Dicentras, 

 which are very beautiful and are great 

 favorites with school children, who call 

 them " Boys and Girls." Botanically 

 they are : D. Canadensis (girls) with 

 greenish-white fragrant flowers, and un- 

 der ground shoots on which grow small 

 round yellow tubes From these it gets 

 another common name, Squirrel Corn. 

 The corolla is heart shaped but the 

 spurs are very short and rounded, giving 

 an excuse for likening the flower to a 

 girl's dress. The other is D. Cucullaria 

 (boys) of which the flowers are whitish, 

 and have longer spurs, which so diverge 

 as to remind one of boys' clothes, and 

 which gave rise to another common 

 name, Dutchman's Breeches The flow- 

 ers are clustered on the raceme, and 

 are much sought after in spring for table 

 decoration. 



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