222 GENERAL REVIEW. 



female parent and the colours different shades of rose and 

 rosy crimson. Opuntias seed very freely, and their seeds ger- 

 minate readily in heat. It would be interesting to attempt 

 to raise hybrids between Opuntia and Cereus, or Opuntia and 

 Echinocactus or Mammillaria. Some of the finer kinds of 

 scandent-habited Cereus, as C. (hamatus] rostratus, C. Mac- 

 donaldice, C. grandiflorus, and the columnar species, which 

 flower at long intervals, might be crossed advantageously with 

 C. speciosissinms, or other kinds which flower annually. A very 

 pretty effect may be produced wherever the strong-growing 

 scandent species of Cereus are cultivated, by grafting on the 

 stems small plants of Echinocactus scopa and its crested varie- 

 ties, or some of the pretty silvery-spined Mammillarias. 



A very fine hybrid between Cereus grandiflorus and C. specio- 

 sissimus was obtained by Messrs Davis of Wavertree, near 

 Liverpool, previous to 1844, the individual blooms being ten 

 inches in diameter, and of a soft rosy colour. 



Herbert, in his ' Amaryllidacese,' p. 345 and 339, in speaking of 

 hybrids, says : " Amongst the Cacti or Cerei, the prickly angular 

 Cereus speciosissimus, the flexible C. flagelliformis or Whip-plant, 

 and the unarmed C. phyllanthocides, are nearly the most dis- 

 similar ; yet they have produced mixed offspring, which readily 

 bears eatable fruit of intermediate appearance and flavour. 

 The fruit of C. speciosissimus is large, green, oblong, and well 

 flavoured ; that of C. phyllanthocides is small, purple, and very 

 inferior ; while the hybrid from the former has fruit of a 

 medium size and taste. The cross from the former by C. 

 flagelliformis has a short angular fruit, quite unlike that of the 

 mother plant. The fertility of these crosses, and readiness to 

 vary the appearance and taste of the fruit, though derived from 

 such dissimilar parents, is one of the most striking results of 

 our experiments. Cereus grandiflorus is also said to have 

 crossed with (7. speciosissimus at ColvilPs ; and C. Ackermanni 

 (itself a hybrid) has bred with both C. phyllanthocides and C. 

 speciosissimus at Spofforth ; and I have been told that some of 

 them have been also crossed with the very dissimilar Epiphyllum 

 truncatum" 



Mr Macintosh, nurseryman, Hammersmith, raised a beautiful 

 new seedling Phyllocactus, a cross between the creamy-white P. 

 crenatus and the scarlet P. Ackermanni. The flowers are of 

 good size, the inner petals peach-coloured and the outer ones 

 crimson-scarlet. In habit it appears to be intermediate between 

 its parents, some of the shoots being crenated, others like those 

 of Ackermanni. This plant first flowered in 1873. 



Epiphyllums are a showy genus of dwarf-growing Cactaceous 



