CHAPTER IX. 



CACTACEOUS AND SUCCULENT PLANTS. 



A USEFUL section of plants, natives chiefly of the hot 

 dry regions of South America and the Cape. Of 

 late years considerable attention has been paid to them, 

 and nice collections of plants are occasionally met with. 



In Egypt they are exceedingly useful, as they 

 thrive admirably in poor sandy soil and in hot 

 exposed places, where few other plants will grow. 

 Many of them, such as Agave, Yucca, Beaucarnia, 

 and Dasylirion are handsome ornamental plants, which 

 may be improved under better conditions of soil and 

 moisture, as high cultivation tends to develop the 

 pulp in the leaves to the detriment of the fibre. 

 This is preferable where plants are grown for orna- 

 mental purposes, and not commercially for their 

 fibre. Their culture is very simple and easy, for 

 when they are once established little or no attention 

 need be given them. 



For sunny rockeries and windy gardens they are 

 appropriate and suitable plants ; they are also useful 

 for mixing with shrubs or as isolated specimens on 

 lawns, while some of the handsomer species deserve 

 a place in every garden, where the decorative nature 

 of their foliage and, in some instances, their large 

 flowering spikes are always admired. 



For patches of uncultivated land that are not 

 required for gardening purposes, clumps of Aloes, 

 Opuntias, Yuccas, and Agaves could be planted from 

 suckers during the rains, and, when established, would 

 grow through the summer with little or no water, 



