THE CACTUS TRIBE. '215 



forward so strikingly, so determinately marking the peculiar 

 character of the landscape, that we are compelled to turn 

 our attention to it. And in truth, a group which appears 

 to retreat so far from all the laws of other plants, deserves 

 our interest in a very high degree. It has received it in 

 rich measure, and for those whose circumstances do not 

 permit of their making acquaintance with these children 

 of a humourous freak of Nature in their own native land, 

 our gardens, in which the Cactus Plants have come to be 

 among the most fashionable, will exhibit an abundant 

 selection of shapes. A somewhat minute examination of 

 this peculiar family will, therefore, not only be instructive to 

 the lover of Nature, but may possess also an especial 

 interest at this particular time. 



Linnaeus was acquainted with only about a dozen 

 species out of the whole family, and these he united 

 together under the name of Cactus ; at present, more than 

 four hundred species are known, which are distributed by 

 Botanists into somewhere about ten genera. Most of these 

 are under cultivation in Germany. The richest collection 

 is probably that in the Royal Botanical Garden at Berlin, 

 which possesses more than three hundred and sixty species ; 

 next follows, undoubtedly, the collection of the Prince 

 Salm-Dyk Reifferscheide. The Royal Botanical Garden at 

 Munich, the Garden of the Japanese Palace at Dresden, are 

 the next in importance. Those most perfect in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Jena are, the Collection of 1 [aage at Erfurt, 

 and Breiter's Garden in Leipsic. 



Everything about these plants is wonderful. With the 

 exception of the genus Peireskia, no plant of the order 

 possesses leaves. Those parts of Cactus alatus, and the 

 Indian Fig, which are commonly called leaves, are nothing 

 but flattened expansions of the stem. On the other hand, 



