THE CACTUS TRIBE. 221 



ledge of the regularly developing organism. It is to be 

 expected, therefore, that similar conditions will have similar 

 value in the vegetable world ; and what family could be 

 better selected for this purpose than the Cactacea, which 

 seems to be but a natural museum of monstrosities, where 

 the forms are, in some cases, so abnormal, that no other 

 name could be thought of for one species, but that of the 

 Deformed Cactus (Cereus monstrosus) . They have attracted 

 the attention of Botanists on several accounts, and many 

 peculiarities, both anatomical and physiological, have been 

 discovered, through which they are separated from all 

 other, even the nearest allied plants. The results would, 

 indeed, be still much more interesting, if it were not so 

 infinitely difficult to obtain the material for researches, 

 since gardeners and amateurs are but seldom inclined to 

 devote their darlings to the knife of Science. 



The Cactacecs have long been compelled, in science, to 

 serve as the prop of a statement which, altogether false, 

 has yet been frequently put forward by distinguished 

 Botanists ; I mean, the assumption that many, or even all, 

 plants are capable of imbibing their nutriment from the 

 air. Even in the present day has this idea been again 

 revived with all the long ago refuted reasons, by Liebig, 

 whose Organic Chemistry has made so imposing an appear- 

 ance. It is believed, that from the vast amount of watery 

 juice in the Cactus tribe, joined to the fact that most of 

 them, and exactly those richest in sap, vegetate on dry 

 sand, almost wholly devoid of vegetable mould, where they 

 are besides exposed often three-fourths of the year to the 

 parching sun-beams of an eternally serene sky ; from this 

 combination of circumstances, even, it is thought that we 

 may the more safely conclude, that these plants draw their 

 nourishment from the air, since in our own hot-houses also 



