2 CACTUS CULTURE FOR AMATEURS. 



If their stems are more curious than beautiful, their flowers 

 are often large in size and rich in colour, and some of them are 

 deliciously fragrant. Those which open their huge blossoms only 

 at night are particularly attractive, and in the early days of Cactus 

 culture th flowering of one of these was a great event in English 

 horticulture. 



A point in favour of the plants of the Cactus family for gardens 

 of small size, and even for window gardening is the simpleness 

 of their requirements. Their touojh-skinned succulent stems 

 enable them to live for an extraordinary length of time without 

 water. They are children of the dry barren plains and mountain 

 sides, living where scarcely any other form of vegetation could find 

 nourishment, and thriving with the scorching heat of the sun over 

 their heads, and their roots buried in the dry, hungry soil or rock* 

 which afford them anchorage and food. 



