5 CACTUS CULTURE FOR AMATEURS. 



by means of a handlight or pane of glass. The collection at Kew 

 is planted in recesses formed by the buttresses of the Palm-house, 

 where large groups may be seen growing on the sunny (S.W.) side . 

 of the house. The border is raised by means of pieces of sandstone 

 and loam, and the plants are placed so that they can sprawl over 

 the stones. They thrive exceedingly wll in this position. In 

 severe weather a garden mat is thrown over them. So far as 

 temperature is concerned, it is never so cold in any part of England 

 as in the haunts of these plants in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, 

 &c-, where 40 deg. to 50 deg. of frost are not unusual, and at a time 

 when the plants are bare of snow. It is probably the alternations 

 of cold and wet, frosty, and muggy weather experienced in our 

 climate that prove fatal to them. A sunny unheated frame would 

 be the best of all situations for them. 



The following are hardy at Kew : Cereus Fendleri, C. Engelmanni, 

 C. viridiflorus, Echinocactus glaucus, E. Simpsoni, E. Pentlandii, 

 Mamillaria missouriensis, M. Nuttallii, M. Purpu&i, M. Spathiana, 

 M. vivipara, Opuntia bicolor, 0. Engelmanni , 0. fragilis (Irachyarthra 

 is a variety of this), 0. pol>/acantha, vars. (0. missouriensis is a 

 synonym of this), 0. Ra Inesquii, vars., 0. rhodantha, 0. xanthostema, 

 0. arkansana, 0. vulgaris, 0. picolominiana, and 0. humilis. 



Soil. 



The conditions in which plants grow naturally are what we 

 are told to imitate for their cultivation ; but, whilst admitting 

 that Nature, when intelligently followed, would not lead us 

 far astray, we must not follow her too strictly when dealing 

 with plants in gardens. Soil is only one of the conditions on which 

 plants depend, and where the other conditions are not the same in 

 our gardens as in Nature, it is often best to use a different soil from 

 that in which the plants grow when wild. 



It has been stated that plants do not grow naturally in the soil 

 best suited for them. The reason why they are found in peculiar 

 places is not because they prefer them, but because they alone are 

 capable of existing there, or because their stouter neighbours crowd 

 them out. There are plants that succeed equally well in widely 

 different soils, and a soil which may be suitable for a plant in one 

 place, may prove totally unsuited in another. 



Cacti are rather particular with respect to soil, almost 

 ail of them thriving in a soil that is principally loam. Plants which 

 are limited in nature to sandy, sun-scorched plains or the glaring 

 sides of rocky hills and mountains, where scarcely any other form 

 of vegetation can exist, are not likely to be gross feeders. They 

 are healthiest and longest-lived when planted in a light loamy soil. 

 Therefore, in preparing soil for them, a good loam, with plenty of 

 grass fibre in it, should form the principal ingredient, sand and 

 small brick-rubble being added one part of each of the latter 



