48 CACTUS CULTURE fOR AMATEURS. 



was sent by Mr. F. Staines, who wrote from >San Luis Potosi : i4 1 

 mean to have a large spocimen of E. Visiaga deposited in a strong 

 box, sending the box first to the mountain where the monsters grow, 

 and placing it on the springs of a carriage which I shall despatch for 

 that purpose. My monstrous friend cannot travel any other way, 

 from his stupendous size and immense ponderosity, which cannot 

 be adequately calculated for here, where the largest machine for 

 conveying weights does not exceed sixteen arrobes, or 400 lb. This 

 enormous plant will require twenty men at least to place it upon 

 the vehicle, with the aid of such levers as our Indians can invent. 

 It grows in the deep ravines of our loftiest mountains, among huge 

 stones ; the finest plants are inaccessible to wheeled vehicles, and 

 even on horse-back it is difficult to reach them. I shall pack him 

 carefully in mats before applying to his roots the crowbars destined 

 to wrench him from his resting-place of unknown centuries. He will 

 have to travel 300 leagues before he reaches Vera Cruz." Being too 

 large to be packed in a box, the stem was first surrounded with a 

 dense clothing of Old Man's Beard or Spanish Moss (Tillainlsia 

 usneoides) and well corded. Fifteen mats, each as large and as 

 thick as an ordinary doormat, formed the exterior envelope. When 

 unpacked on its arrival at Kew, the stem was seen as perfect, as 

 green, and as uninjured as if it had been that morning removed 

 from its native rocks, its long, rope-like roots arranged in coils like 

 the cable of a ship. When placed in scales it weighed 713 lb., its 

 circumference at 1 foot from the ground was 8 feet 7 inches, and its 

 total height, 4| feet ; the number of ridges was forty- four, and on 

 each ridge were fifty bundles of spines, four spines to each bundle. 

 Thus there were 8,800 spines or toothpicks, enough for the supply 

 of an army ! A still larger specimen, which weighed 1 ton, was a 

 year or so later successfully brought to Kew ; but this, as well as 

 the smaller one, survived only a short time, the fate of others which 

 have been introduced since. The late Mr. Peacock, of Hammer- 

 smith, possessed two large plants of E. Visnaga, one of which 

 weighed nearly 5 cwt., and measured 8 feet 6 inches in circum- 

 ference. 



Cultivation. 



The soil for Echinocactus should be similar to that recom- 

 mended for Cereus, as also should be the treatment with regard to 

 sunlight and rest. It cannot be too cloarly understood that between 

 October and March these plants should be kept dry at the root, in 

 a dry house, where the temperature would not fall below deg. 

 There is no occasion for re- pot ting them every year, it being quite 

 safe to allow them to remain in the same pots for several years, 

 provided the soil be fresh and the drainage perfect. 



For some of the smaller species it is a good plan to graft them 

 upon the stem of a suitable Cereus such as C. tortuosus or 



