Culture q/Cereus speciosissimus. 389 



I have cut good fruit from plants treated in this manner, after 

 they had been turned out of their pots only ten days. I planted 

 three lights the 15th of last October; I cut by the 28th of the 

 same month, and I have cut from three to six excellent ones 

 every week since. My plants are now in good health, with 

 plenty of fruit set, and good ones fit to' tn.it; and, by being well 

 attended to, they will produce fruit abundantly all the summer. 

 I water very little after the second week of November, until the 

 days begin to lengthen ; and, as the plants advance in growth, I 

 put a little mould on the strongest joints, which makes them pro- 

 duce fresh roots : this makes the plants grow strong, and also 

 swells the fruit much larger than they would be, if left to them- 

 selves. My plants need very little cutting or stopping; for, being 

 cuttings taken from plants that have been in full bearing all the 

 preceding seasons, they are not so apt to ramble as seedling 

 plants. My liberal employer has lately built two very fine 

 vineries. The mode of forming an elevated border for the vines, 

 and a method that I have adopted of pruning and training them, 

 may form the subject of another letter.. 



Northerwoody Feb. 15. 1834*. 



"We shall be happy to receive an account of the method of 

 forming the border for the vines, and of training and pruning 

 them* — Cond.. 



Art. XV. Short Communication. 



Cereus speciosissimus. — In the month- of August I take off 

 as many cuttings as I intend to strike, and suspend them by a 

 string in the warmest part of the green-house, leaving them 

 therefor about three months. I then pot them in a compost, con- 

 sisting of equal quantities of leaf mould and peat mould, mixed 

 with one sixth part of thoroughly rotten dung. The pots I use 

 are 48s or 60s, according to the size of the cuttings ; not more than 

 one being put in each pot. After watering, I set the plants on a 

 shelf in a warm part of the green-house, where they will bloom 

 in the following spring. After the bloom is over, very little 

 water is given for three months, in order to bring the plants into 

 a state of repose. They are then shifted into larger pots, if ne- 

 cessary ; but, at all events, some of the old mould is removed, 

 and some rich compost, such as that above described, is added. 

 In this manner I raised a plant in the garden of Robert Searle, 

 Esq., at Lympstone, in Devonshire, between 1827 and 1833, 

 which is now 6 ft. high, and 5 ft. in circumference. It grows in 

 around tub about 18 in. in diameter, and 20 in. deep. — Win. 

 Dunsford. Horticultural Society's Garden, Chisxvick, April, 1834. 



Vol. X. — No. 53. ee 



