Culture qfCdctecE. 83 



by the powerful resistance offered to the force employed to break 

 it." It is a herbaceous plant, and in this country it is half- 

 hardy, and will grow in any soil. (Bot. Meg., Jan.) 



Art. VI. On the Culture of Cdctece. By Dr. Pfeiffer of Cassel. 

 Translated from the " Garten Zeitung " by A. Kellermann. 



[Mr. Kellermann is a native of Dresden ; and it was his father's intention 

 that he should be brought up to the medical profession ; but when he attended 

 Dr. Reichenbach's lectures on botany in the Botanic Garden at Dresden, he 

 was so much struck with the collection of cactuses there, that he determined 

 on becoming a gardener ; and for that purpose got himself engaged as an 

 assistant in the Dresden Garden. Having remained there some years, he next 

 visited the principal gardening establishments in Germany, Belgium, &c. He 

 was afterwards engaged by Mr. Forbes, and was fourteen months a journeyman 

 in the gardens at Woburn Abbey. After this he went to Scotland, and was 

 for several months in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, under Mr. M'Nab, 

 whence he was engaged as assistant curator to the Edinburgh Botanical Society, 

 where he now (Nov. 1838) is. In March next, he comes to London, having 

 been engaged by Messrs. Rollisson of Tooting, to go to South America, as 

 their botanical collector.] 



§ 1. The culture of Cactese in our climate [Germany] being both uniform 

 and simple, and these plants requiring but little trouble, they are preferably 

 adapted for growing in rooms. Except a few, particularly the melocactuses, 

 they do not require the temperature of a stove, but do quite well, even during 

 winter, in the windows of a light room, with a southern aspect, provided they 

 are kept dry, and the temperature does not sink below -f- 2° or 3° Reaumur 

 (36° or 38° Fahrenheit). Sometimes, when they are somewhat hardened by 

 previous treatment, they will even stand some degrees below zero Reanm, 

 (32° Fahrenh.) The better sorts, however, should not be exposed to such a 

 change, as they are found to succeed better when the temperature is kept as 

 equal as possible ; except during night, when the temperature may be allowed 

 to decrease in a natural proportion. Many species, and in particular those 

 which are natives of the colder and more elevated regions of Mexico, Brazil, 

 and Chile, thrive best in a lower temperature, and can be wintered very well 

 in an orange-house ; when, on the other hand, many of our oldest species, 

 which were first imported from the much warmer climate of the West Indies, 

 require a greater heat. 



§ 2. To grow and see Cacteae in their natural luxuriance, it is a matter of 

 the greatest importance that they should be exposed to the open air through- 

 out the summer; as by this treatment alone most of the mammillarias, echino- 

 cactuses, cereuses, and opuntias, will attain the same appearance that they 

 present in their native country. They will, no doubt, grow faster, and become 

 larger in a stove ; but then they are always more slender, weak, and furnished 

 with comparatively few, thin, and short spines ; so that they present little or 

 no appearance in common with others of the same sort grown in the open air. 

 (See Garten Zeitung, No. 2. for 1835.) 



§ 3. Later experience has even taught that it is of great benefit to the above- 

 mentioned genera, that they should be grown throughout the summer entirely 

 in the open ground, and in suitable mould. From this situation, they should 

 be repotted again early in the autumn, so as to allow them to make a suffi- 

 ciency of young roots before winter. By this proceeding, particularly when 

 the cactus pits are covered with lights, and plenty of air admitted, many species 

 have been brought for some years past to such a vigorous growth, that we are 

 now possessed of specimens of a size and beauty never known before. In 

 some places mere sand pits, with lights, have been used for the same purpose, 



G 2 



