Kingsbury, near Edgcware. 239 



orchidaceous house here to suffocation. The cultivation of so 

 many newly received plants, requiring a different treatment from 

 established plants, prevented Mr. Beaton from following out 

 Mr. Wailes's suggestion on the atmospheric temperature and 

 moisture in the orchidaceous house. He highly approves of 

 Mr. Paxton's mode of growing Dendrobia, and other similar 

 plants. Some of these plants here begin to show blossom buds 

 in a week or ten days after taking them into the orchidaceous 

 house from their winter quarters. Mr. Beaton maintains that 

 no extensive collection of this order can be kept for any length 

 of time in a fine flowering condition without the use of two 

 houses ; the second house to be kept quite dry and cool ; and 

 the plants, while resting here, to be kept exposed to the full 

 rays of the sun. There are many new and undescribed species 

 here, particularly among the Mexican Orchidaceae. 



" The Cacti have been more than doubled since we saw them 

 last season, and many of the specimens are not to be equalled 

 anywhere. Mr. Beaton has arranged his seedling Cacti on a 

 front shelf, in sections, just to our taste ; and his experience has 

 even enabled him to follow out this plan farther than science 

 could do. He places all his melon-shaped Cacti, which require 

 more heat, in the hottest end of the shelf. Many of this section, 

 in a young state, can hardly be distinguished from each other 

 but by a practised eye. These are here planted out on this 

 shelf, on a layer or bed of sandy compost over slabs of slate, 

 in rows across the bed ; and, where each kind terminates, a 

 row or two of upright seedling cereuses, which require strong 

 heat, are placed after each kind of melon-shaped Cacti. The 

 seedlings of those Mammlllariag found in the low hot valleys of 

 the tropics follow after the Melocacti and Echinocacti seedlings ; 

 and, at the coldest end of the shelf, they finish with such Mam- 

 millariae as are found on the hills and high ridges, and require 

 less heat. Altogether, this appears to us the most interesting 

 shelf of Cacti, and the most scientifically arranged, in this 

 counti'y. Here is the largest plant of ^uphorbm pcc^nvaiccflbra 

 that we have seen, now covered with its rich deep orange blos- 

 soms : when out of flower, it must look like a young vigor- 

 ous peach tree ; and, being trained after the manner of peach 

 trees, the illusion is heightened. Nothing can exceed the 

 splendour of ^uphorbz'a splendens at this time, just beginning 

 to put forth its new leaves, and literally in one mass of bloom. 

 Several large specimens are here now in this state, one of which 

 is perhaps the largest in the country. By the side of these 

 stands a fine specimen of £uph6rb/a [j.] Brion/, a nearly allied 

 sort, smaller than the preceding in all its parts, and more 

 fastigiate in habit. Both these kinds seed freely, especially 

 towards the end of the blooming season (July and August) ; 



R 4 



