GENERAL CULTUKE. 7 



lanuginosus, peruvianus, Eoyeni, grandiaoms, flagelliformis, parasiticus, 

 pendulus, triangularis, moniliformis, Opuntia, Ficus indica, Tuna, 

 cochineUifer, curassavica, Phyllanthus, spinosissimus, PeresMa, and por- 

 tulacffifolius. From Alton's " Hortus Kewonsis " (1811) we learn 

 that twenty-four of these were cultivated there, while when Haworth's 

 " Synopsis Plantarum Succulentarum " was issued in 1819, about forty- 

 five species and varieties were known. 



The increase from this time was rapid, for Sweet's " Hortus Britan- 

 nicus," 1826, enumerates ninety-four as in cultivation, while DeoandoUe's 

 "Prodromus," published two years after, describes or mentions 183 under 

 seven genera. The number of botanical travellers in America during the 

 following twenty years added greatly to the knowledge of these plants, 

 and by 1840 there were nearly 400 forms in cultivation (Paxton!s 

 ^'Botanical Dictionary"'), which by 1850, when M. Labouret issued 

 his elaborate " Monograpjiie des Cacttes," had increased to 670. 

 Since then many others have been discovered and introduced, and a few 

 years ago Mr. Jackson of Kew estimated the number of species at about 

 950, though at the present time they probably exceed 1000. Compara- 

 tively few large collections of Cactese have been formed, and in recent 

 years there has been none to equal those at Sudbury House, Hammer- 

 smith, and in the Eoyal Gardens, Kew. In the latter establishment the 

 handsome house devoted to succulent plants has long been one of the 

 chief attractions to visitors, presenting a conspectus of one of the most 

 extraordinary types of vegetation upon the globe. 



GENERAL, CULTURE. 



The numerous members of the Cactus family are exposed to widely 

 difEering temperatures in their native habitats, owing to the extent of 

 the American continent over which they are distributed, but also to the 

 great elevations on the mountains of those regions at which some are 

 found, and it is principally in regard to heat that the treatment of Caote» 

 has to be varied. A large number, probably the majority of known 

 species, frequent the desert-like plains and the rocky volcanic districts 

 of Chili and Mexico, where they grow and flower under the fiercest 

 tropical heat, not only uninjured, but positively luxuriating in their 

 strange fashion in the burning rays of an unclouded sun. There for the 

 greater portion of the year the soil is parched, and the atmosphere sufio- 

 catingly dry, and no other plants can exist except those which have 

 become adapted to the peculiar conditions of the climate, either 

 resembling their Cactus neighbours in developing a succulent growth 

 containing an abundant store of fluid support, or possessing foliage 



