

AND 



HORTICULTURE JOURNAL, 



A MAGAZINE OF 



Horticulture, Botany, Agriculture, and the Kindred Sciences. 



Edited and Published byR. ROBTXSON SCOTT. No. 63 Walnut Street, between Second 

 and Dock Streets, up stairs. 



Vol. I.] Philadelphia, August, 1852. [No. 4. 



NOTES ON "THE CACTI." 



BY AN AMATEUR. 



The Cactus is a particularly interesting" family'of plants. Some of 

 them are well suited for window culture, or for small fancy green- 

 houses ; especially those distinguished as the globe or dwarf kinds, 

 the flowers of which are generally small, although not devoid of in- 

 terest. The tall Cactaceje, on the contrary, number among them 

 many individuals bearing flowers of surpassing beauty, especially the 

 genera Cekeus and Epiphylluai. We will briefly describe the seve- 

 ral families, and in the remarks on their culture particularize those 

 more generally cultivated as greenhouse plants. 



The genus Melocactus, is distinguished by its ribbed form, and the 

 tuft of spines and downy matter at top from which the flowers issue. 



Mammillarias are those which are covered with little roundish tu- 

 bercles, resembling the teats or mammce of animals. The spines are 

 borne at the top of the mammce and the flowers between them. 



Echinocacti are deeply ribbed, without any appendage at top ; the 

 flowers proceed from the edges of the ribs. 



Echixopsis is a new genu^', being an Echinocactus in shape, and a 

 Cereus in the characteristics of its flower. 



The genus Cereus is variable in form, with lengthened stems, hav- 

 ing from three to ten or fifteen ribs, some strong and erect, attaining 

 a great height ; others of a trailing habit. They generally produce 

 very splendid flowers. 



EpiphyllltvI includes flat-stemmed short-jointed sorts, with few 

 spines, and pendant habit ; the flowers are irregular in shape, and pro- 

 duced from the ends of each joint. E. truncation is the type of this 

 genus, which numbers but few species ; what are usually called Epi- 

 I phylla, are now 



9a Phyllocacti, which have been classed as the flat stemmed or wing- 

 Lij ed section of the Cerei, the shape, of the flowers being identical ; but^f) 



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