BEHAVIOR OF SPECIES OF CACTI. 11 



joints is another striking feature of the conditions at Brownsville. 

 While the tissues are no more turgid here at any time than they are 

 commonly at home, still under our conditions of heavy humidity 

 and cultivation they are almost always turgid to their maximum 

 capacity. This condition presupposes uncertainty of development, 

 liability to break down on account of excessive weight, predisposi- 

 tion to rot, and consequent easy access to bacteria and fungi ren- 

 dered conspicuous by exudations of large quantities of mucilage, 

 which accumulates in large, warty excrescences. In no case at 

 Brownsville have any fruits been produced by this group of plants, 

 and flowers in but one case, and then very sparingly. At San An- 

 tonio, Tex., no member of this group will withstand the cold for any 

 length of time. • A few plants which have been protected behave 

 much as they do at Brownsville, except that the joints do not reach 

 such size. 



The remarks made regarding the above group at Brownsville are 

 generally true of a large proportion of 300 or 400 numbers of the 

 flat-jointed forms grown here. The spineless species of the so-called 

 ficiis-indica group, 20 or more varieties having been grown, are very 

 heavy in their vegetative reproduction; the joints become exceedingly 

 large, the tissues gorged with water, and the branches too heavy to 

 bear their own weight in many varieties, consequently becoming more 

 easily broken than when normal and difficult to cultivate. 



In some instances the heavy water content of the soil has rendered 

 it difficult to start the plants. In June, 1911, some 400 miscella- 

 neous varieties were reestablished in a new planting on high resaca- 

 bank silt loam soil. The cuttings were set various ways, both shal- 

 low and deep, but all by hand. The spineless group and introduced 

 forms generally rotted very badly and continued to rot for a year 

 afterwards. The seasons, however, were very wet, and comparatively 

 heavy rainfalls occurred throughout the period. The land had been 

 thoroughly cultivated since the early winter of 1910 to kill Bermuda 

 grass and consequently held its moisture well. The soil, of course, 

 was naturally very fertile and had been in grass for years, formerly 

 being a portion of the old parade ground at Fort Brown. In this 

 instance it is believed that the ill effect was due primarily to the 

 excessive humidity of the season, for in previous years of lighter 

 rainfall no difficulties of this kind had been encountered, and even 

 in the driest years plants in this situation have not suffered from lack 

 of water. 



Under the Chico conditions vegetative growth is much less rapid, 

 the plants grow more upright, and are in the aggregate less turgid 

 and less likely to break down of their own weight, except in winter, 

 from the effect of cold weather, when, as is often the case, the poorly 

 supported limbs are very likely to break off. 



