CACTUSES AND OTHER SUCCULENTS 



149 



fatal to any other living thing. Though the 

 cat may jump and knock them down with 

 such persistent regularity that the plants are 

 tumbled out of their pots every few weeks, 

 they will still remain alive. I do not advo- 

 cate such maltreatment and neglect; cactuses, 

 Hke everything else, will give amazing returns 

 for attention that is just a little bit better than 

 the ordinary, and there is a great personal 

 satisfaction in being the possessor of some- 

 thing a little better than your friends. 



The only way to get flawless specimens is 

 to grow the plants yourself from seed, and 

 the process is simplicity itself. (See page 166.) 

 You can begin at any time of year, with the 

 absolute confidence of producing plants of 

 appreciable size in twelve months of such 

 genera as Cereus and Opuntia. Plants that 

 have been collected in the wild will never 

 present the same even texture of surface and 

 bright green colour, nor will they attain 

 equal rapidity of growth or live so long as plants 

 raised in cultivation, because their roots are 

 damaged in the removal. 



For the purpose of the window gardener 

 cactuses may be grouped into these general 

 classes: (i) Tall; (2) Dwarf; (3) Vine-hke. 



