ca'ctus. 



40 



ca'ctus. 



occasionally, so as to admit the air to 

 the centre of the hedge. The box, 

 when used to execute arabesques, or 

 scroll-work on the ground, is not al- 

 lowed to grow higher than two or 

 three inches, and is cut quite fiat at 

 top ; the entire figure of the arabesque 

 being formed of box, without the intro- 

 duction of floAvers or other plants ; 

 though occasionally with the addition 

 of small cones or globes of box rising 



up from the terminal points of the 

 arabesque figure. These cones, pyra- 

 mids, globes, or other figures, are kept 

 in correct shape, by being clipped 

 every year. When verdant sculpture 

 was in fashion, no tree excepting the 

 yew was so well adapted for it as the 

 box ; and the tree was cut into the 

 proper shape, by putting a wire-frame 

 of the desired form over the tree, and 

 clipping the branches to it. 



c. 



Caca^liajL. — Composite. — C.coc- 

 cinea, L., Emilia coccinea, Cass., is 

 a half-hardy annual, with a bright 

 scarlet flower, somewhat resembling 

 that of the common groundsel. It 

 it is cultivated for the brilliancy of 

 the colour of its flowers, though it is 

 scarcely worth the trouble it requires ; 

 as it must not only be raised on a 

 hotbed, but its long slender stalks 

 must be staked and tied up, to make 

 it look at all neat. There are several 

 perennial species of Cacalia, but they 

 are very seldom seen in British gardens. 



Ca'ctus, L. — Cactacece. — The 

 very remarkable succulent plants, ar- 

 ranged by Linnaeus under the name of 

 Cactus, have been distributed by mo- 

 dern botanists over numerous genera, 

 which they are still continually 

 changing and re-arranging. At first a 

 few plants were left in the genus 

 Cactus, but now that genus is annihi- 

 lated, and seven or eight new genera 

 substituted for it ; still, as all the 

 plants that once composed it, and the 

 new ones of the same nature that 

 collectors are continually sending 

 home, are known by the general name 

 of Cacti, it has been thought advisable 

 to give here a slight sketch of the 

 whole family. 



In the time of Linnaeus, very few 

 Cacti were known; and even in the year 

 1 80 7, Persoon enumerated only thirty- 

 two, but now above five hundred living 



species are to be found in a single col- 

 lection ; and numbers of new species 

 are being sent home by collectors 

 every year. These new species are 

 chiefly found in the tropical regions 

 of America, but they extend over 75° 

 of latitude, some being found near 

 the boundary of the United States, 

 and some near the town of Concep- 

 tion, in Chili. By far the greater 

 number, however, grow in the dry 

 burning plains of Mexico and Brazil, 

 where they are subjected to the alter- 

 nate seasons of extreme moisture and 

 extreme drought. In these arid 

 plains, where all nature seems parched 

 up for six months in every year, 

 the Cacti have been mercifully pro- 

 vided to serve as reservoirs of mois- 

 ture; and not only the natives, by 

 wounding the fleshy stems with their 

 long forest-knives, supply themselves 

 with a cool and refreshing juice, but 

 even the cattle contrive to break 

 through the skin with their hoofs, and 

 then to suck the liquid they contain 

 — instinct teaching them to avoid 

 wounding themselves with the spines. 



The Cacti are arranged by nature 

 in several distinct groups ; the first of 

 which consists of the tree Cacti, or those 

 kinds of Cereus, which have long 

 slender stems, and which usually grow 

 on the summits of the mountains of 

 Brazil, forming a singular kind of 

 crest. These are generally thirty or 



