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LI. On the Management of the Cactus. In a Letter to the 

 Secretary. By Mr. John Green, Gardener to Sir Edmund 

 Antrobus, Bart. F. H. S. 



Read June 4, 1833. 



Sir, 



Agreeably to your request, I now send you an account of my 

 management of the specimens of the Cactus speciosus, speciosis- 

 simus, Jenkinsoni, &c, which I had the honour to exhibit at the 

 Horticultural Society on the 21st of last month. 



The compost that I use is an equal quantity of light turfy loam 

 and pigeon's dung, and one-third sheep's dung, exposing the mix- 

 ture one year to the influence of the summer's sun and winter's 

 frost to mellow ; when wanted for use, I add one-third of sandy 

 peat, in both cases mixing them well together. 



I grow the young plants from February to July, in the forcing 

 flower-house, kept from 55° to 60° Fahrenheit; I afterwards 

 remove them to a shelf in an airy situation in the green-house, 

 exposed to the mid-day sun, giving them plenty of air and little 

 water. The plants that I want to flower the following September, 

 are placed in the forcing-house the first week in December, giving 

 them very little water for the first ten days, and gradually increasing 

 the water as the plants advance in growth. About the 1st of February 

 I stop all the young shoots, which soon become well ripened ; from 

 this time I decrease the quantity of water until they become quite 

 dry, in order to throw the plants into a state of rest : in the begin- 

 ning of March I replace them in a cold shady situation in the green- 

 house, keeping them quite dry until the following June, when I 

 put them again in the forcing house, treating them as before. For 

 plants to flower in August, I place a quantity more in the forcing- 

 house the first week in January, treating them the same as those 

 for September ; only they are put to rest in the green-house a fort- 

 night later, and replaced in the forcing-house one week sooner. 



