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XLIV. On the Cultivation and Management of the Cactus tribe. 

 By Mr. D. Beaton, Gardener to Thomas Harris, Esq. F.H.S. 

 Kingsbury. 



Read May 19, 1840. 



he cultivation of the Cactus tribe was almost entirely neglected 

 in this country, till within the last ten years ; if we except the gar- 

 den, or tall Cacti, as they are now erroneously termed. The cele- 

 brated collections of the late Mr. Haworth, and of Mr. Hitchin of 

 Norwich, are the only exceptions that I know of. It is true that 

 a few species of Cacti have existed in the Chelsea and Kew botanic 

 gardens, and in some other public and private gardens in this 

 country since Miller's time ; but these could not be called collec- 

 tions. Our continental neighbours, now so celebrated for their fine 

 Cacti, appear to have, about as recently, become collectors as our- 

 selves ; for we find De Candolle as late as 1829, describing 162 

 species only, in his Revue de la famille des Cactees, more than 

 one third of which were introduced into France in that year from 

 Mexico, by Dr. Coulter. Although we can boast of having only 

 two collections at that time, both were more rich in the number 

 of their species than any of the continental gardens, if we are to 

 judge of the latter from De Candolle's enumeration. 



In 1833 the collection at Norwich passed into the hands of Mr. 

 Mackie, a distinguished nurseryman of that place, from whose 

 establishment the germ of some of our best collections of Cacti may 

 be said to have first originated. The late Duke of Bedford 

 bought many Cacti from Mr. Mackie in 1834, which was the com- 

 mencement of the present unrivalled collection at Woburn. About 

 the same time my employer Thomas Harris, Esq. began to ad- 

 mire and collect Cacti. His collection of these, and other fine 

 plants, is now so well known, that I need not allude to it farther. 



