4G2 On the Cultivation and Management of the Cactus tribe. 



miliarias and Opuntiae do not succeed so well if kept in the same 

 temperature as the great number of Cacti ; these Alpines should 

 receive the treatment of the heath-house all the year round. On 

 the other hand the Melocacti, which inhabit the intratropical 

 shores, require a higher temperature than the rest of the family ; 

 the mean temperature of 55° is necessary for them, even in winter ; 

 but if they are kept perfectly dry from October to March they will 

 live in a much lower degree. These are the two extremes of 

 habit among the Cacti growing in this country. The great mass of 

 the species will do perfectly well in an intermediate temperature, say 

 from 45° to 50° if they are kept near the glass. The only attention 

 they require for three or four months in winter, under this tem- 

 perature, is to receive plenty of air when the weather permits. If 

 they are kept warmer than this in winter their growth is not quite 

 suspended, and they will require to be occasionally watered. 



Newly imported Cacti, if received after the first of September 

 should not be potted, or otherwise excited into growth until March. 

 Many of the Mammillariae with short thick succulent roots, most 

 of the Echinocacti, and all the Melocacti, are slow in making their 

 new roots after their first arrival, these therefore, should be assisted 

 with a gentle bottom heat to encourage them in forming their new 

 roots. Indeed all the Cacti are much benefited by a little bottom 

 heat on their first arrival, and even at all times when they are in a 

 growing state, if we could so far indulge them. No plants seem 

 to enjoy bottom heat more than the Cacti : even the species from 

 the limits of perpetual snow like this indulgence, although the 

 heat of a close house or frame would soon injure them, by exhaust- 

 ing their vital energies. To recommend bottom heat for plants 

 that will live out of doors with us for the greatest part of the year, 

 is a novel feature in garden literature, and was first recommended 

 about three years since, by the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, in his 

 work on the Amaryllidacece, p. 402. The good effects of this 

 system we have proved here with other plants as well as with 

 Cacti. 



