464 On the Cultivation and Management of the Cactus tribe. 



a piece of deal quartering, which is supported by a row of wooden 

 posts. The hot-water pipes run along under this shelf, and keep 

 the slate constantly hot. An inch of rough cinders is placed on 

 the shelf, and a row of inverted pots (small sixties) is placed along 

 the front of the shelf on the cinders, at about five or six feet apart. 

 About three inches of light compost is placed over the cinders 

 with a sprinkling of sand on the top to preserve a neat appearance. 

 A deal board is placed along the side of the bed to keep in the 

 soil ; and when the whole is planted and finished, the bottoms of 

 the inverted pots are on a level with the surface of the bed. Water 

 is occasionally poured down through these inverted pots to irrigate 

 the soil, and to prevent the heat from drying it too much. The 

 shelf being uniformly level, the water runs equally under the soil 

 among the cinders; and in the midst of the growing season the 

 whole bed is saturated by this simple means, in imitation of the 

 natural condition of the plants during the rainy season. Besides 

 the seedlings, we plant out the more tender species in this bed to 

 get them established ; we also in this bed propagate some of the 

 more delicate sorts from cuttings, and we often sow the seeds in it 

 and leave them to their fate. 



By a proper system of bottom heat,* Cacti might be grown in 

 frames in this country to great advantage ; and if turned out of the 

 pots, and planted in soil over a heated mass of brick-bats and 

 stones, they would live in the frame during winter with safety, if a 

 mat or two were thrown over the glass in severe frosty weather. 

 By planting seedlings and young offsets in this manner within a 

 few inches of the glass, and thinning them from time to time as 

 they become crowded, we might soon equal, if not excel our con- 

 tinental neighbours; who, though they also grow their Cacti in 



* The best, most simple, and most practical mode of supplying bottom heat by 

 means of hot-water, is that detailed by J. Rogers, Esq., F.H.S., of Seven Oaks, 

 Kent, in the Gardener's Magazine, Vol. XVI. p. 139. 



