468 On the Cultivation and Management of the Cactus tribe. 



of the plant. The moisture imbibed by the roots rises through 

 these woody channels, and hence is distributed through the suc- 

 culent mass, from the whole surface of the central axis, by means 

 of the system of reticulated fibres or veins already alluded to. 

 We can thus perceive how easy it is to injure these plants in 

 taking them up, or in carrying them, or handling them roughly 

 afterwards. 



In growing Cacti from seeds I fill the pots with cinders to 

 within two inches of the top; and fill them up with very sandy 

 peat, with a little clean sand on the top. The pots are then 

 watered and the seeds sown on the wet sand; and as much dry 

 sand is sprinkled over them as will just fill up the spaces between 

 them. The whole is then pressed down gently, and the pots are 

 put by in any warm place, where they are kept moist. The seeds 

 will vegetate in ten or twelve days and must then be very gently 

 watered for fear of displacing them till they make their little roots, 

 and get firm hold of the soil, after which, they may be freely and 

 regularly watered. I have transplanted these seedling Cacti at 

 all ages, but after all the care I could bestow upon them, I lost so 

 many of them by transplanting while yet very young that I would 

 recommend amateurs to sow the seeds quite thin in the first in- 

 stance, and not to transplant them till they begin to get crowded 

 in the pots, in a year or two. They cannot be grown so fast in 

 this, as in the other way, but it is the surest method to be adopted 

 with scarce and delicate kinds. 



The seeds are produced I believe on all Cacti on the last year's 

 wood like the peach; and nothing is easier for a collector than 

 to procure seeds of all the species of Cacti he meets with in their 

 native wilds. It is not at all necessary that these like other seeds 

 should be ripe at the time of gathering them ; if they are merely 

 going out of flower the tops of the plants may be cut off, and the 

 succulency of the amputated part will provide sufficient nourish- 



