By Mr. D. Beaton. 



469 



ment for ripening the seeds. Such pieces may be dried, and sent 

 home loaded with immature seeds, which will ripen on the passage, 

 or soon after being stimulated into growth in this country. 



Cutting off three or four feet from the top of the immense pil- 

 lars of tree Cereuses in this way, whether in seed or not, is indeed 

 the only way by which we can ever expect to flower them in this 

 country. Hitherto we have been satisfied if we could procure seeds 

 or pieces of young plants of these columnar Cacti ; as although we 

 can grow them to a large size, we have not sufficient sun to elabo- 

 rate their juices sufficiently to bring them to a flowering state. 

 Amputation of the top would be the best method to pursue with all 

 the Cerei and Opuntiae, and the easiest for the collector ; let him fix 

 on the oldest plant of each kind, cut it down and preserve the head, 

 or top piece ; and after drying the wound, let him send it home 

 in saw dust, or any dry hard grass, but by no means in moss, 

 which is of all others the worst to transmit plants in, as it im- 

 bibes and retains moisture. Besides gaining thus all the true or 

 natural characteristics of the plants, we should have every chance 

 of seeing their flowers soon after their arrival, and thus be in 

 possession of a great acquisition to our collections, which we can 

 never expect by our present mode of procuring young plants. 



After forming a collection of Cacti the next inquiry will be, can 

 we improve their races by hybridizing as is done with other ge- 

 nera ? The Mammillariae being grown entirely for their forms and 

 not for their flowers, and being so numerous already, little farther 

 improvement need be wished among them ; but if we could get that 

 section of them which bears Echinocacti flowers, such as M. pyena- 

 cantha, to cross with some of the true Echinocacti, we might 

 expect new anomalous forms. Echino- and Melo-cacti will no 

 doubt interbreed, but nothing desirable can be anticipated from 

 their union. The tube, or Cereus flowering Echinocacti, will not 

 cross with the true Cerei, at least I have failed in producing such 

 a cross, but further trials should be made. I have repeatedly 



