THE Y 



from the base, or by removing the side branchlets. The 

 former only need potting like ordinary plants, keeping 

 them rather dry until growth commences. The branch- 

 lets can be laid upon dry soil until some roots show at 

 the base, and they can then be treated similarly. The 

 more delicate sorts, or those that produce few offsets, 

 can be grafted on any of the cereuses, to which they 

 readily unite ; and this has a double advantage, for while 

 the plants often grow more strongly, they are also less 

 liable to decay, as such forms will do unless very great 

 care is exercised in supplying water. Ccreus tortiiostis 

 and others of slender habit may be chosen for the small- 

 growing species. — Lc-^<is CastL'. 



The Old Man Cactus. — The "old man" cactus is 

 one of the curiosities of plant life. Ccrciis or Pilocereus 

 senilis, derives both its botanical and popular names 

 from the large number of long silvery white hairs which 

 cover the upper portion of its stem, and impart a peculiar 

 resemblance to the hoary head of an aged man. These 

 hairs are really soft weak spines, which attain the length 

 of several inches, and instead of spreading regularly, or 

 projecting rigidly, as in other members of the family, 

 they are flaccid and pendulous, thickly clothing the 

 stem. It is necessary to protect this plant from dust if 

 it be desired to preserve its beauty, for it has a very dis- 

 reputable and unwholesome appearance when what 

 should be silvery white hairs become dingy and stained. 

 It is, therefore, preferably grown in a small glass case, 

 where with a few other select cactuses it will be seen to 

 excellent advantage. Though C. senilis is one of the 

 best known species in small collections, yet large plants 

 are seldom seen, and probably the finest in England is 

 that grown at the Oxford Botanic Garden. This is six- 

 teen feet high, of proportionate diameter, and has been 

 in cultivation at least a hundred years, having been 

 originally imported by the Duke of Bedford, and trans- 

 ferred at the dispersal of the unique Woburn collection 

 to Oxford. Even this height is said to be exceeded in 

 its native home of Mexico, where specimens have been 

 described as reaching the height of twenty feet. One 

 character common in varying degrees to all the cactuses, 

 but very strongly developed in the "old man" cactuses, 

 is the large quantity of calcium oxalate secreted in the 

 cells of the stem. To such a degree are these cr}'stals 

 formed, that old stems, when cul, lose the succulent por- 

 tion of their structure but still preserve their form, be- 

 coming almost like petrified stems, solid, heavy and 

 stone-like. — Lewis Castle. 



Musa Sumatrana. — Allow me to call your attention 

 to a mistake in your musa nomenclature (page 332, June 

 issue). I think, if you were served at breakfast with 

 fried fruits of M. Sumatrana instead of the M. paraJisiaca , 

 the plantain of Pisang, you would soon conclude there 

 was not only a distinction, but a difference as well. 



The fruit of Musa Stimatra)ia is a woody pod filled 

 with small black seeds that are as hard as shot, and it 

 belongs to that section of the musa that are grown as 

 decorative plants only. As we are advertising M. Suma- 

 trana, we don't want people to buy it with the impres- 



SA V. 569 



sion they are getting plantains, or ''iee Z'ersa. — R. D. 

 HoYT, Bay Viezu, Fla. 



[The article in question did not say that A/usa Sim/a- 

 trana is an edible plantain, but only "a cultivated 

 plantain in the West Indies." But we are glad of Mr. 

 Hoyt's remarks concerning the true nature of the spe- 

 cies. — Ed. ] 



Cactus Fruit. — Few people know the interest and 

 beauty which is often attached to fruits of indoor plants. 



The fruits of cactuses are particularly interesting. We 

 append a cut of a berry of Cereus Martinii which one of 

 our subscribers has sent us. 



Across Lots. — Why is it that some fruits respond so 

 liberally to the efforts of horticulturists, while others 

 defy every advance, preferring seemingly to be simply 

 wild ? We have just been through one of nature's own 

 gardens, where fruits and flowers vie with each other in 

 beautiful profusion. There were huckleberries of seven 

 different kinds, some better than others, but all good : 

 low sugar berries, dangle berries, great juicy swamp 

 berries and a few of the rare white huckleberries. We 

 have made repeated attempts to cultivate and improve 

 on these, but always the same result, dwindling away 

 gradually or dying at once. How different it is with 

 the blackberries, of which there are in the same place 

 four kinds in fruit, two of which we could not eat at 

 all, and the other two were not unlike the luscious, well- 

 ripened Lawton or Kittatinny of our gardens. These 

 examples serve to show how much we have learned and 

 also how much there is to learn. 



Our national flower, the golden rod, is bearing us a 

 marvelous wealth of gold, and among the forty odd 

 species in this section of our domain, we can have it in 

 all degrees of perfection. In the Solidago bicolor, one 

 would think it was silver instead of gold, but then there 

 is the eighteen-carat Solidago odora, smiling like a 

 double eagle, to supply the deficiency. Which of them 

 is our national flower ? 



