30^ 
NAT. ORDER. CACTE^E. 
-flowers either showy or minute, usually lasting only one day or 
night, always sessile. 
America is the station of the order ; no species appearing to 
be natives of any other part of the world. In this country they 
are abundant, especially in the tropics, extending a short distance 
beyond them, both to the north and the south. Decandolle states 
that 32° or 33° lat. is the northern limit of the order; but it is 
certain that a species is either wild or naturalized on Long Island, 
in lat. 42° north ; and that there is another, somewhere about 
49° in the Rocky Mountains. 
Propagation and Culture. Hot, dry, exposed places, are the 
favorite stations of this genus of plants, for which they are pecu- 
liarly adapted, in consequence of the small quantity of evapora- 
ting pores which they possess, as compared with other plants ; a 
circumstance which, as Decandolle has satisfactorily shown, will 
account for the excessively succulent state of their tissue. No 
plant is more easily propagated by cuttings, than the Cactus and 
its varieties. Those who are familiar with its cultivation recom- 
mend that the cuttings be laid in a dry place, for the space of two 
or three weeks ; then to be planted in pots, filled with a mixture 
of loam and lime rubbish, having some stones laid in the bottom 
of the pot, to drain off the moisture ; and afterwards plunged into 
a gentle hot-bed of tanner's bark, to facilitate their rooting ; and 
giving them once a week a gentle watering : this should be done 
about the first of July. We are informed that this plant has never 
been known to perfect its seed in Europe. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The juice of the Cactus Jlagel- 
liformis has been considered valuable as an alterative, and, conse- 
quently, has been administered in various disorders arising from 
an impure state of the blood. It has also been favorably noticed 
as a medicine to correct and restore the tone of the stomach. The 
most improved mode of administration is in pills made from the 
extract. Dose, from one to three five-grain pills, twice a day. 
