IMPROVEMENTS IN GRAFTING CACTI. 
1G3 
By this comparatively new process, Cereus speciosissimus and even some of the 
yet larger sorts, have come to be habitually employed as stocks, and the common 
Epiphyllum speciosum is proved to be so greatly enriched by being grafted upon 
it, that the best culturists seem now to make this practice a rule among them. 
But, besides JS. speciosum, the more specious E. Ackermanni and E. splendidum, 
with the seedling varieties that approximate to them in character, have been treated 
according to the same standard, and very beautiful objects they all become when 
thus managed. 
"We have seen them prepared after this fashion in several ways. First, there 
is the half- standard ; a variety in which the stem of the stock is cut off within 
about twenty inches or two feet of the base, and the grafts inserted on the top. 
These, after several years, and by a little pruning, form themselves into a fine 
large head, which, by the flexibleness of the branches, assumes an inclination down- 
wards, which materially adds to the beauty of the specimen. Then, there is a 
form in which the stem is left considerably longer, so as to constitute, when the 
scions grow on its summit, a tall standard, less symmetrical than the last, but very 
curious and interesting. A kind in which the stem is still shorter than the first 
of these, while, when the scions grow freely dow^nwards, they nearly hide that 
stem, is perhaps the most pleasing of the three forms thus specified. 
A second division is created by having a specimen with several stems for the 
stock, and cutting all these down to about a foot from the edge of the pot, then 
inserting grafts both on the top of them, and down the sides. From three to five 
stems is the fittest number for the purpose ; and a plant, so grafted, would make, 
in time, a remarkably dense and bushy object, through which, when in flower, it 
would be impossible even for the eye to penetrate. 
Of a yet different description is a specimen similar to the last, as regards the 
quantity of stems, though these, instead of being cut down, are trained spirally 
round a barrel-shaped trellis, from a foot to eighteen inches in diameter, and two 
feet high, either open or arched over at the top. These stems are stopped when 
they reach the summit, and grafts are then put into them, all over the outer 
surface, not more than two or three inches apart. A plant is formed in this 
manner, which, in point of splendour, has scarcely anything to equal it ; while, 
when the grafts have grown properly, the expedient that produced it is not 
discernible. In fact, if covered in at the top, it looks like an immense bush ; and, 
in favourable seasons, it will have hardly an inch of its surface unadorned with 
flowers. 
The design of all these measures is to strengthen the stems and flowers of the 
species or varieties used as grafts, and to make them into specimens of a character 
which could not be otherwise obtained, or only by waiting an extraordinary length 
of time. Thus, the Epiphylla would never form standards, and would be a great 
many years in growing into large bushes, which, when actually produced, would 
most probably be bare at the bottom, and have a tendency to unhealthiness, that 
