164 
IMPROVEMENTS IN GRAFTING CACTI. 
must yearly be on the increase. On the grafting system, however, large plants 
could easily be had in a few years, and the specimens, instead of decaying and 
getting shabbier in appearance, would annually grow healthier and more bushy, 
for a considerable time after arriving at a fine blooming state. 
It would not, moreover, be the mere strength of the stock of Cereus specio- 
sissimus which constituted its recommendation. That species is alike suitable for 
the operation, in consequence of its capacity, not only of enduring, but of flourishing 
better in, a highly nourishing soil, in which there is much decayed manure, and to 
which water, holding a large amount of manure in solution, can be liberally 
applied. It is on this account that it is chiefly valuable as a stock, because its 
richness will necessarily be imparted to the grafts, and the strength of the whole 
can so readily be kept up by artificial means. 
But we wish to speak also of a plant which is much less used in grafting than 
the Epiphylla, and is more ordinarily grown in pots on its own roots. It is the 
Cereus fiagelUformis. Conspicuous for being a creeping or pendent-growing plant, 
it will not succeed at all if treated as a climber ; and many amateurs who are 
ignorant of this circumstance, or who do not know what to do with its stems when 
they hang over the edge of the pot, reaching down to the stage, and who never 
think of suspending it, fasten it to erect stakes, and thus spoil it. 
Two or three years ago, we met with a nice method of treating this plant, as an 
object of curiosity, or where there is not convenience for hanging it up to the roof 
of the house. It is to graft it on strong stocks of Pereskia aculeata^ from two to 
three feet high. It unites itself admirably to the more woody substance of that 
plant, and its drooping stems seem to be quite at home when hanging around such 
a stem. In three years from the time of grafting, some of them had grown nearly 
two feet in length, and the aspect of the specimens was really very pleasing. 
Unlike the Epiphylla, C. Jiagelliformis would not, we think, be fit for grafting on 
C. speciosissimus ; since, however much vigour it might gain by the union, its 
stems are so slender that there would be a want of proportion between them and 
the stout stock on which it was growing. 
As a rule, applicable alike to all descriptions of stocks employed in this manner^ 
it must be stated that every shoot, whether from the base or any part of the stem 
of the stock, should be cut^closely off immediately on its being noticed. Of equally 
universal application, as respects the scions, is the direction that either their points 
should be cut off at the time of grafting, or shortly after they begin to grow ; and 
that they be cut back at any subsequent period, if they become too rambling or 
insufficiently bushy. It is most incorrect to suppose that such plants will not 
bear pruning, for, in the circumstances alluded to, they absolutely require it; 
although when they have once been induced to branch freely at the base, very 
little further reduction will be needed. 
