208 
SUCCULENT PLANTS. 
first partially, and ultimately wholly taken off in the day, watering should he 
suspended, and the Cacti managed almost as if they had no real vitality. It is 
through this means that their flowering propensities will be elicited, and more will 
be done towards urging them to bloom in the succeeding summer, by a little 
prudent exposure, and the avoidance of water for two or three weeks, than could 
be effected in twice as many years if these points were unheeded. 
The possessor of a low greenhouse, who has the shelves arranged near the roof, 
and can secure the assistance of a hotbed-frame in the summer, would, by the 
system now displayed, be enabled to cultivate Cacti to much higher perfection than 
those larger proprietors who have an abundance of stoves, and confine them therein 
continually in a uniformly moderate temperature. 
It has recently become the fashion in one or two rather noted establishments, 
to regard these kinds of Cacti as needing only the heat usual in a greenhouse ; and 
in the places where such an opinion has been to a great extent acted upon, the 
majority of the species have certainly a healthy appearance, and flower in the 
richest profusion. Herein, however, the failing we have noted in another part of 
this paper is most strikingly perceptible, and the disagreeable tapering of the apex, 
or the strange irregularity of bulk which inevitably accrues from the want of a 
sufficient stimulus, is unavoidably entailed. We cannot consequently concede 
the propriety of a course so unnatural, or admit that it is deserving of extension, 
except where no other kind of house is possessed, and the proprietor is ridiculously 
ambitious to have plants which he has no proper facilities for successfully conserving. 
Should it be objected that the employment of dung-frames precludes a delicate 
individual from watching the plants at that precise period when they are in their 
utmost vigour, and therefore most interesting, it were easy to show that they 
might be rendered ornamental enough, and the access to them commensurately 
ready to admit of their being visited by ladies at any time. Every gardener will 
best know how to adapt these circumstances to the particular locality, and to 
make the approach to his succulent frame at least tolerable. A small span-roofed 
pit, such as is used by market gardeners for forcing strawberries, with a walk 
down the centre, might even be constructed expressly for this end, and thus spare 
the necessity for the observer walking on the manure. A pit of this kind is the 
more desirable, since it would be occupied by the Cacti solely in the summer, and 
might be made use of for forcing many sorts of low fruits and vegetables all the 
remaining portion of the year. 
With regard, next, to the winter economy of the succulent-house, we cannot 
do better than state that it should be maintained as nearly as practicable on a par 
with the greenhouse as far as relates to temperature, and both the plants and the 
air must be considerably more arid. Several weeks will often elapse without some 
specimens requiring a drop of water ; and when it is given, it should be doled out 
with the greatest niggardliness in the morning of a day during which it is likely that 
