THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
Ill 
be saved from the plants having the best habit for next season's 
growth. 
I have little doubt that the common Mignonette will be super- 
seded, so far as the growth of standards is concerned, by the new 
variety named grandiflorci. It appears a very robust grower, with 
fine broad foliage, and will consequently require less time in forming 
a standard. 
TREATMENT OE CACTUSES IN WINDOWS AND 
IN THE OPEN AIR. 
BY AN AMATEUR. 
^HE plants commonly called by the name of Cactus belong 
to the natural order Cactacese, but are known among 
botanists and scientific gardeners by various appellations 
more or less distinctive of their generic peculiarities : 
as, for instance, the Epiphyllum, from a Greek word 
signifying upon a leaf, in allusion to the flowers growing upon the 
flat stems, commonly called leaves ; and the Cereus, so called from 
the waxy and pliant nature of the shoots of some of the species ; the 
Latin word cereus meaning waxy. 
Cactuses are very common in this country, on account of the 
rough treatment they will bear ; for, although they are natives of 
hot climates, as Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, and consequently soon 
killed by frosts, yet in other respects they are sufficiently hardy to 
allow of their general cultivation. They are magnificent objects in 
the stoves and conservatories of the wealthy, where they startle by 
the contrast between their gorgeous flowers and wrinkled unsightly 
stems ; they also help to set out many a cottage window, and they are 
usually found, to some extent, among the floral collections of the 
middle classes. Yet with this general disposition to cultivate them, 
few plants are less understood in those habits on which their suc- 
cessful flowering depends. 
“ I wish you would look at my Cactus,” said a lady to the writer 
the other day ; “ it is a very fine plant, but it never flowers.” On 
being introduced to this unproductive occupier of pot and window 
room, a fine piece of vegetation indeed presented itself ; above a yard 
high, as green as grass, and every flat stem as plump as a traditionary 
alderman. “Madam,” said the writer, “you feed your plant too 
much, and in order to make it flower you must at certain times adopt 
the starving system.” He informed her he had one of the same 
kind, commonly called Cactus Jenkinsonii, not near so tall, and very 
inferior in embonpoint and general handsomeness, which yet bore 
above a hundred flowers last season. The inquirer expressed her 
wonder at this, and received the following account of the method 
adopted to produce such a result ; it is now submitted to those 
readers of the Floral World who may wish to make fat and green 
Cactuses bring some tribute to their floral temple. 
In the natural home of the Cactus, there is a moist and a dry 
April. 
