112 
THE ELOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
season ; during the former vegetation receives a surprising impetus ; 
during the latter it flags, and appears almost burnt up and destroyed. 
Cactuses may be seen shrivelled up through the heat of the sun 
and the dryness of the soil, but it is to this circumstance they owe 
their abundance of flower-buds. The wet or moist season returns, 
and pushes those buds into a glorious life. How different is this 
natural treatment from the plan adopted in windows, and often in 
greenhouses ! The plants are kept wet all the year round ; they 
have no cessation in their growth, but they form no flowers. Let 
nature be followed, and the desired result is sure. My Cactuses 
were put away in the autumn into a lumber-room, and have had no 
water since until the middle of last March. They were then brought 
out covered with dust, cleaned, and gradually supplied with water. 
They are now as plump as can be wished, and are covered with 
flower-buds. They will be kept supplied with moisture until the 
flowering is over; then they will take their chance in a sunny part 
of the garden, against a south wall, until cold weather comes and 
consigns them again to the lumber-room. A light soil, composed of 
brick rubbish mixed with loam and leaf-mould, is best for them, and 
need not be changed every year, if the top is removed and a fresh 
layer put on every spring. Large Cactuses cannot be grown well in 
windows, and my plan with them is to put them out-of-doors every 
day, where they will have all the sun, and to bring them into the 
sitting-room just as they are about to flower. The whole tribe is 
easily propagated. The cuttings should have the wound healed 
before being potted, and no water should be given for a month or Bix 
weeks afterwards. Such is my simple plan. 
LUCULIA GrEATISSIMA. 
of the most lovely, as well as one of the most odori- 
rous, plants known in gardens is the Luculia gratis- 
ma ; nevertheless, we seldom meet with it in anything 
ke perfection. 
In most collections, if existing at all, it presents so 
miserable an appearance, that even possessors of large gardens cease 
to care for it, alleging that it is impossible to grow it in anything 
like a creditable or healthy state. 
It is a plant that does not require a high temperature, for it 
comes from the cooler parts of India, and the want of success may 
in some instances result from its being roasted to death. A few' 
particulars, therefore, respecting the successful culture of this truly 
beautiful plant may not be unacceptable to my amateur readers. 
The most certain mode of increasing the Luculia is by layering. If 
the young shoots are slightly slit, in the manner pursued with 
respect to carnations, and pegged down in a small pot an inch 
under the surface of the soil, they will root readily, more especially 
if it is layered in autumn. Young plants so produced, if carefully 
preserved during winter, may be grown into fine flowering speci- 
