JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 6,1884. 
been supposed to bear some resemblance to a hatchet, as the generic name 
implies. At the apex, however, in the place of the spines of the Mamil- 
larias are two rows of flat homy scales, which overlap like the tiles of a 
roof, and have been not inaptly compared to the scaly back of a woodlouse, 
to which character the specific name refers. The flowers are borne near 
the summit of the stem 1 to 1£ inch in diameter, consisting of several 
series of sepals and petals, numerous stamens and stigmas. 
In culture and propagation Pelecyphora is similar to the more delicate 
Mamillarias ; it requires a sandy soil, good drainage, and very careful sup¬ 
plies of water. Offsets are seldom produced, and the readiest method of 
increasing it is by seeds, which germinate freely in moderate heat, and 
numbers of plants have been so raised in this country as well as on the 
continent. 
Pelecyphora aselliformis, Ehrenberg. —This, the only member of the 
genus, is a native of Mexico, where it was found by the brothers Tonel, 
associated with plants of the now discarded genus Anhalonium, which has 
; Fig. 87—Pelecyphora aselliformis var. concolor. 
been already mentioned under the Mamillarias. The first plants imported to 
Europe were received at Berlin, but found to be dead, and Labouret relates 
that Ehrenberg raised the first living specimen from seeds found in dried 
fruits contained in the axils of the tubercles. The plants so obtained were 
described by the last-named author in 1843, though the flowers were then 
unknown. In 1858 Lemaire gave a full description and illustration of the 
plant in the Illustration Horticole, vol. vi., t. 186, which drew much atten¬ 
tion to it, and several growers of Cacti obtained plants for their collections. 
Amongst English cultivators Mr. Justus Corderoy of Blewberry, Didcot' 
Berkshire, was especially successful in raising young plants from seed, and 
through him numbers were distributed throughout the country ; indeed, he 
claims to have done what growers could never do before nor since—namely, 
sell plants of Pelecyphora at 3s. each. Several of these seedlings he succeeded 
in flowering, and proved slightly different from Lemaire’s plant in the colour¬ 
ing, the flowers of Mr. Corderoy’s variety being uniformly rosy purple, while 
in Lemaire’s plant they had an outer series of pale almost white petals. One 
of these specimens was submitted to Dr. Hooker, and figured in the 
“ Botanical Magazine,” 1873, t. 6061, under the name of P. aselliformis var. 
concolor. Though so interesting structurally, and pretty when in flower, this 
Cactus continues very scarce, and few collections now include examples of 
it. Pig. 37 is engraved from a photograph of one of the Blewberry plants, 
representing it of the natural size, a single tubercle being shown at the 
side. 
LEUCHTENBERGIA, Hooker. 
Few who were unacquainted with Leuchtenhergia principis would, at the 
first examination of a plant not in flower, think it was a member of the 
Cactus family ; it is so entirely distinct from all the genera and species 
n outward appearance, and might be easily mistaken for an Aloe or some 
relative of the Haworthias. A glance at the flowers would, however, he 
sufficient to indicate its true position in the vegetable kingdom, as the 
calyx is somewhat tubular with numerous lobes, the outer scale-like, the 
interior narrow and spreading, the petals being in two series, coloured 
like the petals, with indefinite stamens and numerous stigmas. The 
tubercles are triangular, about 3 to 4 inches long, crowned with several 
peculiar flattened ashy-grey spines that have a withered appearance, and 
vary in length from half an inch to 2 or 3 inches. These tubercles are 
arranged spirally round the stem, and, owing to their differing so much 
from the tubercles in Pelecyphora and Mamillaria, they have been the 
subject of much discussion as to their true nature. The apparent diffi¬ 
culty of the matter has been increased by the fact that the flowers are- 
produced near the apex of the tubercles and not from the axil, as in the 
Mamillarias. Respecting this point also there has been a divergence of 
opinion, some writers describing it as producing the flowers from the 
axils and others from the apex. Writing me upon this subject, Mr. R. I.. 
Lynch, Curator of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, observes, “ Lemaire 
in ‘ Les Cactdes ’ ridicules the idea that the flowers of Leuchtenhergia 
are borne at the summit of the mammas, but his information was untrust¬ 
worthy. It does habitually flower from that position, as I have 
frequently seen. In some cases the flowers are produced near the 
apex of very little developed mammae in the centre of the plant,, 
and it would he easy to make a mistake as to the actual origin of the 
flower, as it is wedged in tightly by the other mammae. Most flowers- 
that I have seen were, however, borne quite clear of the centre.” This 
is undoubtedly the fact, as I have seen flowers down in the centre as 
described, and, without removing them, it would he almost impossible to 
decide whence they sprung ; while, on the other hand, Mr. Corderoy has 
sent me a sketch showing the flowers quite clear from the other tubercles, 
and close to the summit, as stated by Mr. Lynch. 
These tubercles therefore appear to be of a compound nature, repre¬ 
senting the fusion of petiole and peduncle similar to what occurs in 
Helwingia and Erythrochiton. Lemaire partly adopted this view 
regarding the mammae of the three genera Mamillaria, Pelecyphora, an I 
Leuchtenhergia as metamorphosed leaves, the spines representing the 
veins of the leaves, in which opinion many careful observers agree. Le- 
Maout and Decaisne describe them as “ arrested buds,” and would thus 
give them more the nature of branches, while others incline to the view 
that they are simple elevations of the substance of the stem similar to 
the ridges in Echinocactus and Cereus. 
This is a rather difficult plant to grow satisfactorily, but it should be 
treated similarly to the Mamillarias as regards soil, and most carefully 
attended in the supply of water, as the slightest approach to excess wili 
result in serious injury and probably the death of the plant. 
LEUCHTENBERGIA PRINCIPIS, Hooker .—In 1848 an excellent figure of this-- 
plant was given in the “ Botanical Magazine,” accompanied by a full descrip¬ 
tion by Sir W. Hooker, which is so graphic that it is here reprc due id. “ Our 
largest plant is a foot high, its main trunk erect, but crooked, as thick as a 
man’s arm, clothed with the dense mass of persistent bases of old mamillm, or 
perhaps rather of the withered mamillae themselves, shrunk and reduced to a 
mass of closely pressed scales. Above they gradually become more perfect, 
at first short and truncated till the crown of the plant is clothed with per¬ 
fectly formed mamillae, resembling aloid leaves 4 or 5 inches long, glaucous 
green, succulent, triangular, truncated at the apex, and there bearing six.or 
seven long chaffy, or almost horny linear or subulate flexuose scales, of which- 
the centre one is about as long as the mamillae, and the others form a whorl 5 
round the centre, are about 2 or 3 inches long, spreading, triangular. These 
appear to be after a time deciduous, for the lower withered mamillae are 
destitute of them.” In the further description of the flower the position is 
said to be “ from the axil of a mamilla,” but in the “ Genera Plantarum 
this has been corrected. The flowers are large, of a rich clear yellow linV 
and are usually solitary, though in some cases two are borne on one plant at. 
the same time. 
The species is a native of Mexico, having been found near the Rio del 
Monte, and introduced to the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1847. Like the* 
Pelecyphora, Mr. Corderoy has been very successful with this plant, and the 
engraving represents one from a photograph of eight plants, several being in- 
flower, which he had taken some time since.—L. C. 
(To be continued.) 
ORIGIN OF EAST LOTHIAN STOCK. 
In reference to the paragraph in your issue of the 7th ult. regarding 
the raiser of the East Lothian Stocks, perhaps a few words might not be 
inopportune about the raising and selection of these lovely plants. 
About the year 1853, whilst at Traprain, I commenced a series of" 
experiments in grafting with two varieties of Stocks, one variety known* 
in East Lothian as Anderson’s Stocks, and the other variety as Cape 
Stocks. After twelve years of almost incessant attention and labour upon- 
them, I was so far successful as to select five distinct and hardy varieties- 
of Stocks now known as East Lothian Stocks. 
It may be interesting to your readers to know that during these twelve- 
years of experimenting I raised with more or less success nearly thirty 
varieties, but on account of indistinct colouring, together with tender- 
habit and inferior growth, I was compelled to discard all with the excep¬ 
tion of the five varieties now in common cultivation. 
I have often been surprised when walking through a garden to have- 
pointed out to me what the gardener or grower called East Lothian Stocks, 
and to find the plants were not East Lothian Stocks at all, or, at any rate, 
of so inferior a quality as to he scarcely recognisable as such. The largest 
and finest collection of true East Lothian Stocks I have for a long time 
seen is in the nurseries of Messrs. Ormiston & Ren wick. 
