VOL. XXXVI. No. 2. 
WHO l,K No. 1133. 
NEW YORK CITY. JULY 14, 1877. 
IPIUCK SIX CIKNTH. 
L |2.30 PER. YEAR.! 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by the ltural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
SOME OF THE CACTUS FAMILY. 
For singularity and grotcsqucness of forui, an 
well as for the exceptional conditions under 
which they thrive to the boat advantage, no class 
of plants is more remarkable than the Oactaceae, 
Of these, upwards of sixty species have been al¬ 
ready described by discriminating botanists, all 
of which are indigenous to this continent. Al¬ 
though they vary in stature, from thorny Btems 
that creep, snake-like, along the ground, to glob¬ 
ular, jointed masses, aud gauut, bare columnar 
trunks that sometimes rise to the 
bight of fifty or even Bixty feet, 
yet they are all distinguished by 
several common characteristics. 
Without an exception they are 
fleshy and succulent, armed with 
menaciug spines and bristles, and 
leafless with the exception of a 
single speciea. They all delight 
in a dry, sandy, barren soil, 
scorched by the full rays of a 
tropical sun, where—an anomaly 
in nature — amid the general 
drought, glare, aud torrid desola¬ 
tion, their stems are filled with 
an abundance of pleasant, sub¬ 
acid juice, which, inclosed In a 
tough, impermeable skin, enables 
them to support a sluggish vital 
action, and justly gains for them 
the title of “ Springs of the Des¬ 
ert, ” from tho thirBty lips of 
many a wearied traveler over the 
parched wastes where they form 
uearlv the only vegetation. Nor 
is an occasional human wayfarer 
the only creature that derives re¬ 
freshment from their liquid treas¬ 
ures. When, in tho dry season, 
all other forms of vegetable life 
have withered from tho Llanos of 
Mexico, the prairios of Texas, 
and the plains of New Mexico, 
the wild ass, the mule, the mus¬ 
tang, and often the long-horned 
cattle, know well how to sustain 
a migratory existence, amid the 
arid wilds, by having recourse to 
the providential Cactus. Cau¬ 
tiously, with their hoofs, they 
rub off the noxious spines, split 
open tho plant aud then suck 
with delight its cool and refresh¬ 
ing juice. Almost all tho species 
bear, Likewise, edible fruit, some 
of which are among tho most de¬ 
licious of tho hot zone where they 
mature. Generally, these some¬ 
what resemble, iu flavor, the bet¬ 
ter sort of gooseberries, to which, 
they arc botanically related. 
Few families of plants are con¬ 
fined within such narrow limits 
as the Oactaceae-, All the Ameri¬ 
can speciea, with a single excep¬ 
tion, are nati ves of the warm re¬ 
gion hounded by tho fortieth 
parallel of latitude on each side 
of the equator. The parched 
plains of Mexico, New Mexico, 
and Western Texas, are the deso¬ 
late wastes where they are found 
in the greatest size and abun¬ 
dance. Here the Toroh-thistle 
Cactus rises to the Light of from 
twenty to thirty foot, dull gray¬ 
ish-yellow, branchless and leaf¬ 
less. Here, also, the Cereus gi- 
ganteus —the giant of the Cactus 
family—is met with, chiefly between north lati¬ 
tudes 30° aud .if) 0 . Of this curious plant tho 
annexed engraving correctly represents some 
specimens growing on the banks of the Gila 
River, iu the State of New Mexico. Tho larg¬ 
est of these, shown in the foreground, and also 
those in tho distance, are healthy and vigorous ; 
but, at tho right, an old, decaying patriarch still 
lifts aloft its splintered head and branches, and 
displays its tough and fibrous texture. 
Plants of this species rise in the form of beau¬ 
tiful, fluted columns, as regularly grooved from 
top to bottom as if chiseled by an urtist’s cun¬ 
ning hand. Tho stately trunks are about three 
feet in diameter, and retain then 1 size and sym¬ 
metrical form to the hightof fifty aud sometimes 
sixty feet. The edges of tho grooves running 
perpendicularly from summit to base, aro thickly 
studded with long thorns, hard as steel, and as 
sharp as a cambric needle. Sometimes the giants 
throw out branches, which at a short distance 
from the trunk, turn upwards, and grow parallel 
to it; but generally, not a limb or leaf mars their 
artistic eoniour, and were it not for their dark- 
green color and the crowns of splendid tlowers 
that grace, like capitals, their lofty summits, 
they might easily bo taken for productions of 
art—solitary shafts commoraorating dead and 
crumbled cities—rather than for uatural speci¬ 
mens of vegetable growth. Those coronal llow- 
ers aro produced iu great abundance, and are 
four or five inches long, and nearly as broad. 
CEREUS GKJA.XI'KIH — OR G! ANT CACTUS, 
Tho sepals aro greenish-whito and the petals 
light cream-color. Tho tree also boars a green- 
colored fruit, slightly reddish at the upper end, 
with a crimson pulp and a sweet, but rather in¬ 
sipid flavor. 
A very useful member of tho family is the 
Cactus cuckinillifer, which ia to tho cochiuoal 
insect (Coccus cadi) what tho mulberry is to the 
silkworm. From the days of tho Aztecs this in¬ 
sect haB been reared with great care in Mexico, 
on aocouut of the brilliant carmine and scarlet 
dyes it yields. Tho insect belongs to tho hemip¬ 
terous order aud is, in reality, a Binall bark-louse, 
with a body transversely wrinkled. They tiavo 
tho form of oval or rounded scales, which cover 
tho stems, branches and often tho leaves of the 
plants. Tho males aro winged, 
pass through tho usual metamor¬ 
phoses, number loss than one to 
a hundred of the females, and 
yield no pigment. The fomalos 
increase iu size only, always re¬ 
taining tlioir scale-liko form, aro 
picked off with a blunt knife from 
December to May, each year, and 
aro killed by dipping them into 
boiling water, or by placing them 
in a hot oven or on platos of hot 
iron, each mode of execution im¬ 
parting a different tint to tho 
color derived from them. When 
dried it takes 70,000 insects to 
form a pound of cochineal, which 
presents the form of grains, con¬ 
vex on one side, and concavo on 
tho other, about one-eighth of 
an inch iu diameter, with the 
transverse wrinkles of tlio in¬ 
sects still visible. Mo superior is 
the dye obtained from these in¬ 
sects that they have entirely su¬ 
perseded some other species of 
tho same genus, formerly used for 
a similar purpose. They, and the 
cactus on which they feed, have 
been successfully introduced Into 
several countries, notably into tho 
Canary Islands, Algeria, Calif or- 
nia, Brazil aud Java, and tho 
^ supply furnished by those colo¬ 
nies now far exceeds that from 
the original market. 
The flowers of tho different 
species vary from pure white to 
a rich scarlet and purple, and are 
much increased in size and bril- 
| liancy by cultivation in gardens 
aud greon-houHCS. They thrive 
_ best in tho poorest soil, and a 
sandy loam mixed with brick rub¬ 
bish lias been found excellently 
adapted for them. In cultivating 
them, duo regard should bo paid 
3 to their natural habits. At alter¬ 
nate intervals of a few months, 
they should bo stimulated to 
growth by the liberal application 
of water, and then again, al¬ 
lowed to rest, by withholding all 
irrigation. The flowers usually 
appear after this period of quies¬ 
cence, just as tho now growth 
commences. Borne of the indig¬ 
enous, tropical species, however, 
do not bloom until they ore sev¬ 
eral years old, aud when brought 
under cultivation, their flowering 
seems to ho almost indefinitely 
postponed. Occasionally it has 
been found that some thankless 
plants that have for years vege¬ 
tated flowerless in pots, have sud¬ 
denly burst into bloom shortly af¬ 
ter having been heroically flooded 
with an abundance of hot water. 
