4 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
them peculiar, the proper treatment of them would contribute 
greatly to the richness of collections of flowering plants ; and for 
this reason they are eminently worthy of the attention of every 
cultivator. 
There is another circumstance which ought to enhance the 
interest and value of these plants with the cultivator : numerous 
and varied as they are, we have hinted that the whole belong to a 
single natural genus ; and this being the case, the whole of them 
might be hybridized with each other, and varieties without end be 
produced, in which the better qualities of both plants might be 
blended. Indeed we know of scarce any other tribe of plants, 
excepting, perhaps, the Orchideae, which are also probably all one 
genus, or at most two genera,—those that root in the earth, and 
those which adhere to trees, and are air plants,—that admit of more 
extensive hybridization, and consequently can so readily produce 
a number of new varieties, as the Cacteae. The hybridization of 
the Orchideae is comparatively a new operation, but we know of 
one eminent grower of these plants that at present has them im¬ 
pregnated and coming into seed by the most diversified and 
unlikely crosses ; and we trust we shall, ere very long, have to 
record some curious instances of hybrid seedlings, quite different 
from any of the plants now in the stoves. 
We shall have occasion to revert to the Cacteae, as well as to 
these Orchideae, and therefore we shall only further mention that 
the Cacteae are admirably adapted for house or window plants, 
as well for their singular appearance and beauty, as for the ease 
with which they can be cultivated, and the little attention which 
they require. 
ADVANTAGES OF HEATING THE OPEN AIR. 
[We have abridged the following communication, because in the 
form in which it was sent to us it mixed up subjects which have no 
necessary connexion with each other. The part which we have 
omitted contained pretty severe strictures—whether well-founded 
or not, we cannot say—upon the conduct of a horticultural func¬ 
tionary who is much employed in selecting gardeners for people 
