CACTUS. 
612 
glory of our flower-stages in several months of 
spring and summer. Many of them, with their 
large brilliant flowers, some crimson, some pink, 
some blush, some snowy-white, and others of 
many intermediate colours, are most beautifully 
dazzling ; and several—especially Cereus speciosis- 
simus, Cereus grandiflorus, Cereus flagelliformis, 
Cereus Colvilli, Cereus triangularis, Cereus setosus, 
Cereus splendidus, Cereus Napoleonis, Cereus Mal- 
Lisont, Hpiphyllum speciosum, Epiphyllum spec. 
| lateritia, Kpiphyllum spec. Jenksinsoni, and Hpi- 
phyllum Ackermanni, rank among the most gor- 
geous floral productions in the world. 
The method of cultivating the cacti with the 
| view of obtaining the finest blooms, is to imitate, 
as nearly as possible, their natural treatment on 
the arid soils, under the scorching sunshine, and 
with the alternation of rainy season and long 
drought of their native countries. A cactus is 
potted among mere rubbish, placed in a damp 
stove, and exposed to the fullest and strongest 
play of natural light, till it begins to grow; it is 
then watered throughout the period of about 
three months, at first poorly and sparingly, but 
afterwards manurially and copiously; it is then 
| gradually abandoned to draught, aridity, and a 
| lowering of temperature, but with continued ex- 
posure to the full play of light, till it sinks to re- 
pose; and it is then allowed to remain in arid 
and neglected sleep till the next season arrive 
for watering and heating it into activity and 
| growth. Yet a writer in the Gardener’s Maga- 
zine, who always got Epiphyllum speciosum and 
| Cereus speciosissimus, not only to flower well, but 
to fruit freely, describes the following as his 
| method :—“ The compost is loam and peat, with 
_ a little lime rubbish. 
We grow them in the 
stove until they get a pretty good size, or until 
we want them to flower, for they will flower at 
any age or size, In the month of June or July, 
we turn them out of doors into a warm sheltered 
situation,.and perfectly exposed to the mid-day 
sun ; and there they remain until we take in our 
tender greenhouse plants, when we remove them 
to a’shelf, or any situation, in the greenhouse 
for the winter. In the spring, we remove them 
into the stove or forcing-house in succession, as 
we wish them to come into flower. They will 
flower in the greenhouse; but the flowers are 
small, and the growth but slow, in comparison to 
those that are removed into a higher tempera- 
ture. Their flowering depends, like most other 
things that flower upon their wood made the 
preceding year, upon its being well ripened and 
| matured in the sun and air, and kept perfectly 
free from shade.” 
The genera opuntia, epiphyllum, rhipsalis, 
pereskia, and the greater portion of cereus, are 
propagated from cuttings; and the genera cac- 
tus, melocactus, echinocactus, mammillaria, and 
_ the smaller portion of cereus, are propagated 
from offsets. Branches and joints, cut away 
from such species as possess them, dried a little 
quantity. 
CAESALPINIA. 
in the sunshine, and then stuck in proper rub- 
bishy soil in a moist and hot place, immediately 
and most facilely strike root ; and hence the per- 
fect ease and most cheap convenience with which 
all the elongated kinds can be diffused over arid 
wastes in warm countries. The offsets of the 
spherical-stemmed kinds are produced, by forced 
development of some of the little tufts of spines 
which grow on the angles of their ridges, and 
which organically possess the character of buds 
or rudimentary branches. If the plant have its 
top either cut off with a knife or burned with a 
broad flat iron, small branches are developed 
from several of the spiny tufts; and these, when 
broken off and treated similarly to the cuttings 
of the other kinds, easily and rapidly strike root. 
CADAMBA,—botanically Vauclea Cadamba. An 
evergreen Hast-Indian tree, of the madder tribe. 
It has an ornamental appearance, carries orange- 
coloured flowers, and usually attains a height of 
about 20 feet. The timber of it is very beautiful 
for furniture; and is sometimes, but not often, 
imported into the southern provinces of conti- 
nental India from Ceylon. 
CADMA. The smallest individual in a litter 
of pigs. In almost every litter, one pig is very 
perceptibly smaller than any of the others; and 
this is the cadma. 
CADMIUM. A metal discovered in 1817, and : 
hitherto regarded as a simple or undecomposable | 
It is usually found in combination | 
substance. 
with zinc, but occurs in very inconsiderable 
It resembles tin in both colour and 
lustre, but is rather harder and more tenacious ; 
it is very ductile and malleable; it has, in its 
unhammered state, a specific gravity of 8°604; it 
melts at about the same temperature as tin ; it 
is nearly as volatile as mercury; and, when in 
the state of vapour, it has no odour, and con- 
denses into globules which have a metallic 
lustre. The principal combinations of it with 
other elements are an oxide, a sulphuret, and a | 
chloride. 
CAICUM. The first or uppermost of the three 
large intestines. It is a large blind pouch, am- 
ply provided with blood-vessels and absorbents, 
receiving the excess of watery matter which es- 
capes from the stomach and passes unappropri- 
ated through the small intestines, and retaining 
this during a comparatively long time for the 
processes of absorption or uses of the system, 
and, in consequence, acting as a kind of water- 
stomach. The cecum of the horse holds about 
four gallons, and retains a most valuable supply 
of his copious but unfrequent drinks for the 
wants of his system while he toils undrinkingly 
in the yoke, or digests his dry food in the stall. 
The cecum of the ox is much less retentive 
than that of the horse, and is adapted to the 
wants of an animal whose principal food is bulky 
and succulent. 
CAISALPINIA. <A genus of tropical ever- 
green shrubs and trees, of the cassia division of 
Se 
2 Lara 
