Cactus Culture For Amateurs | Page 2

is only popular whilst it pleases the eye or tickles the
fancy; and the eye and the fancy having tired of it, look to something
different.
The general belief with respect to Cactuses is that they are all wanting
in beauty, that they are remarkable only in that they are exceedingly
curious in form, and as a rule very ugly. It is true that none of them
possess any claims to gracefulness of habit or elegance of foliage, such
as are usual in popular plants, and, when not in flower, very few of the
Cactuses would answer to our present ideas of beauty with respect to
the plants we cultivate. Nevertheless, the stems of many of them (see
Frontispiece, Fig. 1) are peculiarly attractive on account of their strange,
even fantastic, forms, their spiny clothing, the absence of leaves, except
in very few cases, and their singular manner of growth. To the few who
care for Cactuses there is a great deal of beauty, even in these
characters, although perhaps the eye has to be educated up to it.
If the stems are more curious than beautiful, the flowers of the majority
of the species of Cactuses are unsurpassed, as regards size and form,
and brilliancy and variety in colour, by any other family of plants, not
even excluding Orchids. In size some of the flowers equal those of the
Queen of Water Lilies (Victoria regia), whilst the colours vary from the
purest white to brilliant crimson and deep yellow. Some of them are
also deliciously fragrant. Those kinds which expand their huge

blossoms only at night are particularly interesting; and in the early days
of Cactus culture the flowering of one of these was a great event in
English gardens.
Of the many collections of Cactuses formed many years ago in England,
that at Kew is the only one that still exists. This collection has always
been rich in the number of species it contained; at the present time the
number of kinds cultivated there is about 500. Mr. Peacock, of
Hammersmith, also has a large collection of Cactuses, many of which
he has at various times exhibited in public places, such as the Crystal
Palace, and the large conservatory attached to the Royal Horticultural
Society's Gardens at South Kensington. Other smaller collections are
cultivated in the Botanic Gardens at Oxford, Cambridge, Glasnevin,
and Edinburgh.
A great point in favour of the plants of the Cactus family for gardens of
small size, and even for window gardening--a modest phase of plant
culture which has made much progress in recent years--is the
simpleness of their requirements under cultivation. No plants give so
much pleasure in return for so small an amount of attention as do these.
Their peculiarly tough-skinned succulent stems enable them to go for
an extraordinary length of time without water; indeed, it may be said
that the treatment most suitable for many of them during the greater
portion of the year is such as would be fatal to most other plants.
Cactuses are children of the dry barren plains and mountain sides,
living where scarcely any other form of vegetation could find
nourishment, and thriving with the scorching heat of the sun over their
heads, and their roots buried in the dry, hungry soil, or rocks which
afford them anchorage and food.
In beauty and variety of flowers, in the remarkable forms of their stems,
in the simple nature of their requirements, and in the other points of
special interest which characterise this family, and which supply the
cultivator and student with an unfailing source of pleasure and
instruction, the Cactus family is peculiarly rich.

CHAPTER II
.
BOTANICAL CHARACTERS.

Although strictly botanical information may be considered as falling
outside the limits of a treatise intended only for the cultivator, yet a
short account of the principal characters by which Cactuses are grouped
and classified may not be without interest.
From the singular form and succulent nature of the whole of the Cactus
family, it might be inferred that, in these characters alone, we have
reliable marks of relationship, and that it would be safe to call all those
plants Cactuses in which such characters are manifest. A glance at
some members of other families will, however, soon show how easily
one might thus be mistaken. In the Euphorbias we find a number of
kinds, especially amongst those which inhabit the dry, sandy plains of
South Africa, which bear a striking resemblance to many of the
Cactuses, particularly the columnar ones and the Rhipsalis. (The
Euphorbias all have milk-like sap, which, on pricking their stems or
leaves, at once exudes and thus reveals their true character. The sap of
the Cactuses is watery). Amongst Stapelias, too, we meet with plants
which mimic the stem characters of some of