Four species. Stove evergreen shrubs.

Soil

"The soil for young plants, one-half peat, with equal quantities of strong yellow loam, pigeons' or sheep's dung, and river sand that has been at least exposed twelve months to the weather, and frequently turned. Never mix the soil before it is wanted for use. Well silt, and the lumps place over the potsherds for drainage. When the plants have attained a proper size for blooming, add more of the loam in repotting them, particularly to C. spe-ciosissimus, and in all eases give plenty of drainage." - Gard. Chron.

Sowing

"Fill the seed-pots with cinders, to within two inches of the top, and make them up with very sandy peat, and a little clean sand on the top; the pots arc then watered and the seeds sown; after which as much dry sand is sprinkled over them as will just fill up the spaces between them. The whole is then pressed down gently, and the pots are put by in any warm place, where they are kept moist. The seeds will vegetate in ten or twelve days, and must then be very gently watered, for fear of displacing them, till they make their little roots and get firm bold of the soil; after which they may be freely and regularly watered. The seeds to be sown quite thin in the first instance, and not to transplant the seedlings till they begin to get crowded in the pots, in a year or two. These directions are equally applicable to the seeds of other succulents." - Gard. Chron.

Dr. Lindley adds, that "the best way to bloom C. speciosus and speciosissi-mus, is to grow them in an enriched soil, and keep them in a warm, light house, while they are making their shoots, exposing them entirely during August and September. By the latter practice they will become brownish and unhealthy-looking for a time, though they will soon recover this." - Gard. Chron.

"The seeds of cacti may be gather-ed and sown as soon as they are ripe.

Being produced in a large pulpy berry, this never bursts of itself; but its appearance will tell you when it is mature. All the treatment they require is, to remove the pulpy matter from them, and this may be best done by washing." - Gard. Chron.

Grafting

The end of August is the best time for this operation, and Mr. Green, already quoted, gives these directions: -

"I grow for stocks, Pereskia acu-leata, Cereus hexagonus, and Cereus speciosissimus. I prefer the latter on account of its hardy, lasting, and robust habit. I grow the stocks freely till they attain the height that I want them. Some I grow with five or six stems, from one to five feet high; others I grow with one stem, from one to four feet. The short stems I engraft at the top with the Emphyllum speciosurn, and Ackermannii; the tall single stems with E. truncatum, and some from the surface of the soil to the top, all of which is of course according to individual fancy; E. truncatum should always be engrafted high, without which, from its drooping habit, the greater part of the beauty of the bloom is lost. The shoots to be about one and a half or two inches long. I pare off the outer skin or bark for about half an inch at the base of the graft, and cut what is intended to be inserted into the stock in the shape of a wedge; I then make an incision in the angles or top of the stock with a pointed stick, made the same shape as the scion.

"When the grafts are first put in, to prevent their slipping out, I pass through each a small wooden peg, or the spine of a thorn; I then cover each with a small piece of moss, and place them in a shady, damp house, and syringe them over the tops occasionally in the evening; they will all adhere to the stocks in ten days or a fortnight, and make good plants by winter. By engrafting the showing kinds of cacti on the stocks that I recommend above, noble specimens can be grown in a few years, from one to ten feet high if required, and the size and colour of the blooms are much superior to what they ever produce when grown on their own roots. E. truncatum, by the above treatment, becomes quite a hardy greenhouse plant, and will bloom three months later than it does when grown in the stove on its own roots in the usual way." - Gard. Chron.