Apart from Opuntia Mis-souriensis, O. Rafinesquii and O. vulgaris and their varieties, we have very few hardy Cactuses. I have succeeded in wintering safely O. pescorvi and some others, but with uncertainty. I have found Echinocactus Simpsoni very uncertain; it would live through one winter all right and rot off during the next one. Echinocereus phceniceus and a form of Mamillaria vivipara I have known to survive several winters, but not in my garden; and Mr. Menand showed me in a neighbor's garden at Albany a bunch of what he called Echinocereus Krausei, which had been growing there out of doors for several years. As a garden plant I have found Opuntia Missouriensis the hardiest and most accommodating of all Cactuses, and I never knew it to miss flowering; with me it always blossomed copiously. In the case of hardy Cactuses I have found they must be grown where water shall not lodge in winter, as for instance on raised ground, and if they can be covered over by some leaves, thatch, or better still, snow, in the winter, they come through with less injury in spring.

My old neighbor, Mr. John C. Hovey, an ardent admirer and grower of Cactuses, gave me the following list of Opuntias which he found to be hardy in his garden, ordinary level clayey soil: Opuntia vulgaris, O. Kafinesquii, O. R. grandiflora, O. cymochila, O. stenochila, O. hys-tricina, O. Missouriensis, O. M. macrosperma, O. M. albispina, O. fragilis, O. fusiformis and O. Pescorvi. Among those mentioned by Mr. Siler I have tried Cereus Englemanni, Echinocactus cy-lindraceus, Opuntia rutila and Mamillaria chlorantha, also Agave Utahensis as hardy plants, but all died. I would say here, that 1 have grown some fifty distinct species and varieties of Agave and have found A. Utahensis the most difficult of all to grow. Dr. Edward Palmer, the eminent botanical collector, sent me plants from their native places, and I have raised it from seeds and coaxed it in many ways, but without avail; the plants appeared unhappy. And this is the only species of Agave I have failed with.