Cactaceae

“ Wislizenus confirm the opinion of that acute observer and successful cultivator of Cactaceae, Prince Salm-Dyck, viz: that most species of this family have a very limited geographical range, the most striking exception being those belonging to the genus Opuntia. ”

“ In general cacti like warm or hot sunny southern exposures; they grow best in sandy, gravelly, or rocky loam or clay soils, according to the habits of the species; they succeed best with good drainage, a moderate or limited rainfall or a limited amount of moisture in the soil. They should have occasional dry periods to harmonize growth with their original desert habitats, and also all the summer heat possible. This produces the contracted growth characteristic of cacti with all their desert beauty and symmetry of colors and arrangement of spines, and their fine large showy flowers. ”

“ Donald and I, with our guide, now reached the land of the giant cacti. We all at home here in Britain know something of the beauty of the common prickly cactus that grows in window-gardens or in hot-houses, and surprises us with the crimson glory of its flowers, which grow from 162 such odd parts of the plant; but here we were in the land of the cacti. Dugald knew it well, and used to tell us all about them; so tall, so stately, so strange and weird, that we felt as if in another planet. ”

“ Hence, they are ideal plants to be kept in bedrooms to freshen up the air at night.
If the cactus plant is to thrive and prosper, the size of the pot in which it is grown has to be carefully monitored. The pot should always be a little smaller than the plant itself because it is only when the plant has to struggle to survive that it will thrive. If the pot is too spacious the struggle element is removed and the chances are that the cactus will die. Cacti are like human beings. When they suffer they will grow. Similarly if a cactus shows no signs of growth, stop the watering. ”

“ It is a question whether this variety does not merely represent an older and better developed plant than those upon which the species is based. Mr. Harry I. Budd, who has made extensive collections of Texan and Mexican Cacti for the market, reports that it is impossible to separate sharply the variety from the species in the field, and regards the difference merely as one of age. Unfortunately, only living material of the species could be examined, but its characters seem well sustained even in the most vigorous plants, some of which reach the size of the variety. ”

“ Then, to repel the attacks of herbivores, who would gladly get at the juicy morsel if they could, the foliage has been turned into sharp defensive spines and prickles. The cactus is tenacious of life to a wonderful degree; and for reproduction it trusts not merely to its brilliant flowers, fertilised for the most part by desert moths or butterflies, and to its juicy fruit, of which the common prickly pear is a familiar instance, but it has the special property of springing afresh from any stray bit or fragment of the stem that happens to fall upon the dry ground anywhere. ”

“ BECAUSE the Greeks in olden times applied the word Cactus to a prickly plant, Linnæus, often called the Father of Botany, gave the same name to our wonderful American growth and since his time these strange and varied plants have borne this nomenclature.
We can hardly imagine any group of plants more interesting. There are over eight hundred varieties of curious and unexpected forms, bearing tubular or rotate flowers most varied in size and color—white, pink, purple, yellow, crimson, deep red—all beautiful and fascinating, and in our Northern country, protected in the conservatories. ”

“ In the cactus the thick stem is green and does the work of food building; naturally it cannot do so much for the plant as many big leaves could, but it does enough to allow it to live and grow slowly and surely for many years, though it cannot grow in each year nearly at the same rate as can the sunflower. If you cut through the stem of a cactus you will find that its skin is very thick and tough, and this thick coat protects the plant against the [101] fierceness of the sun far more completely than the thin skin of a sunflower does. ”

“ Most cacti are easy to grow, requiring little care and enduring the heat and dryness of a living room much better than most other plants. Their requirements are ample drainage and open soil. Cactus growers usually make a soil by mixing pulverized plaster or lime refuse with garden loam, using about two-thirds of the loam. The very fine parts, or dust, of the plaster, are blown out, else the soil is likely to cement. They may be rested at any season by simply setting them away in a dry place for two or three months, and bringing them into heat and light when they are wanted. ”

“ To put it briefly, plants have survived under very arid or sandy conditions precisely in proportion as they displayed this tendency towards the production of thorns, spines, bristles, and prickles.
It is a marked characteristic of the cactus tribe to be very tenacious of life, and when hacked to pieces, to spring afresh in full vigour from every scrap or fragment. True vegetable hydras, when you cut down one, ten spring in its place: every separate morsel of the thick and succulent stem has the power of growing anew into a separate cactus. ”

“ Should the position where the seeds are to be raised be in a room window, this pane of glass will be found very useful in preventing the dry air of the room from absorbing all the moisture from the soil about the seeds. For the germination of Cactus, and indeed of all seeds, a certain amount of moisture must be constantly present in the soil; and after a seed has commenced to grow, to allow it to get dry is to run the risk of killing it. ”

“ In the Great Basin several genera of cacti are plentiful, especially on dry, stony uplands, and two species reach as far northward as the Canadian boundary. Although the cacti tribe is widely distributed, the region where it presents the greatest variety and the largest individuals is in the dry, semi-desert portions of Arizona and the table-lands of central Mexico. It is most at home on sterile, rocky ridges and amid bare cliffs where there appears to be but little soil, but the strong roots strike deep into the earth in search of moisture. ”

“ The general face of the country is level, and consists of either a crumbling argillaceous limestone, or a coarse grey sand, producing nothing but a sparse growth of sand plants. Water is found only at long intervals, and except at those points there is little cover for game, and apparently less food,—the principal growth being Cacti, of which the most common is Cactus arborescens; yet here, amongst projecting rocks, or on the borders of dry gullies, or in loose scrub, I found the Massena Partridge in all the beauty of his rich and varied plumage. ”

“ Without its pretty bright-coloured flowers, this Cactus has the charm of novelty in the form and habit of its stems, and as it is easily cultivated in a window through which the sun shines during most of the day, it is just the plant to grow for the double purpose of a screen and a curiosity. If planted in baskets, it should be potted in a porous loamy soil, and kept moist in the summer and perfectly dry in winter. ”

“ Cactus, cacteæ, is an order of plants that abounds in all parts of the island. They consist of a calyx adhering to the ovary, the corolla divided into several segments, and the petals variously coloured. The fruit is a succulent seedy berry, in some species of a beautiful red colour. The stems are covered with small tubercles, containing tufts of sharp spines, varying in size. The “Turk’s cap,” melocactus communis, is one of the handsomest of its tribe. It rises in a globular-shaped stem, deeply channelled, of a green colour, and covered with long spines. ”

“ There are no leaves nor spicules. The spines are of one or two kinds, sharp and dangerous in some species, inconspicuous in others, growing from one-fourth inch to twelve inches in length. The flowers are funnel-form, of brilliant or delicate colorings, large and showy, and unlike many cactus blossoms are fragrant, often with a pronounced spicy odor. In some instances they crown the candelabralike branches in a becoming aureola of light, giving the effect of a lighted candelabrum; hence the designation “torch flower” cacti. Most species bloom only at night. ”

“ While a cactus in bloom is a marvelous sight, so gorgeous in fact that it is almost unbelievable and unreal, I prefer flowers a little less fervid and more constant.
There are, however, two distinct advantages which most of the cacti possess, making them available for use where no other plants could be kept. They are practically proof against any hardships that may be imposed upon them, and they take up very little room. In addition to that they are always an interesting curiosity, and for that reason alone well worth the little attention they require. ”

“ It is said that nowhere on the continent is so great a variety of vegetable growth presented in one locality, as is here to be seen in the full perfection of lusty growth. The cacti at this point are marvels of variety and beauty. One's idea of what a cactus is can never be complete until one has witnessed a scene such as this, and a collection of this magnitude. ”

“ In flower and fruit, however, they are euphorbias to the end; it is only in the thick and fleshy stem that they resemble their nobler and more beautiful Western rivals. No true cactus grows truly wild anywhere on earth except in America. The family was developed there, and, till man transplanted it, never succeeded in gaining a foothold elsewhere. Essentially tropical in type, it was provided with no means of dispersing its seeds across the enormous expanse of intervening ocean which separated its habitat from the sister continents. ”

“ I noticed in this part of the country a species of cactus that had previously escaped my observation. It grows about eighteen inches high, spreads out in large, broad leaves, and is fed upon by cochineal insects, which the natives gather, and sell at a low price. It bears a fruit which resembles, in form and color, the pine-apple, and is about twice the size of a hen’s egg. Inside the skin is a white pulpy substance, filled with small black seeds, and pleasant to the taste. ”

“ Plants may be grown from seed in flats or pots, but the seed is rare and difficult to get. Commonly young plants are purchased and grown in pots in gravelly, sandy limestone soil. Water sufficiently to keep the soil slightly moist. A bright sunny location is best. The plants are tender to frost and thrive best in warm conservatories or greenhouses. The Old Man Cactus is a popular plant for rock gardens and is found in many homes both in this country and abroad. ”

“ Some cacti add thorns to their spine clusters in the areolas each year, and thus in time the cluster may come to have as many as fifty or even a hundred spines on old stems and large branches. Occasionally cactus spines replace themselves in areolas after the former thorns have been destroyed or burned off. The thorns of some cacti may grow as long as six inches and even longer, and as broad as one-fourth inch at their bases. After they complete their growth toward the close of the season and the bases become hard and firm, they do not elongate farther nor make further growth. ”

“ The flowers are borne on the ends of the young, partly-developed tubercles, near the centre of the head; they are erect, tubular, 3 in. to 4 in. long, scaly, gradually widening upwards; the sepals and petals are numerous, and form a beautiful flower of the ordinary Cactus type, quite 4 in. across, and of a rich, clear yellow colour. The anthers, which also are yellow, form a column in the centre, through which the nine-rayed stigma protrudes. Strong plants sometimes produce two flowers together. ”

“ In spite of the bizarre and frequently repellent appearance of the cacti as seen under cultivation, in their barren homes they are in harmony with their surroundings, and add a characteristic, and even beautiful element to the scenery of the parched and generally desolate valleys and rocky slopes where they thrive best. Their blossoms are large, usually either white or brilliantly coloured, and expand in the hot, dry air, fully exposed to the intense sunlight, and present a freshness and vigour which tell of the abundant store of moisture within the thick rind inclosing their stems. ”

“ I should have to go on for a long time with my exposition, even if I were to confine attention to the essential facts; we shall, therefore, only recall the well-known phenomenon of the Cactuses, in which the leaves are entirely transformed into spines, which may attain a length of eight centimetres, while the fleshy stem alone represents the green—that is, the assimilating parts of the plant. [Pg 125] The species of Cactus are almost the only plants which grow on the stony, hard, and hot plateaux of Mexico, and they are protected from desiccation by the thickness of their epidermis. ”

“ Large cuttings striking root so freely, it must follow that small cuttings will likewise soon form roots, and, so far as our experience—which consists of some years with a very large collection of Cactuses—goes, there is not one species in cultivation which may not be easily multiplied by means of cuttings. The nature of a Cactus stem is so very different from the stems of most other plants, that no comparison can be made between them in respect of their root-developing power ”

“ The culture of the plants contained in the dry stove requires considerable care. The Cáctus family may be arranged in three groups; first, the Tree Cacti, which are included in the genus Cèreus, and have long slender stems without a single leaf, sometimes thirty or forty feet high, and not thicker than a man's arm. These plants grow on the summits of the mountains in Brazil, and only require greenhouse heat in England. Secondly, the Mammillàriæ and Echinocácti, which grow in the valleys of the temperate parts of South America, and should be kept in a warm greenhouse in this country ”