Cactus Culture for Amateurs Part 1

Cactus Culture For Amateurs.

by W. Watson.

PREFACE

The idea that Cactuses were seldom seen in English gardens, because so little was known about their cultivation and management, suggested to the Publisher of this book that a series of chapters on the best kinds, and how to grow them successfully, would be useful. These chapters were written for and published in The Bazaar, in 1885 and following years.

Some alterations and additions have been made, and the whole is now offered as a thoroughly practical and descriptive work on the subject.

The descriptions are as simple and complete as they could be made; the names here used are those adopted at Kew; and the cultural directions are as full and detailed as is necessary. No species or variety is omitted which is known to be in cultivation, or of sufficient interest to be introduced. The many excellent figures of Cactuses in the Botanical Magazine (Bot. Mag.) are referred to under each species described, except in those cases where a complete figure is given in this book. My claims to be heard as a teacher in this department are based on an experience of ten years in the care and cultivation of the large collection of Cactuses at Kew.

Whatever the shortcomings of my share of the work may be, I feel certain that the numerous and excellent ill.u.s.trations which the Publisher has obtained for this book cannot fail to render it attractive, and, let us also hope, contribute something towards bringing Cactuses into favour with horticulturists, professional as well as amateur.

W. WATSON.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

The Cactus family is not popular among English horticulturists in these days, scarcely half a dozen species out of about a thousand known being considered good enough to be included among favourite garden plants.

Probably five hundred kinds have been, or are, in cultivation in the gardens of the few specialists who take an interest in Cactuses; but these are practically unknown in English horticulture. It is not, however, very many years ago that there was something like a Cactus mania, when rich amateurs vied with each other in procuring and growing large collections of the rarest and newest kinds.

"About the year 1830, Cacti began to be specially patronised by several rich plant amateurs, of whom may be mentioned the Duke of Bedford, who formed a fine collection at Woburn Abbey, the Duke of Devons.h.i.+re, and Mr. Harris, of Kingsbury. Mr. Palmer, of Shakelwell, had become possessed of Mr. Haworth's collection, to which he greatly added by purchases; he, however, found his rival in the Rev. H. Williams, of Hendon, who formed a fine and select collection, and, on account of the eagerness of growers to obtain the new and rare plants, high prices were given for them, ten, twelve, and even twenty and thirty guineas often being given for single plants of the Echinocactus. Thus private collectors were induced to forward from their native countries--chiefly from Mexico and Chili--extensive collections of Cacti." (quoting J.

Smith. A.L.S., ex-Curator of the Royal Gardens. Kew).

This reads like what might be written of the position held now in England by the Orchid family, and what has been written of Tulips and other plants whose popularity has been great at some time or other. Why have Cactuses gone out of favour? It is impossible to give any satisfactory answer to this question. No doubt they belong to that cla.s.s of objects which 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 unsurpa.s.sed, 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. Peac.o.c.k, 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 princ.i.p.al characters by which Cactuses are grouped and cla.s.sified 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 relations.h.i.+p, 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 p.r.i.c.king 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 the smaller kinds of Cactus. Again, in the Cactuses themselves we have curious cases of plant mimicry; as, for instance, the Rhipsalis, which looks like a bunch of Mistletoe, and the Pereskia, the leaves and habit of which are more like what belong to, say, the Gooseberry family than to a form of Cactus. From this it will be seen that although these plants are almost all succulent, and curiously formed, they are by no means singular in this respect.

The characters of the order are thus defined by botanists: Cactuses are either herbs, shrubs, or trees, with soft flesh and copious watery juice. Root woody, branching, with soft bark. Stem branching or simple, round, angular, channelled, winged, flattened, or cylindrical; sometimes clothed with numerous tufts of spines which vary in texture, size, and form very considerably; or, when spineless, the stems bear numerous dot-like scars, termed areoles. Leaves very minute, or entirely absent, falling off very early, except in the Pereskia and several of the Opuntias, in which they are large, fleshy, and persistent. Flowers solitary, except in the Pereskia, and borne on the top or side of the stem; they are composed of numerous parts or segments; the sepals and petals are not easily distinguished from each other; the calyx tube is joined to, or combined, with the ovary, and is often covered with scale-like sepals and hairs or spines; the calyx is sometimes partly united so as to form a tube, and the petals are spread in regular whorls, except in the Epiphyllum. Stamens many, springing from the side of the tube or throat of the calyx, sometimes joined to the petals, generally equal in length; anthers small and oblong. Ovary smooth, or covered with scales and spines, or woolly, one-celled; style simple, filiform or cylindrical, with a stigma of two or more spreading rays, upon which are small papillae. Fruit pulpy, smooth, scaly, or spiny, the pulp soft and juicy, sweet or acid, and full of numerous small, usually black, seeds.

Tribe I.--Calyx tube produced beyond the Ovary. Stem covered with Tubercles, or Ribs, bearing Spines.

1. MELOCACTUS. Stem globose; flowers in a dense cap-like head, composed of layers of bristly wool and slender spines, amongst which the small flowers are developed. The cap is persistent, and increases annually with the stem.

2. MAMILLARIA. Stems short, usually globose, and covered with tubercles or mammae, rarely ridged, the apex bearing spiny cus.h.i.+ons; flowers mostly in rings round the stem.

3. PELECYPHORA. Stem small, club-shaped; tubercles in spiral rows, and flattened on the top, where are two rows of short scale-like spines.

4. LEUCHTENBERGIA. Stem naked at the base; tubercles on the upper part large, fleshy, elongated, three-angled, bearing at the apex a tuft of long, thin, gristle-like spines.

5. ECHINOCACTUS. Stem short, ridged, spiny; calyx tube of the flower large, bell-shaped; ovary and fruit scaly.

6. DISCOCACTUS. Stem short; calyx tube thin, the throat filled by the stamens; ovary and fruit smooth.

7. CEREUS. Stem often long and erect, sometimes scandent, branching, ridged or angular; flowers from the sides of the stem; calyx tube elongated and regular; stamens free.

8. PHYLLOCACTUS. Stem flattened, jointed, and notched; flowers from the sides, large, having long, thin tubes and a regular arrangement of the petals.

9. EPIPHYLLUM. Stem flattened, jointed; joints short; flowers from the apices of the joints; calyx tube short; petals irregular, almost bil.a.b.i.ate.

Tribe II.--Calyx-tube not produced beyond the Ovary. Stem branching, jointed.

10. RHIPSALIS. Stem thin and rounded, angular, or flattened, bearing tufts of hair when young; flowers small; petals spreading; ovary smooth; fruit a small pea-like berry.

11. OPUNTIA. Stem jointed, joints broad and fleshy, or rounded; spines barbed; flowers large; fruit spinous, large, pear-like.

12. PERESKIA. Stem woody, spiny, branching freely; leaves fleshy, large, persistent; flowers medium in size, in panicles on the ends of the branches.

The above is a key to the genera on the plan of the most recent botanical arrangement, but for horticultural purposes it is necessary that the two genera Echinopsis and Pilocereus should be kept up. They come next to Cereus, and are distinguished as follows:

ECHINOPSIS. Stem as in Echinocactus, but the flowers are produced low down from the side of the stem, and the flower tube is long and curved.

PILOCEREUS. Stem tall, columnar, bearing long silky hairs as well as spines; flowers in a head on the top of the stem, rarely produced.

With the aid of this key anyone ought to be able to make out to what genus a particular Cactus belongs, and by referring to the descriptions of the species, he may succeed in making out what the plant is.

For the cla.s.sification of Cactuses, botanists rely mainly on their floral organs and fruit. We may, therefore, take a plant of Phyllocactus, with which most of us are familiar, and, by observing the structure of its flowers, obtain some idea of the botanical characters of the whole order.

Phyllocactus has thin woody stems and branches composed of numerous long leaf-like joints, growing out of one another, and resembling thick leaves joined by their ends. Along the sides of these joints there are numerous notches, springing from which are the large handsome flowers.

On looking carefully, we perceive that the long stalk-like expansion is not a stalk, because it is above the seed vessel, which is, of course, a portion of the flower itself. It is a hollow tube, and contains the long style or connection between the seed vessel and the stigma, a (Fig. 2).

This tube, then, must be the calyx, and the small scattered scale-like bodies, b (Fig. 2), which clothe the outside, are really calyx lobes.