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All along the back of the gardenbeds a quantity of climbing plants grew up and covered the walls of the neighboring houses with a magnificent mantle; the brick-work piers were hidden in clusters of honeysuckle; and, to crown all, in a couple of terra-cotta vases at the summit, a pair of acclimatized cactuses displayed to the astonished eyes of the ignorant those thick leaves bristling with spiny defences which seem to be due to some plant disease.
We there found some scattered cactuses, a sesuvium, a few plants of Coccoloba uvifera, and along the coast some avicennias and mangroves. We forded the Guayguaza and the Rio Estevan, which, by their frequent overflowing, form great pools of stagnant water.
There was a garden-scene, in the foreground of which, where the eyes of the spectators were near enough to discriminate, were rustic baskets with geraniums, fuchsias, and cactuses, to give a southern air. In the middle distance, armfuls of honeysuckle in full bloom were brought in and twined about white pilasters. There was an arbour overhung with heavy masses of the trumpet-creeper.
Under artificial cultivation there are, however, many conditions more or less unfavourable to the health of plants, and, in the case of Cactuses, very large specimens, when imported from their native haunts to be placed in our glass houses, soon perish.
This is only one among dozens of species, all equally useful for window gardening, and all as interesting and beautiful as those above described. In Greenhouses. For the greenhouse proper, Cactuses are well adapted, either as the sole occupants or as suitable for such positions as are afforded by shelves or baskets placed near the roof glass.
The scenery along the Pearl River is not very interesting except the rice fields, banana groves with pagodas risin' amongst 'em anon or oftener, and the strange tropical foliage, cactuses that we raise in little jars riz up here like trees.
They have, however, the spine-cushions, the tufts of woolly hair and stout spines, and the floral characters which distinguish Cactuses from other plants; they are also succulent, the leaves and young branches being soft and fleshy.
Although the branches of these plants are usually altogether unlike the rest of the Order, yet occasionally they develop joints which are furrowed, and bear clusters of spines exactly as in the commoner forms of Cactuses. The geographical distribution of Rhipsalis is exceptional.
The adaptability of the majority of the kinds for cultivation under what may be termed adverse conditions for other plants, and the ease with which they may be propagated, render the management of a collection of these plants an easy matter. Amongst other Cactuses, Opuntias have a striking effect, and a selection of them should be grown in even the smallest collections.
It thus provides fresh moist fodder in the African summer when the grass is dried up and all other pasture crops have failed entirely. The flowers of the prickly pear, as of many other cactuses, grow apparently on the edge of the leaves, which alone might give the observant mind a hint as to the true nature of those thick and flattened expansions.
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