Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 26, 2025
This observation is extremely just whether in reference to soil covered with heath, as in the north of Europe; with cistuses, mastic-trees, or palmettos, as in Spain; or with cactuses, argemones, or brathys, as in equinoctial America. The more space the association occupies the more resistance do the social plants oppose to the labourer.
Botanists find good specific characters in the size and structure of the seeds, in the character of the fruits, &c.; but for horticultural purposes these are of little or no value. The thirteen species included in the genus Pereskia differ so markedly from all other kinds of Cactus, that at first sight one can scarcely believe they are true Cactuses, closely related to Cereus and Epiphyllum.
It is true that the majority of Cactuses may be kept alive in one house where all would be subjected to the same temperature, but many of the plants would merely exist, and could not possibly flower. It would be easy to point to several instances of this unsatisfactory state of things.
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.
The very low lands, between the sea-shore and the chain of hills nearest the coast, from the bay of Mochima as far as Coro, are extremely unhealthy. But the last-mentioned town, which is surrounded by an immense wood of thorny cactuses, owes its great salubrity, like Cumana, to its barren soil and the absence of rain.
For the vegetation of Lower California makes up in bristliness what it lacks in luxuriance. Bush cactuses, so prickly that it makes one's eyes smart to look at them, and bunch cactuses, in wads of thorns as large as a bushel-basket, swarm everywhere.
Apart altogether from size, it is, however, possible to grow a collection of Cactuses, and to grow them well, in a house of small dimensions given the amount of sunlight and heat which are required by these plants.
On many of the stems we find upon their surface, or angles, small tubercles, which, when young, bear tiny scale-like leaves. These, however, soon wither and fall off, so that, to all appearance, leaves are never present on these plants. The term "succulent" is applied to Cactuses because of the large proportion of cellular tissue, i.e., flesh, of their stems, as compared with the woody portion.
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. Amongst Stapelias, too, we meet with plants which mimic the stem characters of some of the smaller kinds of Cactus.
With almost any other plant, this course would have proved futile; but Cactuses are singularly tenacious of life, the largest and oldest stems being capable of forming roots as freely and as quickly as the young ones. Mag. 4066.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking