whose singular shapes are alone sufficient to remind the traveller that
he has reached an American coast; for these Cactuses are as peculiar a
feature of the New World as the Heaths are in the Old, or as Eucalypti
are in Australia.

Although the Cactus order is, in its distribution by Nature, limited to
the regions of America, yet it is now represented in various parts of
the Old World by plants which are apparently as wild and as much at home
as when in their native countries.

The Indian Figs are, perhaps, the most widely distributed of Cactuses in
the Old World-a circumstance due to their having been introduced for the
sake of their edible fruits, and more especially for the cultivation of
the cochineal insect. In various places along the shores of the
Mediterranean, and in South Africa, and even in Australia, the Opuntias
have become naturalised, and appear like aboriginal inhabitants. It is,
however, only in warm sunny regions that the naturalisation of these
plants is possible.

From these facts, we are able to form some general idea of the
conditions suitable for Cactuses when cultivated in our greenhouses;
for, although we seldom have, or care to have, any but diminutive
specimens of many of these plants as compared with their appearance when
wild, yet we know that the same conditions as regards heat, light, and
moisture are necessary for small Cactuses as for full-grown ones.

Although the places in which Cactuses naturally abound are, for the
greater portion of the year, very dry and warm, heavy rains are more or
less frequent during certain periods, and these, often accompanied by
extreme warmth and bright sunshine, have an invigorating and almost