r conditions
of the most limited kind, are accidental rather than the result of
properly understood treatment; but however they have been brought about,
these instances of good cultivation are sufficient to show that success
is possible, even where the means are of the simplest or most restricted
kind. Whether it be in a large house, fitted with the best arrangements,
or in the window of the cottager, the conditions essential to the
successful cultivation of Cactuses are practically the same.

In Wardian Cases.--Many of our readers will be acquainted with the neat
little glass cases, like greenhouses in shape, and fitted up in much the
same way, which are sometimes to be seen in our markets, filled with a
collection of miniature Cactuses. To the professional gardener, these
cases are playthings, and are looked upon by him as bearing about the
same relation to gardening as a child's doll's house does to
housekeeping. Not-withstanding this, they are the source of much
interest, and even of instruction, to many of the millions to whom a
greenhouse or serious gardening is an impossibility. In these little
cases--for which we are indebted to Mr. Boller, a dealer in Cactaceous
plants--it is possible to grow a collection of tiny Cactuses for years,
if only the operations of watering, potting, ventilating, and other
matters connected with ordinary plant growing, are properly attended to.

In Window Recesses.--In the window recess larger specimens may be
grown, and here it is possible to grow and flower successfully many of
the plants of the Cactus family. In a window with a south aspect, and
which lights a room where fires are kept, at least during cold weather,
specimens of Phyllocactus, Cereus flagelliformis, Epiphyllum, and, in
fact, of almost every kind of Cactus, are sometimes to be met with even
in England; whilst in Germany they are as popular among the poorer
classes as the Fuchsia, the Pelargonium, and the Musk are with us. One
of the commonest of Cactuses in the latter country is the Rat's-tail
Cactus (Cereus flagelliformis), and it is no unusual thing to see a
large window of a cottager's dwelling thickly draped on the inside with
the long, tail-like growths and handsome rose-coloured flowers of this
plant. 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 ad