snaga deposited in a strong
box, sending the box first to the mountain where the monsters grow, and
placing it on the springs of a carriage which I shall despatch for that
purpose. My monstrous friend cannot travel any other way, from his
stupendous size and immense ponderosity, which cannot be adequately
calculated for here, where the largest machine for conveying weights
does not exceed sixteen arrobes, or 400lb. This enormous plant will
require twenty men at least to place it upon the vehicle, with the aid
of such levers as our Indians can invent. It grows in the deep ravines
of our loftiest mountains, amongst huge stones; the finest plants are
inaccessible to wheeled vehicles, and even on horseback it is difficult
to reach them. I shall pack him carefully in mats before applying to his
roots the crowbars destined to wrench him from his resting place of
unknown centuries. He will have to travel 300 leagues before he reaches
Vera Cruz." Being too large to be packed in a box, it was first
surrounded with a dense clothing of the Old Man's Beard or Spanish moss
(Tillandsia usneoides)--and a better covering could not have been
devised--and well corded. Fifteen mats, each as large and as thick as
an ordinary doormat, formed the exterior envelope. When unpacked on its
arrival at Kew, this monster Cactus was seen as perfect, as green, and
as uninjured as if it had been that morning removed from its native
rocks, its long, rope-like roots arranged in coils like the cable of a
ship. When placed in scales it weighed 713lb., its circumference at 1 ft.
from the ground was 41/2 ft., and its total height, 8 ft. 7 in.; the number
of ridges was forty-four, and on each ridge were fifty bundles of
spines, four spines to each bundle. Thus there were 8800 spines or
toothpicks, enough for the supply of an army. A still larger specimen
was a year or so later successfully brought to Kew, and which weighed 1
ton; but this, as well as the smaller one, survived only a short time.
There have been numerous other large specimens of this Cactus in English
gardens lately, all of them, however, succumbing to the unfavourable
conditions of our climate. Mr. Peacock, of Hammersmith, recently
possessed two large plants of E. Visnaga, one of which weighed nearly
5cwt., and measured 8 ft. 6 in. in circumference.

Cultivation.--The soil for Echinocactuses should be similar to that
recommended for the Cereuses, as also should be the treatment as regards
sun