how difficult it often is to obtain living specimens of these plants from their native habitats.  He writes:  “I mean to have a large specimen of E. Visnaga 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 sunlight and rest.  It cannot be too clearly understood that during the period between October and March these plants should be kept perfectly dry at the root, and in a dry house, where the temperature would not fall below 50 deg.  There is no occasion for re-potting the Echinocactuses every year, it being by far the safest plan to allow them to remain in the same pots several years, should the soil be fresh and the drainage perfect.