CHAPTER IV.
PROPAGATION.
ACTUSES may be multiplied from cuttings of the stems, from seeds, and also by means of grafting; this last method being adopted for those species which, under cultivation, are not easily kept in health when growing upon their own roots, or, as in the case of Epiphyllums, when it offers a means of speedily forming large and shapely specimens. From seeds the plants are generally freer in growth than when cuttings are used, although the seedlings are longer in growing into flowering specimens than large cuttings would be. To the amateur, the process of germination and development from the seedling to the mature stage, is full of interest and attraction, the changes from one form to another as the plant develops being very marked in most of the genera.
Seeds.—Good fresh seeds of Cactaceous plants germinate in from two to four weeks after sowing, if placed in a warm house or on a hotbed with a temperature of 80 degs. If sown in a lower temperature, the time they take to vegetate is longer; but, unless in a very low degree of heat, the seeds, if good, and if properly managed as regards soil and water, rarely fail to germinate. For all the kinds, pots or pans containing drainage to within 2 in. of the top, and then filled up with finely sifted loam and sand, three parts of the former to one of the latter, and pressed down moderately firm, will be found to answer. If the soil be moist at the time of sowing the seeds, it will not be necessary to water it for a day or two. The seeds should be scattered thinly over the surface of the soil, and then covered with about 1/8 in. of soil. Over this, a pane of glass may be placed, and should remain till the seedlings appear above the soil. Should the position where the seeds are to be raised be in a room window, this pane of glass will be found very useful in preventing the dry air of the room from absorbing all the moisture from the soil about the seeds. For the germination of Cactus, and indeed of all seeds, a certain amount of moisture must be constantly present in the soil; and after a seed has commenced to grow, to allow it to get dry is to run the risk of killing it.
FIG. 4.—SEEDLINGS OF CEREUS.