Hammersmith, also has a large collection of Cactuses, many of which he
has at various times exhibited in public places, such as the Crystal
Palace, and the large conservatory attached to the Royal Horticultural
Society's Gardens at South Kensington. Other smaller collections are
cultivated in the Botanic Gardens at Oxford, Cambridge, Glasnevin, and
Edinburgh.

A great point in favour of the plants of the Cactus family for gardens
of small size, and even for window gardening--a modest phase of plant
culture which has made much progress in recent years--is the simpleness
of their requirements under cultivation. No plants give so much pleasure
in return for so small an amount of attention as do these. Their
peculiarly tough-skinned succulent stems enable them to go for an
extraordinary length of time without water; indeed, it may be said that
the treatment most suitable for many of them during the greater portion
of the year is such as would be fatal to most other plants. Cactuses are
children of the dry barren plains and mountain sides, living where
scarcely any other form of vegetation could find nourishment, and
thriving with the scorching heat of the sun over their heads, and their
roots buried in the dry, hungry soil, or rocks which afford them
anchorage and food.

In beauty and variety of flowers, in the remarkable forms of their
stems, in the simple nature of their requirements, and in the other
points of special interest which characterise this family, and which
supply the cultivator and student with an unfailing source of pleasure
and instruction, the Cactus family is peculiarly rich.