Cactus cultivation
Jul 9th, 2013 by adharris
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
Interested in learning more about cacti and where they grow? This French publication of Les cactées cultivées could be for you. The volume was published by the Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique in 1931 by André Guillaumin, who was a French botanist. Guillaumin became the chair of botany and plant physiology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and then eventually the deputy director from 1947-1950.
Echinopsis multiplex zuccarini is apparently found in Southern Brazil, while Echinopsis pentlandii, which flowers, is more commonly located in Bolivia. Inside the pages of this volume there were two small color illustrations mounted on paper. Cierge en tuyaux d’orgue is commonly known as the organ pipe cactus due to its shape. The series and number information printed on the front of both imply that these were part of a set of illustrations about cacti. The size suggests the possibility of them being stamps, but we don’t really know. It doesn’t appear that these color illustrations were connected to the volume, most likely they were simply stuck between the pages by a previous owner.
Les cactées cultivées / par A. Guillaumin. Paris : Librairie agricole de la Maison rustique, 1931. SB438 .G85 1931x
For more information about cacti check out the Botany Libraries.
Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager, Gretchen Wade, and Judith Warnement of the Botany Libraries for contributing this post.