Page:The Amateur's Greenhouse and Conservatory.djvu/223

Rh

this class are included the cactus, sempervivum, stapelia, mesembryanthemum, and their alliances, the prevailing characteristic being an excessively fleshy texture; in some cases stems and leaves are distinctly produced, in others, the distinction is beyond the ken of the ordinary observer, for the plant appears to consist of a columnar or spherical mass of vegetable pulp beset with formidable spines and bristles. A considerable number of succulent plants deserve to be reckoned amongst the most interesting and useful subjects to which an amateur gardener can give attention, for their variety of form is endless; many of them produce magnificent flowers; not a few are grotesque and comical in outline, and they will all bear occasional neglect with less harm than any other plants in our gardens. Alas! their very virtues are their bane as regards the favours they should enjoy in private gardens, for as they bear neglect with patience, they are ofttimes neglected so much and treated so badly that they cease to attract by their curious seasonal growth and splendour of flowering, and so come to be regarded as worthless, and are, at last, left in dusty windows to perish, or, if they refuse to die, are possibly transported to the rubbish heap. is proper, however, to remark that many who profess to collect and cultivate succulent plants, treat them badly through a misconception of their place in nature. The tendency everywhere appears to be in favour of starving these plants, and the fact that they cling to life tenaciously in spite of the worst of treatment appears to justify the system. It is true they can subsist for a great length of time in a state of comparative desiccation at the roots, but it is also true that in their native lands they have the advantage of abundant supplies of water in the growing season, and, as a matter of course, though often located amongst rocks, they are free to