ECHEVEEIA RETUSA. 51 



at almost every provincial nursery. It was introduced, as we have already stated, 

 from China, in 1845 by Mr. Fortune, who discovered it in company with the 

 beautiful Weigela rosea, in the garden of a Mandarin, near Tinghae, and subse- 

 quently, growing wild in the province of Chekiang. 



One other species is recorded in books, the F. suspensa, from Japan, but it is 

 very little known, and we are even ignorant whether it exists in this country. 

 It was on this species that the genus was first founded, in honour of William 

 Forsyth, a Horticulturist of some note, formerly Gardener at Kensington Palace. 



ECHEYERIA RETUSA. 



Blunt-leaved Echeveria. 

 Linnean Class— Deca_vdria. Order— Pentagynia. Natural Order— Crassulace.e. 



It would be difficult to suggest a class of subjects better adapted to the purposes 

 of the Window Gardener than those included in the three natural families, 

 Cactacea, Mesemlryacece, and Cramdacere, which, with a few other plants, are 

 popularly grouped together under the general denomination of Succulents. 

 Differing considerably in the structure of their flowers, the plants of these 

 three Orders yet agree in the possession of a cuticle of so dense a character, 

 and containing so few exhaling pores, that the atmosphere of a sitting-room, 

 so injurious from its aridity to most others, is borne by them with absolute 

 impunity. For the same reason, they are much less liable to suffer from 

 neglect in watering; it is certainly easy, as in the case of most other plants, 

 to injure them by too frequent supplies of fluid nutriment, but it is difficult, 

 especially in the winter season, to give them too little. But, however accom- 

 modating in this respect, there is one point on which they are inexorable — 

 in demanding the sunniest exposition that can be afforded them, and that, in 

 this climate, will, after all, be mere moonshine, we were going to say — in 

 comparison with that many of them are accustomed to at home. 



Of the orders to which reference has been made, one, the Crassulacea, or 

 House-leeks, contains three genera wlrich are especially deserving of the com- 

 mendation bestowed on the entire group — we allude to the Crassulas, Larocheas, 

 and Echeverias; the two first are old-established favorites with all cultivators, 

 but the last, if we except the E. secunda, which is not unfrequently met with, 

 are less common. Several of the species have the additional recommendation 

 of producing their flowers in winter, and of this number is the Eclmwia return 



