THE PARLOR GARDENER. 31 



CHAPTER III. 

 THE JETAG^BE GARDEN. 



Gardening on the E*tagre. Succulent Plants. Peculiarities of 

 their Organization. Dwarf Succulent Plants. Quantity of 

 Earth of which they have need. Aliments that they draw 

 from the Air. Cactus. Opuntias, (Prickly Pear.) Melo- 

 cacti, (Melon Thistle.) Echinocacti.* How the Goats of 

 Jamaica make them drop their thorns. Stapelias. Strange 

 Shape of the Flower. Its Smell. Proof of the Sense of Smell 

 in Flies. Sedums. Mesembryanthemums. Ice Plants. 

 Crassulas. Culture of Dwarf Succulent Plants. Necessity 

 of depriving them of Water during their Sleep. 



Gardening on the Etagere. 



IT IS but a few years since the fashion of 6ta- 

 ffdres has become general. People began by 

 covering them with all sorts of curiosities and 

 specimens of natural history a custom which 

 exists still. Then they fabricated out of wire, gilt, 

 silvered or bronzed, charming little itageres in 



* Round-shaped cacti, which take their name from their resem- 

 blance, in form and spines, to a curled-up hedgehog. Mrs. Lou- 

 don's Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden. 



