32 THE PARLOR GARDENER. 



open work, which took up little room, could be 

 hung up any where, and hold a whole collection 

 of little ornamental plants. 



This series of plants belongs, for the most part, 

 to an order of vegetation having a very peculiar 

 organization, and endowed with extraordinary 

 vital energy. They are commonly called succu- 

 lent plants, and are remarkable for the thickness 

 of their fleshy and persistent leaves. Among a 

 great many of these plants, the stalk and the 

 leaves are one and the same organ : the leaves, 

 when leaves exist, fulfil the functions of the 

 stalk ; and reciprocally, when the leaves are 

 wanting, their vegetative duties are fulfilled by 

 the stalk. 



Dwarf Succulent Plants. 

 You have no idea, my dear madam, how much 

 skill and patience the horticulturists by profession 

 have displayed in dwarfing these pretty plants ; 

 some of which, when left to follow their own 

 notions, in their native country, attain to colossal 

 dimensions. 



