38 THE PARLOR GARDENER. 



chamber where there is a stapelia flower, they 

 will come and lay eggs on this flower, taking it 

 for flesh an error which they cannot be led 

 into by the sense of sight, for the stapelia flower 

 does not resemble in any respect a piece of meat. 

 Consequently this mistake can only arise from 

 their being deceived by the smell ; from which 

 fact naturalists draw the conclusion, not that they 

 have noses, but that they have the sense of smell. 



Sedums and Mesembryanthemums. 



There is another family of plants, no less vari- 

 bus, no less rich in pretty and copiously flowering 

 species, than the cactus family itself. These are 

 the sedums ; among which I have already made 

 you acquainted with the pretty, yellow, star- 

 flowered sedum, (stone-crop,) which blooms with- 

 out earth and without water, suspended by a 

 thread to the wall of a room. 



Another species, that of the mesembryanthe- 

 mums, with numerous flowers of all the shades 

 of red, from the color of fire to the palest rose, 

 belongs also to the series of succulent plants. The 

 prettiest varieties have been rendered dwarf by 



