THE PARLOR GARDENER. 39 



the horticulture of our day. If their name a 

 little long and a little learned seems disagree- 

 able to you to pronounce, call them plainly ice- 

 plants. This is the common name of the variety 

 that is the most extensively cultivated, and the 

 leaves of which, with the stalk also, are powdered 

 white, as if covered with frost. 



There are also the crassulas, with their leaves 

 elegantly imbricated, and their little bunches of 

 flowers of the deepest red. You will find some, 

 also, of a pale rose-color. Both are as perfect in 

 form, and as brilliant in color, as the same plants 

 are in their natural dimensions, of half a yard or 

 more in height. 



I pass over some of the best. But when you 

 have made your choice among the prettiest dwarf 

 varieties of cactuses of the kinds of opuntia, 

 melocactus, echinocactus, and when you have 

 added to these stapelias, sedums, ice-plants, and 

 crassulas, confining yourself to the finest varieties, 

 you will have not only a sufficiency to decorate 

 your 6tag&re, even if it be a large one, but also 

 enough to fill an elegant basket, which will pro- 

 duce the best effect in the middle of your stand. 



