40 THE PARLOK GARDENEB. 



And then, during more than half of the year, you 

 will constantly have some of your dwarf succu- 

 lent plants covered with pretty flowers. 



Culture of the Dwarf Succulent Plants. 

 It only remains to give you some hints about 

 the way of managing them. For this purpose it 

 is necessary to say a few words about their tem- 

 perament. Cactuses, in their native country, bear 

 excessive heat and dryness for six or seven months 

 without interruption, followed by deluges of rain. 

 The most violent storm-rains in our latitudes 

 afford but a very faint idea of those tropical del- 

 uges. During the dry season, the vegetative life 

 of the cactuses is almost quite suspended. Their 

 sleep is then much more profound than that of the 

 plants with us which lose their leaves in winter. 

 Now, from the knowledge of these facts, we per- 

 ceive what sort of management is most suitable 

 for them. All those which give no sign of active 

 vegetation on which neither young shoots nor 

 flower buds make their appearance ought to be 

 watered only once a week. You may abstain 

 altogether from watering them ; there will be 



