PERENNIALS AND ALPINES, AS BEDDING PLANTS. 19 



gardens the term is applied to the Cactuses, Aloes, Agaves, Mesem- 

 bryanthemums, and plants of like character, so very different from the 

 types of vegetation we are accustomed to in this country. Thus the 

 house in which these plants, chiefly from South Africa, South 

 America, Mexico, and various warm parts of the world, are gathered 

 together at Kew, is called the "succulent house." It would be 

 difficult to find anywhere a house more worthy of a visit or more 

 remarkably striking than this, containing, as it does, a vast collec- 

 tion of the plants that to our eyes seem the most singular of all that 

 exist on our world [at its present stage. But there are many other 

 succulent plants besides those mostly well-armed and spiny monsters 

 from hot countries. The little spider-webbed Sempervivum, that 

 clothes the rocks on many a wild and cold alpine slope, is a succulent 

 as well as the enormous cactus (Cereus giganteus) which, rising like a 

 great branching pillar to a height of from forty to nearly sixty feet, 

 gives such an " unearthly" character to the mountain ridges of New 

 Mexico. Many of the dwarf plants with which the Alps and Pyre- 

 nees and other mountain chains are clothed are succulent. They 

 are as hardy and as easily grown as the common Houseleek, which 

 is an example of a northern succulent that must be familiar to all. 



The way in which these plants have hitherto been found most 

 useful in flower-gardens is in the making of edgings, borders, &c. ; 

 but when people begin to be more familiar with their curiously 

 chiselled forms, they will use them abundantly for making small 

 mosaic beds. Their great value as border and rock plants need not 

 be spoken of here, as we are now merely considering them in relation 

 to the bedding system, from which till very recently they were com- 

 pletely excluded. In addition to the making of neat little panels, 

 borders, edgings, and beds, they may be employed for forming 

 carpets to act as a setting for larger subjects a very pretty way of 

 using them. 



The ways of arranging these plants so as to secure the most 

 satisfactory effects vary much : they make the most exquisite little 

 geometrical gardens yet seen, and may also be used with charming 

 effect in the English or natural style of garden. As edgings these 

 hardy succulents, from silvery Saxifrages to grey Houseleeks, may be 

 considered the very jewellery of plant life. 



A selection of suitable kinds is given at the end of the book. 



