OCTOBER 47 



admirably adapted for a room or window-sill in late 

 autumn, and reminds one of the corner of a Dutch 

 picture. The Echeverias and Cotyledons are closely 

 allied (natural order Crassulacece), and there are many 

 varieties of these plants, all requiring much the same 

 treatment protection and very little watering in winter, 

 but otherwise next to no care. They can be increased 

 easily by cuttings at any time, starved and re-potted at 

 will, which alters their flowering-time. They will grow 

 in china pots, with only a few stones for drainage ; or will 

 hang out of Japanese vases, suspended by wires, contain- 

 ing hardly any earth. A large earthenware pan of the 

 ordinary Echeveria glauca is a very pretty sight in 

 summer, and does well in a north window. It can be 

 planted with a little peat, charcoal, and a few stones. 



I never knew till this year that Marvels of Peru can be 

 kept, like Dahlias, free from frost and started the follow- 

 ing spring, when they make much handsomer plants than 

 if grown each year from seed. In gardens where you are 

 pressed for room and where is it that you are not ? it is 

 an excellent plan to make a hole in the ground, put some 

 straw at the bottom, and lay in Geraniums, Dahlias,- 

 Marvels of Peru, and many other half-hardy things, cover 

 them with straw, and earth up just as you would potatoes 

 or mangolds in a field. 



October Wth. It is extraordinary how vague are 

 people's ideas about plants, bulbs, etc. ; and it is not till 

 one is asked questions that one realises how much most 

 people have to learn. I was asked the other day by a 

 friend, who had had a lot of Narcissus bulbs given her, if 

 she might plant them in a Tea-rose bed ! That is the 

 last place where they ought to be put, as, if planted in too 

 rich a soil, they all go to leaf and flower badly ; and Roses 

 are the better for being heavily mulched in the winter and 

 spring. 



