SUCCULENT PLANTS. 105 



any, and this, if the moisture is in much quantity, is 

 certain to produce decay and death, because the excess 

 of water, which cannot be afterwards parted with 

 by the leaves, becomes putrid. Such being the case, 

 it is found necessary to deprive succulent plants of all 

 water at their roots in winter, and to leave them for 

 support to the vapour which always will exist in the 

 air at that season in a climate like that of England. 



It is for these reasons that succulent plants succeed 

 so much better than others in sitting-rooms. In such 

 situations, plants are killed by want of light, and 

 want of moisture in the air ; for the air of all sitting- 

 rooms is necessarily very dry. But succulent plants 

 apparently require less light than most other plants, 

 and are certainly benefited rather than injured by a 

 dry atmosphere. I should therefore advise you, if 

 you are anxious to have a garden in your sitting- 

 apartment, to fill it with succulent plants, to the ex- 

 clusion of all others. 



The Purslane tribe is far from being the only one 

 in which succulent species are found ; they might 

 exist in anv, and in fact do in a great manv natural 

 orders, the majority of whose species are not succu- 

 lent ; some orders, however, abound in them more 

 than others, as for example, the Houseleeks (Crassula- 

 cese), the Torch-thistles (Cactacese), the Asclepiadacece, 

 the Euphorbias (Euphorbiacese), and the Asphodels 

 (Asphodelese). 



But it is time that an end were put to this letter, 

 especially as the next must, I fear, be a very long 

 one. 



