BEDDING PLANTS. 



239 



■metallica (fig. 474) is a noble plant, with large fleshy leaves, contrasting 

 well with other alpine plants. The Echeverm secunda has finely coloured 

 light green leaves, and there are several other species of echeverias, 

 as E. sanguinea (fig. 474«), and sempervivums which I grow, and which 

 are admired ; they require the warmth of a greenhouse during winter. 

 It is usual in the early part of the month of May to place all 

 bedding plants out of doors, and to cover them with a mat at night. 

 Upon an average, in the neighbourhood of London, the last week 

 in May is sufficiently early to plant them out ; for however warm the 

 first week in May may be, yet almost invariably during the secon d and 

 third weeks severe frosts occur, and sometimes even snow falls. 



Fig. 475. — Gazania. 



Fig. 474.— Echeveria metallica. 



A wayside plant of Southern Africa, which has a large bright 

 orange-coloured flower, is a very handsome bedding plant. It is called 

 the -Gazania (fig. 475). It is readily propagated by cuttings, and it 

 flowers freely all the summer. 



Extraordinary beds are sometimes made by arranging fancy- 

 patterns, as ugly as those on Turkish smoking caps, of mixed gera- 

 niums, echeverias, sempervivums, verbenas, saxifrages, and numerous 

 other plants, but they are rather a source of wonder than of admiration 

 to the true lover of nature. Still more extraordinary imitations of 

 flower-beds are made of white stones and bits of coloured bricks, 

 formed into a pattern with box edging. The Horticultural Garden 

 at South Kensington has some such contrivances, and before Bethleheni 

 Hospital there were extensive ranges of such designs, but whether 



