SUCCULENT TLANTS. 37 



SUCCULENT PLANTS. 



|NDBR this name are usually associated a variety 

 of plants characterised by having fleshy juicy 

 leaves, covered with a thick epidermis. In a, 

 state of nature they grow and flourish on dry sandy 

 plains, or on bare rocky ground, where during the dry 

 season they are exposed to the most intense drought, 

 but as the surface of their leaves has few evaporating 

 pores, they are able to withstand uninjured even the 

 dryest seasons. These plants belong chiefly to the fol- 

 lowing orders : — Caotaceffi, LUiaoeee, Bromeliacese, Ascle- 

 piadaceae, Craasulacese, Mesembryaceoe, Euphorbiaceae, 

 and Amaryllidacece, comprising many genera, and a vast 

 quantity of species. It is somewhat remarkable, that 

 although these plants neither lack beauty of form nor 

 diversity of colour, nor singularity or even grotesque- 

 ness of appearance' — some, indeed, possess the most 

 singular and weird-like forms to be found in the vege- 

 table kingdom — yet they are discarded by the majority 

 of plant growers. Now were we to follow the fashion 

 (and we are sorry to find that fashion, independent of 

 real merit, has a great influence upon plant growers), and 

 ignore these plants also, the present chapter would not 

 Lave been penned ; but being impressed with the idea 

 that if a few remarks were offered as aids to their cul- 

 tivation, there might be sotne individuals who would be 

 induced to endeavour to remove this reproach from 

 British Horticulture, we purpose affording them a little 

 space ia our pages. Some few of the genera are, indeed, 

 beginning to find favour with the public, and hence we 

 have devoted space to them in the body of this work, 



