■2IO 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



SUCCULENTS AND THEIR USE 

 IN GARDENS. 



For many years Cacti and Succulents have been 

 out of fashion, banished to botanical gardens, 

 cottage windows, and the back-shelves and 

 corners of garden and- glass-house. Though 

 the tide can hardly yet be said to have turned 

 in their favour there are signs of increasing in- 

 terest in them, while the attention paid to the 

 hardier forms have given them a new value 

 for the open-air garden. There is no class of 

 plant which gives a better return for scanty 

 care, and few in which effective results are more 

 certain. Though their interest for the garden 

 is in the main confined to a few months, and 

 that for a restricted number of kinds, they may 

 be used with great effect, and the simplicity 

 of their culture at all times is a point much in 

 theirfavour. Grouped with Yuccas, Cordyline, 

 and other fine-leaved plants, they give a strik- 

 ing interest to gardens in which a good collec- 

 tion can be found, and their strange forms ap- 

 peal to many. There are, indeed, few that have 

 seen the great American Agave (so persistent- 

 ly mis-called Aloe) in full beauty, or others of 

 the larger Mexican Agaves, that will deny 

 their claim to a beauty all their own. Those 

 spring giants, salmiana and ellipesoides, one of 

 whose dark green leaves when full-grown, is 

 a load for a man ; the fiercely-armed ferox, 

 slower growing but majestic ; applanata with 

 its bluish tint and purple spines, graceful even 

 when tiny ; and franzosini, its leaves some- 

 times as pale as frosted-silver. The smaller 

 kinds, if less imposing, are, many of them, 

 really beautiful with their hairy or spiny edges, 

 their variety of form, and frequent oddities of 

 reproduction. Nor is the Old World to be out- 

 done with its numerous forms of Aloe, easily 

 distinguished from the western Agaves by their 

 brighter blossoms, coming each year without 

 injury to the plant, their truly fleshy, rather 

 than fibrous, texture and distinct manner of 

 growth, not to mention botanical details less 

 marked. To see such Aloe ferox as grow in 

 Mr. Hanbury's garden at La Mortola, with 

 their towering orange spikes, the coral-pink 

 kind, Ha?iburyia?m ; bushes of A. arborescens, 

 6 feet high, and aflame with flowers ; or A. 

 Dykiana yet more brilliant, is a revelation to 



those who only know such plants in their com- 

 parative feebleness. Grouped with the great 

 Tree Yuccas, 20 feet or more in height, with 

 Prickly Pears (Opuntias) of every shape and 

 form, with strange Euphorbias and Brome- 

 liads, and a variety of such plants as Dasyli- 

 rions/Beshornerias, Fourcroyas, Nolinas, and 

 Xanthorrhoeas — plants hardly known in Eng- 

 land outside Kew — it is possible amidst such 

 surroundings to imagine the weirdness of re- 

 gions given up to these and kindred growths. 



Cacti and fleshy plants are so commonly 

 classed together as Succulents, that it is best 

 to draw some distinction, for though their 

 culture is in great measure the same there are 

 differences in constitution which make Succu- 

 lents the more useful class for gardens. Cacti 

 are slower growing in general, need more heat, 

 are more impatient of moisture, and once out 

 of health rarely recover, so that few kinds can 

 be used outdoors without risk. Of Succulents, 

 on the contrary, there are many hardy kinds 

 such as Sedums and Sempervivums, and a 

 great variety of half-hardy plants which may 

 be used quite safely in the open during sum- 

 mer. Though little water is needed in winter, 

 when in growth they can stand a good deal, 

 and are often better for richer treatment than 

 is safe with Cacti. For garden effect it is 

 mainly with these, therefore, that we have to 

 deal. The spot chosen for them in the open 

 should be as sunny and sheltered as possible, 

 yet free from stagnant air or moisture, for per- 

 fect drainage is the first essential. A dry bank 

 may answer the purpose, though it is often 

 better to prepare the spot by heaping a quan- 

 tity of brick or other rubbish in some warm 

 corner, covered with a good layer of soilstrewn 

 with rocks and boulders, amongst which the 

 plants are massed. The background should 

 be planted with clumps of Yucca, the hardier 

 kinds to remain from year to year, those more 

 tender planted amongst them during summer 

 for variety, and as far as possible in groups of 

 a sort. The Agaves are nearly all of them 

 good, though few sorts are to be met in gar- 

 dens or nurseries. These are best on banks, 

 both for drainage and for effect — much of 

 which is lost on a flat surface ; when tilted 

 well forward their natural habit is developed, 

 and rain does not fall into the heart, with risk 



