SUCCULENT PLANTS. 
255 
Of the proportion in which sand ought to be blended with the earth for the 
hardier succulents, a very general direction must suffice ; for tliere will ever be a 
discretionary variation, dependent on the health of the specimens, and the peculiar 
habits of the genus or species. With one third of light loam, or the surface soil 
of upland commons and meadows, which contains a trifling portion of sand, and is 
tolerably friable, having lain in the compost-yard for one or two years, and been 
sufficiently turned over to decompose all the vegetable remains it may comprise, 
we would mix another third of sandy heath-soil full of decaying fibre, and make 
up the remaining part with sand. Regarding the loam, we may point to the im- 
portance of being well acquainted with its nature before selection ; and where no 
opportunity has been allowed for this, we would advise that the turf be taken off 
a small plot of the ground from which it is to be procured, and the effects of the 
weather on the piece thus bared closely noted. By this simple test, we have 
sometimes found that a loam which appeared, at first sight, of the most promising 
description, and of so loose a texture as to be pulverable with the greatest facility 
between the fingers, has, in a wet season, and when suddenly dried after a heavy 
shower of rain, attained such a closeness of consistence and hardness of surface, as 
not to be easily pierced with a strong wooden instrument ; while the surrounding- 
land, notwithstanding its identity of character, was, by being covered with herbage, 
as s©ft and penetrable as could be wished. No doubt can be entertained that 
the earth in question was of a clayey kind, but its true texture was not detectable 
till the turf had been removed. The relation of these observations is not intended 
to apply to choice of a soil for succulents alone, but for the general guidance of 
the gardener. 
In watering the species of Aloe, and all those succulents which have leaves 
diverging in a half-erect position from a common centre near the ground, the 
greatest caution is to be observed in the colder months, and, indeed, during the 
entire year, with the exception of the hottest and growing season. Being so 
formed as to permit water to lodge in the axils of their leaves, or in the centre of 
the plants among the younger and more tender foliage, the fluid supplied should 
not be poured over the plant, but directly on the soil, or on the margin of the pot. 
In the summer months, as before mentioned, such a preeaution may be disregarded, 
and the specimens will be benefited by watering over the leaves, as well as by the 
occasional and sparing use of the syringe. 
There is still a point connected with the administration of water to all succulents, 
— and, we might very properly add, to every sort of exotic grown in pots, did our 
dissertation include these, — which is too momentous to be passed over silently. 
We refer to the mode of its application as it respects the employment or rejection 
of a rose to the watering-pot. In some collections, it is customary to adopt a com- 
prehensive system of watering in order to save labour ; and to throw fluid most 
copiously through a rose over the whole of the plants to be supplied. In the 
summer, too, when a large amount of water is essential, it is furnished in that 
manner till a pool of it is left standing in each pot. Now, without taking into 
