NOTICE OF A FEW PLANTS IN CRASSULACEiE, &c. 
209 
E. coccinea and versicolor more so than the others : of those in this genus we shall 
more particularly write. It is comparatively but the other day they used to be 
allowed room in our greenhouses, more as curiosities than plants of an ornamental 
description ; they were grown in soil of the poorest nature, in small pots, and 
: scarcely received any water six months in the year, yet they bore flowers ; and this 
treatment, we have to remark, quite accorded with what the circumstances under 
which the plants growing naturally would teach. They are natives of the Cape of 
Good Hope, grow on rocks, derive little or none of their food from the matter they 
• root into, or through their roots at all ; hut imbibe by the pores of their fleshy leaves, 
and subsist upon the heavy dews which fall. It is found, however, that under 
culture, in their case as in that of nearly all plants, that like animals, they will not 
only live and thrive when furnished with a certain amount of food, but will bear 
1 feeding, or rather fattening, as is proved by the Rocheas more particularly men- 
tioned becoming elevated from the position before described, to that of standard 
: exhibition plants ; standard plants at first class exhibitions, too, being none other 
than the chief late ones of the metropolis. 
There is no peculiar management required to produce plants of Rocheas suffi- 
ciently good as specimens for the above purpose ; they are merely allowed plenty of 
pot room, have tolerably good soil, and are not improperly excited when making 
their growth ; being kept in greenhouses. If any fault could be found with those 
plants we have seen in so remarkably fine a state, it was that they were too good, 
too densely bushy, and bore too many heads of flowers ; such a fault is a good one, 
it is true, but nevertheless one that should not be permitted, because it prevents the 
natural habit of the plant displaying itself. There exists naturally a good deal of 
formality about them, their stiff branches and leaves giving them that air, but they 
may be trained into a free form, and not cut back so severely, to induce them to throw 
out many branches. Rochea coccinea , versicolor, and media, as will be known, do 
not afford much contrast of character ; coccinea and media are nearest alike, the latter 
only having paler flowers than the former : versicolor, in addition to having paler 
flowers than either, has also a more slender habit, and differently formed leaves. 
The large and numerous heads of bloom of these three kinds are in good plants very 
fine, and vivid in colour ; but are minus that distinctness from each other, and con- 
sequently that beauty, contrast in the colour of flowers renders so additionally 
pleasing. But other species furnish what is wanting in these in this respect, and 
though not so common, are, there is little doubt, among many collections of succu- 
lents. One of them is Crassula, or Kalosanthes odoratissima, but also now Rochea 
odoratissima ; it is, as compared with the foregoing species, slender-growing, and 
bears small heads of whitish-yellow flowers, which are said to be very powerfully 
sweet-scented at night. C. capitata, or R. odoratissima alba, being only a variety of 
the latter species, has white flowers, is rather stronger-growing ; and is stated to have 
a scent like that of the Jonquil. C. jasminijlora, or K. jasminea, correctly R. Jas- 
minea, is a delicate, dwarf kind, with leaves that are dull crimson on their under side, 
VOL. XIII. NO. CLIII. E E 
