8 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST 
[ January, 
Apple; and, in tlie sequel, they awarded it a 
First-class Certificate. 
“This novelty,” the Messrs. Paul and Son 
remark, “ should be in every kitchen-garden, 
as a constant and heavy cropper, bearing large, 
handsome fruit, which is of the finest quality, 
and in season longer than any other apple with 
which we are acquainted, namely, from Septem¬ 
ber to March.” The accompanying woodcut, 
from a drawing by Miss Paul, will give some 
idea of its size, form and handsome general 
appearance.—T. M. 
MESEMBRYANTHEMUMS AS 
KOCK-PLANTS. 
HEN Mr. Bevis was foreman of the 
botanical department of the garden at 
Syon House, he kept up a collection 
of these plants, and planted them out on the 
rock-work in summer, and in sunny seasons 
they were marvellously fine things. Their 
name, “ Mid-day Flower,” sufficiently indicates 
that a dry and sunny berth best suits them, 
and their dwarfness of habit shows that they 
need a prop of rock-work or the like to bring 
them near the eye. At Claremont there was 
once a fine collection of these and other 
succulents, but owing to the immense number 
of species—probably some 300, or more—they 
cannot become general in small places. Most 
of them are free-flowering kinds, and when 
well grown are exceedingly handsome. Before 
Mr. Green taught the world how to grow these 
and the Cactus tribe, and indeed most other 
succulents, they were always potted in soil 
heavily charged with lime-rubbish or old 
mortar, and it would have been rank heresy to 
have treated them otherwise. 
Now there are examples to be found of 
wallflowers growing in perfection on the old 
mortar of ruined castles—Conway, for example, 
and no one has been able to grow this biennial 
in the same compact, dwarf way that we see it 
when self-sown, on the bleak and stormy steep 
it makes its home. The same plant, if sown 
in rich soil in a garden and sheltered from the 
storms, will grow long in the stem and branches, 
and become very unlike in habit to the plant 
that was without doubt its parent. The Stone- 
crop, again, is quite at home on any old stone 
wall; and these have, no doubt, helped to get 
the idea of lime-rubbish into the soil for other 
(succulents. Mr, Green struck out a system of 
his own for growing these watery specimens, 
and introduced plenty of good manure into the 
soil for potting his succulents ; and those who 
saw his Epiphyllums at Chiswick were con¬ 
vinced that “ he had hit the right nail on the 
head.” If w T e do not succeed well with these, 
it must not, therefore, be laid to the score of 
the rich soil they are living in. 
Besides the soil in which succulent plants 
are grown, there is, however, an equally impor¬ 
tant point to be observed in their culture, 
and that is to refrain from watering them 
when they are, or ought to be, at rest—for 
their rest should be in dryness. All succulents, 
including Mesembryanthemums, consist of a 
series of bags of water, requiring dryness for 
their propagation, while other plants have to be 
kept moist until they get their roots to work. In 
most cases the leaves will make plants, and some 
succulent stems when divided will make several. 
I would recommend to those who design 
rock-work to give it the Stone-crop character, 
and that is best done bjr planting in mud, made 
up of rich mould, large patches of dwarf plants, 
and so arranging the work that when a plant is 
set upon a stone it may show design and 
adaptation to the site, always bearing in mind 
that the stones are to be subordinate to the 
flowers, and not staring out in white spar, as if 
a chalk cliff were its model. Bock-work black 
and grim is to be detested, and those who use 
white spar should either hide it with the 
foliage of evergreens, or colour it of some quiet 
hue. 
I have mentioned Syon House and its Bockery 
because it was a gem in its way, and it was 
kept out of sight, not being a show-place, 
so that few persons had the privilege of see¬ 
ing how things were done there. The Mesem¬ 
bryanthemums there, however, suffered from 
damp wintering in a cold frame, when their 
protector, Mr. Bevis, was gone, and soon 
ceased to be propagated, so that in my time 
the collection had nearly dwindled away. On 
a stone the size of the crown of one’s hat a 
plant may be put out right in the burning sun, 
planted in good soil, as has been already said, 
and always sloping southwards and downwards, 
like an irregular stair, and we may reckon on 
its covering the space allotted. The planting 
must be done in puddle, and not in dry earth, 
which is unsuitable for this delicate work. 
The rock-work that admits of trailing shrubs 
and large bushes is quite a different affair, 
and is useful as a background and for divisions, 
but is not in harmony with the tiny tender 
succulents that Mr. Bevis succeeded so well 
with on the stones at Syon.—A. Forsyth, 
Salford. 
