Inside the House 
Timely Suggestions and. 
Answers to Correspondents 
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Echeverias for Table Decoration 
O get something new in the plant line 
for use in the house is seemingly 
at first thought an almost impossible 
proposition, but this is simply because not 
enough consideration has been g'iven to 
the matter. There are many ways of mak¬ 
ing even the commonest plants exhibit 
•such unusual characteristics when used in 
unusual ways that they evidence strongly 
the element of novelty. 
For instance, the tiny little plants com¬ 
monly classed as echeverias are usually 
supposed to be useful only for the much 
frowned upon carpet bedding, but as a 
matter of fact any variety of this plant 
can be made to serve attractively in the 
bouse. Echeveria secunda glauca is a flat, 
rosette shaped plant, dark green in color, 
and decidedly stiff loking. But if a num¬ 
ber of the smaller plants, not more than an 
inch in diameter are placed in one of the 
conventional table pans such as are used 
for small ferns they will in a very short 
time prove their suitability as a table orna¬ 
ment. 
For this purpose they should be put in 
the pan close together, in a soil with a 
large percentage of coarse sand, watered 
sparingly and put on the table. At first 
they will look flat and unattractive but 
soon they will change, not only their color, 
hut character of growth, each plant turn¬ 
ing a lighter green and sending up a center 
growth two to three inches high that will 
be even lighter than the plant itself. The 
effect is decidedly novel. Because of be¬ 
ing closely in the pan one plant supports 
the other, making a uniform growth that 
shows at its best when under the lights 
at night and the many little accessories of 
the table are in place. . To relieve the 
severity of the lines it might be well to 
use a little anicum or Lycopodium for 
the edge of the pan. 
A small box three inches wide and the 
width of the window filled with these 
plants is unusual and pretty. I know they 
will do well when used this way for I have 
tried them. The little plants are inex¬ 
pensive and the methods of propagating 
them are also interesting. If a leaf is 
placed in sand, or even the old stump of 
the plant is so treated, from both the leaves 
and the stump tiny plants will spring up, 
provided they are placed in the light and 
water withheld from them. 
Window Flowers Without Soil. 
AST winter I placed a table in each of 
the two south windows of my dining¬ 
room, putting on these tables three glass 
jars holding a quart of water each. In 
the jars before the first window I put 
branches of the barberry, apple and 
quince — several of each, and on the other 
table a few branches of forsythia, caly- 
canthus, cherry and plum. 
The barberry, with its sharp thorns and 
many branches, was pretty to look at even 
before it began to branch out, which it did 
in a very short time. The leaves set in 
small clusters, or rosettes, and were of a 
bright, rich green color; then came the 
flowers, like tiny yellow roses, fading to 
white from tip to base. The scarlet fruit, 
together with the changing flame-colored 
leaves, make it a plant of great beauty. 
The apple blossoms, carried up on long 
straight stems, were both curious and 
beautiful; the petals were pure white— 
no pink tint in the blossoms — and well- 
opened, showing the bright gold of the 
anthers and stamens. The leaves also 
were very beautiful, the gray-green color 
with the whitish blue tints so unlike in 
shape and color any of the other leaves. 
And then the blossoms of the quince, so 
large, and with petals so thick and velvety 
— looking almost like a camellia. 
In the second window the brilliant 
golden bells of the forsythia, blooming in 
advance of the leaves, were most effective. 
The flowers have a fresh, rain-washed ap- 
Echeverias, when set closely in their receptacle, form a thick, uniform growth that shows well 
under the table lights at night 
( 382 ) 
