HOUSE AND GARDEN 
121 
touch to that part of the garden all winter. 
As winter bloomers it is a strong point of 
both Calendula and Stock that no degree 
of frost to which Southern California is 
subject, damages them. 
14. Chrysanthemums: In Southern Cal¬ 
ifornia as in the East, the flowers par ex¬ 
cellence of autumn; only in California 
they keep blooming well into the new year. 
15. Cacti: We are fond of these prickly 
children of the sand, and numerous kinds 
thrive with a minimum of attention in our 
sunny climate. Many of our plants were 
raised from cuttings obtained during trips 
in the Southwest, and possess associations 
that make them doubly valuable. The 
Cactus bed is best if mound-shaped, so as 
to ensure perfect drainage, and small 
rocks should be strewn about on it. A 
Cactus dearly loves the company of a bit 
of rock. 
The north side of the house, where the 
sun never shines, and which for that rea¬ 
son was at first looked upon by us as waste 
ground, has proven invaluable for ferns 
and begonias. Frosty winter nights make 
“hard sledding" for most varieties of the 
latter, and it is best to bring the tender 
sorts indoors before cold weather sets in, 
or at least cover them with sheets (sup¬ 
ported on stakes so as not to weigh down 
the plants) every night on which the ther¬ 
mometer registers below 48° at 10 p. m. 
The bare spaces about Southern Cali¬ 
fornia grounds, where one’s Eastern train¬ 
ing would suggest grass, makes a special 
problem, for grass is about the hardest 
and most expensive plant to keep growing 
in this land of little rain. Few but the 
millionaires, therefore, undertake to main¬ 
tain more than a bit of lawn in front of 
the house—the rear spaces are treated 
otherwise, the main substitutes being 
Lippia repens and three species of Mesem- 
bryanthemum. Lippia, a Sicilian plant, 
forms a solid green mat over the ground, 
may be walked on like turf, and is kept 
neat by only an occasional mowing. It 
grows from cuttings readily, but is slower 
to make a solid cover than grass or clover. 
It possesses the great advantage, however, 
of living for months without water, but to 
look at its best it needs a thorough wetting 
down once every five or six weeks. 
The mesembryanthemums are succulent, 
evergreen creepers even more indifferent 
to water than Lippia, and are invaluable 
for covering banks or bare spaces which 
are not to be walked on. The most de¬ 
sirable is a small-leaved, pink-flowered 
variety which blooms in April and May, 
the flowers so closely set that they make 
an unbroken sheet of pink that hides the 
entire mass of foliage. A larger-leaved 
variety, with large cerise blossoms, is even 
more dazzling, and besides its great an¬ 
nual blossoming, which is in summer, 
bears scattering bloom throughout the 
year. 
Both Lippia and mesembryanthemums 
have the merit of costing you absolutely 
nothing in a section where they grow at 
all, for any one is glad to give slips away. 
The season that tries the amateur gar- 
Water Supply Service 
for any irailding— 
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No matter where you want water, or how much 
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Kewanee System 
of Water Supply 
No city water system provides better water supply 
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full information. Estimates and 
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Kewanee Water Supply Co. 
Kewanee, Illinois. 
A 
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