214 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
former, where it is of a light, peaty, and vegetable nature, nothing 
can exceed the luxuriance of their growth, except perhaps Killar- 
ney, where really they surpass any thing that can be imagined. 
The shrub is absolutely covered with trusses of twelve to eighteen 
inches in diameter, of every shade of blue and pink. The soil, 
both there and in the county of Wicklow, is entirely free from cal¬ 
careous matter ; while in Dublin it is of a stiff bracing nature, and 
it is very hard to get them to grow well, and still harder to flower 
well. Of course, artificial soil will do much to improve their growth; 
but to have them in perfection, a natural light moist soil, entirely 
free from any calcareous matter, and pure mountain or sea air, are, 
in my humble opinion, indispensable. Probably the great moisture 
of our climate may be another reason for their succeeding so well. 
If you think these remarks worthy a place in your valuable 
journal, pray have the kindness to insert them; and, wishing it 
every success, I am, Sir, 3 ^ 0 ur obedient servant, 
Dublin, Nov. 10 , 1840. H. H. D. 
REMARKS ON THE ECHEVERIA. 
The genus Echeveria, named by De Candolle in honour of a 
M. Echeveri, an eminent botanical draughtsman, is one of our 
succulents, and native of South America. Although one of the 
species has scarlet flowers, they are not at all remarkable for their 
beauty. But the whole of them are remarkable for their power of 
self-reproduction. A vast majority of plants reproduce themselves 
by seeds; many by suckers or by offsets; and many again by 
deciduous tubers or bulbs in the ground ; while others increase 
themselves by deciduous buds formed on their stems, and by living 
plants generated in their capsules, or upon their flowering spikes. 
And there are many plants that reproduce themselves by all these 
different modes in the same season. 
But the Echeveria increases itself in a different way from all 
these. The plants are composed of a fringe of what are usually 
called radical leaves, because they issue from near the root and 
close to the surface of the ground. The flower stem rises from 
the centre, and bears a series of smaller leaves from top to bottom. 
These smaller leaves are articulated with the stem, and attached 
