Apple; and, in the 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 September 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
ROCK-PLANTS.

OHEN 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 Stonecrop, 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 convinced that "he had hit the right nail on the head." If we 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 important 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 by 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. Rock-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 Rockery 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 seeing how things were done there. The Mesembryanthemums 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.