THE illustrations (Figs, 1, 2 and 3), drawn from nature, represent beds on a country place near Cornwall, Orange county, New York, and show an interesting ornamental device. The rocks are entirely artificial in their arrangement, being brought from the mountain side on the place to hide a wall which occupies a most conspicuous position near the entrance.

These rocks form, by their roughness, a most agreeable contrast to the smooth lawn seen, beside them ; and although picturesque in shape, and covered with lichens and mosses, they differ in no way from the stones that abound in the region. The most interesting particular about the rocks is a growth of the common hardy cactuses (Opuntia vulgaris) that thrives upon them. A few sods were placed in two of the crevices near the top of the rocks, and pieces of the prickly pear planted in them three years ago. The dryness and exposure soon killed the grass, but the season being favorable the cactuses grew wonderfully, and since then have produced a brilliant show of yellow flowers every year, besides displaying their quaint growth at all seasons. Visitors rarely fail to remark them, and the majority are astonished to learn that they thrive without protection in a climate so severe. They are subjected to a heat in summer often exceeding 100° Fahrenheit, and in winter, to a temperature as low as 10° below zero; still they never looked better than now.

As cold weather approaches the plants shrivel and turn brown, falling flat upon the rocks, and no form of vegetation has a more dead and miserable appearance ; but when the warmth of spring revives them, they again absorb moisture and become a brilliant green, lifting their outer lobes erect, or spreading further upon the rocks.

An interesting bed can often be made by grouping cactuses about some central object on a lawn, in an irregular way. This arrangement is usually more admired than strictly geometrical forms. It is better not to remove the plants from the pots, as the latter can easily be buried out of sight. There is less work about this kind of a bed than any that can be made; the result, however, is largely dependent upon the beauty of the individual plants, and the taste employed in arranging them. The plants should be of good size, and sufficiently abundant to make their peculiarities effective. Flowers destroy the symmetry of a regular bed, but in one of this kind their presence, in greater or less abundance, is always welcomed. A dry and open situation is to be preferred ; and a spot where nothing else will grow, can often be covered in this manner and made most attractive, without doing violence to that harmony which should govern ornamental planting.

J. DeWolf.