12 THE FLORIST. 



they will quickly come into bloom, and continue gay throughout the 

 winter. It' larger specimens are required, the spring struck plants 

 must have each slioot stopped again in July or August, and at the same 

 time an additional shift. Keep them close and warm for a week or 

 two, to induce them to break ; and when the young shoots have grown 

 a few inches the plants may be taken to the stove or any house with a 

 moderately warm temperature, expose them to the sun, and give them 

 air freely ; here the young wood will ripen. This st cond stopping and 

 late growth rarely produce blooming shoots, nor is that the object. 

 When winter arrives let the plants be watered very sparingly, and they 

 need only have a ve y moderate heat, as they will bear a low tem- 

 perature, if kept dry. In March repot the plants, shaking from the 

 roots all the old soil. Half peat and loam, with a good portion of small 

 charcoal mixed with it is a good compost for them. The shoots should 

 be carefully tied out and cut back to six inches. If the previous 

 stopping has been well managed, a good bottom will be obtained, firom 

 which, with care, well formed plants can be grown. Place them in the 

 stove close to the glass ; they will soon break, and when the young 

 shoots are six inches long, stop these, which will be in April. The 

 plants may now be shifted into their blooming pots, eight inches, and 

 the shoots carefully tied out as they grow. To prevent the young wood 

 becoming elongated, let the plants, during the entire period of their 

 growth, be both fully exposed to the light and kept as near the glass as 

 possible. During the summer water freely with liquid manure ; but 

 water (as before noticed) should be gradually withheld towards the end 

 of September, and the plants placed in a drier and cooler house, to 

 ripen their wood. Treated in this way. Euphorbia fulgens is really a 

 most attractive object. I have had bushes three to four feet high, and 

 three feet through, the ends of each shoot being thickly studded with 

 their bright-coloured bracts. For the winter decoration of the con- 

 servatory or drawing-room there is nothing more beautiful than this. 

 Placed in a vase, and surrounded with Ferns, to hide the lower parts of 

 the plants, where there is a deficiency of bloom, it forms a most 

 effective group, and at the same time it is equally valuable for cutting 

 from. 



Erantliemum pukhellam. — This is another free-growing stove plant, 

 producing flowers of the brightest blue at mid-winter ; hence it is 

 extremely valuable for mixing with other plants, blue flowers being 

 very rare at this season. There is no better place to grow this during 

 the early part of the season than a common Cucumber or Melon pit. 

 After blooming, form the shoots into cuttings, place them singly in 

 thumb pots, and plunge them in a brisk bottom heat ; in a month they 

 will be ready to pot off" into three-inch pots, when they should be again 

 plunged and kept near the glass ; by May they will be nice stocky 

 plants, and will want repotting, which should be into 6-inch pots ; 

 plunge as before, and stop the plants, when they will soon grow into 

 bushy specimens, and by June or July may be transferred to the stove. 

 Loam, peat, and a little leaf-soil will suit them best, as they are strong- 

 rooted plants, and will require liberal help with liquid manure. They 

 should be always kept near the glass, and require a stove heat all through 



