1870.] GARDEN RECORDS. 271 



inflorescence. Cut specimens of it were taken to the great London shows, and the 

 whole country rang with the praises of this horticultural wonder. Years ago it 

 had been brought to England, having been introduced from Rio Janeiro by Mr 

 Bougainville, from whom it derived its generic name, but all attempts to culti- 

 vate it failed. Mr Daniels planted out his specimen at the end of a low span- 

 roofed house, close to the boiler : he gave it an abundance of dry heat, and very 

 little water ; and in adopting this plan he hit upon the mode of cultivating it 

 best adapted to bring out its superb beauty. Since then, each succeeding season 

 has brought a recurrence of the marvellous display made by the plant ; and year 

 by year the plant increased in size, and at the present moment, were each 

 terminal spray hanging down from the roof clothed in glittering mauve, spread 

 out over the interior of the house, it would be found to cover a space of some 

 800 superficial feet. Happily for its grand effect, it is almost incapable of strictly 

 formal training ; the shoots hang like pendent wreaths in the most admired 

 negligence. The natural freedom thus assured is far more elegant than the 

 restraints of art ; you look above on to an inner roofing of the brightest, and yet 

 softest, hue of colour ; its luxuriant wealth of flowers can then be rightly appreci- 

 ated ; and the heart in fine admiration feels more than "lip can e'er express." 

 "Would that the house in which it is growing were better adapted to show off its 

 manifold charms ! What was said of it in 1860 can be stated now with accumu- 

 lated truth : " One wants to look down upon it, as it is looked upon by the sun, 

 to which its blossoms are displayed. At a distance from it, and standing on a 

 somewhat higher floor, you see imperfectly the upper surface of the mass of bloom 

 lying nearly close to the glass ; and in the slanting light of the evening sun, the 

 whole of the leafy canopy reflects on one side an almost glowing sheet of colour ; 

 while on the other, partly in the shade, and the semi-transparency of the coloured 

 bracts thus coming into play, it has more of an amethystine hue." 



Some idea of the size of the plant may be gained, when it is stated that the 

 stem, near the surface of the pit in which it is planted, measures 16 inches in 

 circumference. The lateral shoots forming the blooming wood are simply thinned 

 out, not headed back ; the plant is thus allowed to extend itself, but all gross 

 shoots springing from the old wood are cut back close, and on no account allowed 

 to grow. This strong growth can readily be distinguished from the wiry growth 

 that furnishes the blooming wood. The roots of the plant have got away out of 

 the house, quite beyond the control of Mr Daniels. He supposes they have 

 penetrated into a neighbouring vine-border, also into a pit used for forcing 

 Potatoes, as well as into the chalk rubble underlying the paths about the house. 

 Notwithstanding this freedom, it blooms as profusely as ever, without stint of 

 quantity or beauty. 



The house it occupies was originally a long low span-roof in two divisions ; the 

 Bougainvillea being planted at the farthest extremity of the house. It gradually 

 filled the division it occupied ; the glass of the top of the partition was then 

 removed to admit of a passage through for the leading shoots ; and last year, 

 additional liberty was afforded it by the removal of the partition altogether. A 

 fine specimen of the later-blooming B. glabra shares the roof with it, and occupies 

 that portion of the house nearest the door. Just as the glorious beauty of B. 

 speciosa begins to fade (it begins to bloom early in March and continues till the 

 end of May), then B. glabra takes up the floral service, and from April till Christ- 

 mas hangs on its branches blossoms numberless, in such clustering masses as to 

 hide the glass. The bracts of B. glabra have a glowing light pink hue, and form 

 a fine contrast to B. speciosa. This species is cut back hard to the old wood in 

 the same manner as a Vine, and flowers from the young wood of the first growth. 



