July 31, 1909 



HORTICULTUKE 



133 



Euphorbia fulgens (E. Jacquinaeflora) 



and E» Poinsettia pulcherrlma 



The name Euphorbia was given to this plant by 

 Dioscorides. Pliny, says it was so called in honorv of 

 Euphorbus, physician to Juba, king of Mauritania. The 

 history of the names of plants, or their meaning I find 

 to be quite a useful study, as it helps to fasten the name 

 of the plant in one's memory, the one helping to recall 

 the other. Again, if anyone asks the name of a plant, 

 and you tell them, see how helplessly the average person 

 looks at you, but if you can tell them also the meaning 

 or history of the name, they get interested and begin to 

 think that you are not simply making it up on the spur 

 of the moment to hide your ignorance." I remember 

 some time ago a lady asked me the name of a Cleroden- 

 dron, and when I told her, she asked me if I knew what 

 the name meant. I replied that I believed it came from 

 kleros, which means chance, and dendron a tree. The 

 natives did not know whether it had any healing virtues 

 or not, but. they took chances on it. "There," she ex- 

 claimed, "is a good common name for it-the chance tree." 



But to return to Euphorbia, a genus comprising about 

 si.x hundred species of trees, shrubs and herbs. The two 

 above named are the most useful for the gardener or 

 florist for greenhouse culture. Some have told me they 

 have a hard time rooting E. fulgens and considering the 

 treatment I quite often see this attractive Christmas 

 flowering plant gets after cutting the crop, I do not 

 wonder they do. Very often it is pushed under a 

 bench, or thrust into some dark out of the way corner, 

 and then they try to root the soft spindly growths that 

 start away from the old wood. A better way is to set 

 the cut-back plants on a shelf near the glass in the full 

 sun, and not dry them off severely. In the spring you 

 will get nice firm cuttings. When they are about three 

 inches long remove them from the old plants, and trim 

 the lower leaves and insert in sand. We use a seed pan 

 about two inches deep and a foot square, in which we 

 put about 120 cuttings, giving them a thorough soaking 

 with water, and set them near the glass in a house where 

 the temperature is about seventy degrees. Do not water 

 them again until the sand begins to have a dry appear- 

 ance on top, then give another good soaking. They will 

 be rooted in about a month, after which, we prick seven 

 or eight into a six-inch pot filled with a good rich open 

 loam, keep close and slightly shaded for a day or two, 

 and then place in the full sun. 



After the first of June they can be set outdoors. 

 Ashes is a good thing to set them on or plunge them in. 

 By the second week in September they will have a nice 

 sturdy growth, and can get some manure water once a 

 week. Removing them to their quarters indoors will 

 also be in order. A house around sixty degrees will 

 bring them in flower nicely by Christmas. At the time 

 of writing, July 19, there is jilenty of time to root more 

 cuttings. These, if desired, can be pricked thickly intq 

 a ten or twelve-inch pot when rooted, and staked out 

 nicely with thin twigs when they come in flower, mak- 

 ing a good specimen plant. When cutting the flowers 

 for vases, it is better to have a dish of boiling water 

 near by to dip the ends of the steins in, to prevent the 

 flow of the milky sap, then cover over the head in cold 

 water for a day and there will be no trouble with their 

 keeping qualities. 



The popular poinsettia, E. Poinsettia pulcherrima, 

 requires quite a long period of rest. A good place- to 

 store them is under a carnation house bench. About 

 May 1st. is a good time to start them. They can be 

 planted outdoors in June, and one gets a far firmer cut- 

 ting than if they had been kept under glass. We find it 

 is a good plan to pot each cutting singly in a two-inch 



pot, putting about half an inch of sphagnum moss ia 

 the bottom of each pot, and filling up with a mixture of 

 powdered charcoal and sand. Placed in a tight cold 

 frame shaded with a cotton cloth, they will root in about 

 four weeks, from June until the middle of September. 

 The earlier rooted ones we plant in nine or ten-inch 

 pots about a dozen or fifteen to a pot. They make nice 

 specimens about three feet high for Christmas. The 

 last rooted batch make nice dwarf plants in pans. 



We find that both these Euphorbias are very sensi- 

 tive to fresh bone meal, and would not advise its use, 

 unless it had been mixed with the soil for three months. 



Notes from the Arnold Arboretum 



In one of the preceding notes Sorharia stellipila was 

 described as a new species closely resembling the well 

 known S. sorhifolia but flowering later. Today another 

 new species may be mentioned which is just now begin- 

 ning to bloom, thus flowering about a month later than 

 S. sorhifolia. This species is Sorharia assurgens from 

 China. It differs in habit more from <§. sorhifolia than 

 S. stellipila, growing into a much larger shrub about six 

 feet in height or even more. Its foliage is more grace- 

 ful, the leaflets very numerous, longer and narrower 

 with closely set veins and usually more or less curved. 

 The large panicles of white flowers are from eight to 

 twelve inches long and looser and broader. It has proved 

 hardy at the Arboretum and is, particularly on account 

 of its late and showy flowers, a shrub to be recommended. 

 In connection with this mention may be made of another 

 closely related species, viz., Sorharia Aitchisonii (Spiraea 

 sorhifolia angustifolia) from Afghanistan. This species 

 unfortunately is not quite as hardy as the preceding one 

 and died last winter at the Arboretum, though it had 

 stood two of the preceding winters with but slight in- 

 juries. It is still more graceful than the preceding 

 species, growing into a rather tall shrub of a more open 

 habit with partly spreading and ascending stems. The 

 flowers appear about the same time as those of S. assur- 

 gens in looser panicles. The foliage too is handsomer, 

 the numerous narrow leaflets are of a bright glossy green 

 with usually purplish stalks and also the stems are 

 tinged purple which gives a pleasing contrast with the 

 lustrous graceful foliage. Sorharia Aitchisonii is certain- 

 ly the handsomest of the Sorbarias and for situations 

 where it is hardy to be preferred to the others. 



The much advertised Hydrangea arhorescens grandi- 

 flora is now in full bloom and there can be no doubt that 

 it merits the recommendations, it has received. Partic- 

 ularly larger slirubs are very effective, as the plant is 

 of good habit, forming a broad round bush studded all 

 over with its large clusters of pure white flowers borne 

 well above the foliage. It has, however, now got a rival 

 in the new Hydrangea cinerea sterilis which has as large 

 and beautiful clusters of white flowers according to flow- 

 ering branches received last year from Teas' nursery in 

 Centerviile, Ind., and a few days ago from Meehan's 

 nursery in Philadelphia. Botanically it is easily dis- 

 tinguished from the other form by the grayish down of 

 the under side of the leaves and' also by the more rounded 

 not pointed sepals ; about its horticultural points I can 

 say nothipg so far, as T had not yet the opportunity to 

 observe living plants. 



