a 
EUPHORBIA. 
Greenhouse and Stove Plants. 
173 
covering a wall in the stove, and there is 
no situation where it looks better, or where 
its peculiar form and intense scarlet flowers 
are seen to more advantage; but the 
position in which it is placed should always 
be a light one. 
E. jacquinizflora is very different in 
habit and general appearance from the last ; 
it blooms in winter, at which time its 
intense scarlet flowered, wreath-like shoots 
are unsurpassed by any plant in cultivation. 
It is a free-grower, and equally free in 
blooming ; the flowers last well either on 
the plant or when cut and placed in water ; 
it gives a succession from a second growth, 
which the plants will make after the first 
flowering shoots have been cut. The beauty 
of the flowers is much enhanced by the 
dark-green lanceolate leaves which form a 
background to them; it combines well 
with almost any other description of flower, 
being especially suited for using in large 
vases, where its flat sprays can with the 
greatest advantage be employed as a base 
for lighter-coloured things. Some growers 
have experienced a difficulty in striking it 
from cuttings. The soft sappy nature of 
the young shoots, if they are taken off 
after they have extended considerably, 
causes a liability to damp; in fact, if 
cuttings are made in the ordinary way, 
very few will root. But if in the spring 
the young shoots that are made after the 
plants have bloomed are taken off with a 
heel when about 5 or 6 inches in length 
and inserted in small pots, drained, and 
filled with silver sand, placed in a tem- 
perature of 70°, and covered with pro- 
pagating glasses, not one in twenty will 
fail ; it is the heel of partially solidified 
wood that is essential to success. They 
must be kept quite moist, and so managed 
will root in a few weeks, after which 
remove the glasses, and let them have 
plenty of light. When they get fairly 
established move them into 4-inch pots. 
It does the best in good fibrous loam, to 
which add one-fifth of sand, and drain the 
pots sufficiently, as the roots are very 
impatient of stagnant moisture; do not 
give too much water till they get well hold 
of the soil. The plant has naturally an 
erect habit—not disposed to branch out 
much ; if required bushy, the shoots may 
be stopped or bent down when they get 
fairly into growth, so as to induce them to 
break back. The temperature may now 
be allowed to rise in the day to 80°, 
with sun heat, and air be given in the 
morning according to the state of the 
weather ; close while the sun is on the 
glass sufficiently to raise the heat for an 
hour or two up .to 85° or 90°, syringing 
overhead at the same time; be careful at 
all times, but especially after potting, not 
to over-water, for the plant does not make 
so many roots as most things, and will not 
bear the soil being too wet; they will 
require a thin shade when the sun is 
powerful, but should have plenty of light, 
or the natural straggling habit will be still 
further increased. By the end of June 
they ought to be moved into their flowering 
pots ; those 6 or 7 inches in diameter will 
be large enough, using soil similar to that 
in which they were last put, with the 
addition of one-sixth rotten dung ; as soon 
as established give manure-water regularly. 
Place a single stick to each plant, which 
will be sufficient to support them; con- 
tinue the treatment as to heat, air, and a 
thin shade when necessary, until the end 
of August, when dispense with shading 
and the use of the syringe, and give more 
air, which will gradually discourage further 
growth and ripen up the shoots. As the 
autumn advances reduce the temperature 
to 60° in the night, giving 5° more in the 
day. If they are required in bloom by the 
end of the year, it will be necessary to 
keep a portion of the plants 5° warmer, 
and they should be placed where the tops 
of the shoots will all but touch the glass. 
This is necessary to impart both colour and 
substance to the flowers. As the flowers 
become apparent at the axils of the leaves 
the plants will be benefited by manure- 
water, which will not only assist the first 
blooms they make but enable them to push 
the second growth strong, which will also 
bloom. Such plants as are kept cooler to 
succeed the first lot must not have too 
much water at the root, especially if they 
are kept a little under 60° in the night, 
but it is not safe to submit them to a much 
lower temperature than this; before they 
are required to bloom they must be kept 
warmer, and the increased heat will in a 
few weeks cause the flowers to open. 
After the flowering is over allow the soil 
to get considerably drier, and head the 
plants down to within 6 inches of the pots ; 
keep them in a temperature of 65° in the 
night, and give no more water than will 
just prevent the soil getting quite dry, 
until they have broken, and made several 
inches of growth, when, if more plants are 
required, the shoots may be taken off and 
struck, as in the preceding spring. The 
rest of the plants should be turned: out of 
the pots, two-thirds of the old soil removed, 
and be given pots 2 inches larger, which 
will be big enough to grow them on 
through the ensuing summer ; assist them 
with manure-water when the soil gets 
well filled with roots, and treat in other 
