TO THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



223 



POINSETTIA. [Eupborbiacese.] Stove shrubs, whose 

 flowers are insignificant ; but the bracts, which spread round 

 the base of the head of proper though trifling flosvers, as if 

 they were part of the flower itself, are splendid. Thej grow 

 well in two-thirds loam, with one-third peat or leaf- mould, to 

 which sand must be added. Cuttings of two joints, one under 

 and one above the surface, soon strike root in bottom heat ; 

 they must then be potted into moderately small pots, say 

 forty-eights, or five-inch ones, and be grown in the stove, 

 being shifted from time to time as they fill the pots with 

 fibres, and freely supplied with water when in full growth. 

 When the plants have done flowering they should be kept 

 nearly dry till spring, and then may be cut down to within 

 two or three eyes of tlie ground, and the shoots cut ofl" used 

 for increase. Single eyes — an inch of wood with the joint in 

 the middle — planted round the edge of a pot, and the pot 

 plunged in a gentle bottom heat, will root, and form young 

 plants, which, when large enough, must be potted singly and 

 grown as cuttings. The plants may be had in bloom at any 

 period, according to the time when they are started into 

 growth. If started in spring, not too early, and grown 

 slowly on, they come into flower in autumn or the early part 

 of winter, and last a long time. There is but one species 

 cultivated, P. pidcherrima, in which the large leaf-like bracts 

 are of a most brilliant scarlet ; but there is a variety called 

 alhida, in which the bracts are of a yellowish white or cream 

 colour. 



POIVREA. [Combretacefe.j Stove evergreen climbers, 

 related to Combretum, and requiring the same treatment. 

 They are very handsome plants. Increased by cuttings planted 

 in sand, and placed where there is a slight bottom heat. Soil, 

 peat and loam, with sand. 



POLEMONIUM. Greek Valeri.\n. [Polemoniaceae.] 

 Ornamental hardy perennials of easy culture, growing readily 

 in ordinary good garden soil, and increased by division of the 

 plant, and generally very freely by seeds, which should be 

 sown in June to produce flowering plants for the next 

 year. 



POLIANTHES. Tuberose. [Liliace^e.] Greenhouse 

 bulbs, annually imported from Italy. Soil^ a rich sandy 



