EKUPHORBIA. 
invaluable grace for cool choice corners of the rock-work. America 
too has sent us a number of species that not only have flowers in 
shades of cream and white and gold, but also carry two or three of 
them at rare distances on a stem of perhaps 8 inches or more, and 
contrive to look as if they had seen the unknown Queen of all 
Mariagon lilies passing by, and had faithfully remembered her beauty. 
These should be planted in autumn, about 5 or 6 inches deep, and then 
left alone for ever. Catalogues deal copiously and faithfully with 
the species and their varieties and hybrids in cultivation ; those of 
EE. revolutum, Howellii, Johnstoni, californicum, and grandiflorum being 
perhaps the best, yielding delicate wide Turk’s-caps in the loveliest 
soft shades of pink and cream. J. montanum,a rare and not so easy 
Californian species, should have flowers of pure white: the common 
golden H. americanum rejoices more than the rest in full sunlight ; 
while of especial beauty is the specially tall and uncommon E£. Stuartit, 
a hybrid of graceful stature about a foot high, with spreading and 
revolving pendent flowers of cream and sulphur hanging high over 
the glossy marbled foliage of silver and brown. 
Euphorbia fills corners; not a race of any lovableness, though 
it has its uses. But the place of this vast and poisonous family is 
rather in the hideous deserts of the world, which they make more 
hideous and unhomely yet by pretending to be Cacti—as if anybody, 
anyhow, no matter what the stress of sand, would want to eat their 
venomous flesh, or drink the deathly white milk of their envenomed 
blood. However, enthusiasts and catalogues sometimes tell us of 
Euphorbias, big and little, that lend value to high hot places or low 
worthless ones. Magnificent is huge and tropical-looking Z. Wulfeni, 
indeed, and many others that follow in its train, and so often bear 
its name, that it is not always easy to procure the true species. Milder, 
in the same style, is H. polychroma, with conspicuous heads of yellow : 
our own rare native H. pilosa might well be included ; and there is no 
lack of other large bushy species. Of smaller ones, another native, 
or semi-native, H. Cyparissias, rambling about everywhere and a most 
voracious weed, is yet not valueless for the roughest and remotest 
gravelly places, which it occupies with its fine 10-inch sprays of dainty 
narrow foliage, even as it occupies the stony banks at mid-regions on 
the Alps. But much more choice and even precious is H. Myrsinites 
from Corsica, creeping along with stems of 6 inches, set with thick blue- 
grey foliage and heads of yellow; LE. capitulata from Dalmatia is another 
dwarf running plant, and can be multiplied by cuttings; Z. epithy- 
moeides recalls H. polychroma, but is very much smaller, dwarfer, and 
neater, with golden heads; it isnot a synonym of HL. polychroma, but 
(1,919) 353 Z 
