IN CALIFORNIA 263 



speed and real-estate booming, and drop us back in 

 leisurely old Greece, while the world was still young 

 and gods and half-gods fellowshiped with men. 



Among garden flowers few have more completely 

 captured the popular fancy in Southern California 

 than the poinsettia, which every one in the East 

 knows as a green-house beauty. In California it 

 grows in the open almost rivaling the poppy in the 

 affection of the people, and one sees it everywhere in 

 stately erectness against bungalow and villa walls. 

 Its susceptibility to frost finds it on the anxious 

 bench every winter, but the leaves fall more quickly 

 than the floral parts, which in cold seasons are not 

 infrequently seen shivering chillily at the tops of 

 leafless stalks. Prudent gardeners set it in the least 

 exposed places, usually against south walls, or in 

 sheltered bays, where from December to April it 

 flames fierily. Under favorable circumstances the 

 plant has been known to develop heads two feet in 

 diameter. Its name preserves the memory of a dis- 

 tinguished American statesman, Joel Eoberts Poin- 

 sett, who served his country worthily and was Secre- 

 tary of "War under President Van Buren. Previ- 

 ously, from 1825 to 1829, he was United States 

 minister to Mexico, where he discovered the flower. 

 He seems to have propagated it on his grounds at 

 Charleston, South Carolina, and about 1833 sold 



