264 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



plants to Eobert Buist, an old time Scotch nursery- 

 man of Philadelphia. Buist called it Euphorbia 

 Poinsettiana, and introduced it into Europe. There 

 another Scotchman Kobert Graham, a botanist of 

 Glasgow, saw it and believing it to be a new genus, 

 rechristened it, to Buist 's great vexation, Poin- 

 settia pulcherrima. Later botanists have confirmed 

 Buist 's determination and reinstated it in the genus 

 Euphorbia, but retaining Graham's specific name, 

 call it Euphorbia pulcherrima. Its glorious scarlet- 

 bracted flowers are an important element in the 

 decoration of churches at Christmas and Easter, for 

 which reason it has been called Christmas flower 

 and Easter flower a translation of the appellation 

 by which it goes in Mexico, la flor de Pascua. The 

 non-botanical may be reminded that the flaming in- 

 volucre that has gained the plant its popularity, is 

 no part of the blossom, but simply a whorl of colored 

 leaves. The flowers occupy a small space at the 

 point of union of these leaves. They are brilliant, 

 too, in red and gold but more curious than beautiful 

 and relatively inconspicuc-us. 



Of a somewhat similar method of inflorescence are 

 the Bougainvilleas, whose intense magenta or red- 

 dish masses of color are due not to the flowers, which 

 none but the curious ever notice, but to the 

 brilliant-hued bracts that envelop the flowers. 



