CHAP. V. OKNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ETC. 393 



2. Eu. splendens. Not to be distinguished in any very marked 

 degree from the last, except that the stems are somewhat more 

 slender and more spinous. 



3. Eu. jacquiniflora. A small shrub ; in blossom one of the 

 most brilliantly beautiful pot-plants of the gardens ; blossoms in 

 the middle of the Cold season with a profusion of small, dazzling 

 vermilion flowers, from the extremity of and all down its long, 

 smooth, slender, twig-like stems. If some time before blossom- 

 ing each stem be bent and fastened down over the rim of the 

 pot, young shoots will break forth and enhance the beauty of 

 the plant by the additional flowers they produce. After flower- 

 ing the stems may be cut in, and the cuttings, when dry of the 

 milky juice which exudes from the cut part, be put in a pot of 

 sand in a shady place. In a short time they will take root. 

 Some, however, consider that cuttings strike more readily if 

 made in the Cold weather, before the plants have flowered. 

 The plants are very apt to die off in the Eains if left much 

 exposed to wet. 



Mr. E. Scott, of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, has pro- 

 duced a dwarf and very distinct permanent variety of this 

 beautiful plant. The announcement of it I give in his own 

 words from the 'Journal of the Agri-Horticultural Society ' : 



" Two years ago, at one of the shows of the Agri-Horticultural 

 Society, I saw a plant of Euphorbia jacquiniflora, with branches 

 about seven feet long, and said to have been the growth of one 

 season. The accompanying plants show what may he accomplished 

 in the opposite direction; are ten months old, from cutting, and 

 as the appearance bespeaks, have been starved as long as could he 

 done with safety to the plants, which have been allowed to ' form ' 

 themselves. No stopping, pruning, or bending of the branches or 

 twigs has been practised upon them." 



Poinsettia. 



P. pulcherrima. A very large spreading shrub, eight to ten 

 feet high ; native of Mexico ; bears during all the Cold season 

 little knobs of yellow insignificant flowers of the size of a Pea, 

 surrounded by rays of large, elliptical, crimson-scarlet, bracteal 

 leaves. When in full blossom one of the most gorgeous objects 

 conceivable. Blossoms upon the wood of the current year, 

 which should be cut in to a bud or two from the base after 



