EPIPHYLLUM. 99 



useful of winter decorative plants, either as young plants, or 

 when grown into large specimens. As small plants, grafted 

 upon stems six inches or a foot high, with compact well- 

 formed heads, they are charming objects for the decoration of 

 the dinner table, or for standing in vases for room decoration, 

 in company with either palms or ferns. E. truncatum was 

 introduced to this country from Brazil in the early part of the 

 present century ; E. Rmsellianum is also a native of the 

 same country ; while the great portion of those beautiful 

 forms which delight the eye so much with their blaze of 

 colour are hybrids between these two kinds. They succeed 

 very well upon their own roots, but grow more rapidly and 

 display their beauties to greater advantage when grafted upon 

 the Barbados Gooseberry (Pereskia aculeata) or upon Cereus 

 speciosissimus,' the latter of which makes the best stock, 

 especially for a large pyramid. In potting, the soil used 

 should be a mixture of turfy loam, peat and leaf mould, in 

 equal parts, with a liberal addition of silver sand. They 

 should be grown in the stove, and when growth is finished 

 removed into a cooler and drier house to ripen, and from 

 thence again transferred to the stove, as occasion may 

 require, to furnish a succession of bloom. 



E. Russellianum. — A form introduced from Brazil, and 

 considered by many as a distinct species, to which opinion 

 we ourselves incline, as the flowers are difierent in form, and 

 are produced at quite a different season. Its blooms ' are 

 of a delicate rose colour, opening early in the month of 

 May. 



E. Russellicmum rubrum. — In this the flowers are very 

 much larger than the preceding, and of a bright rosy red. 



E. Rmsellianum superbum.—In this variety the colours of 

 truncatum and Russellianum are combined. 



E. truncatum. — The flat leaf-like branches are very much 



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