266 ■ MY GARDEN. 



Another stove-plant, Poinsettia pulcherrima (fig. 549), is very much 

 employed for table decoration in London. The flower has a circle of 

 bright scarlet bracts, which renders it showy, and 

 it gives colour in the fernery in the winter time 

 when colour is valuable. Except for these 

 purposes it is not commendable. It flowers at 

 the top of a straggling shoot, which causes the 

 whole plant to be somewhat ungraceful. I 

 find that the best plan is to turn the plants 

 out of doors in summer and to place them 



Fig. 549.— Poinsettia pulcherrima. in heat tO floWCr in Octobcr. 



Erasmus properly writes, that " one piece of ground will not hold 

 all sorts of plants." 



Loudon has described upwards of twenty thousand plants as being 

 cultivated in England. It is manifest that no private garden could 

 contain such a number ; therefore a selection must be made according 

 to the position and the opportunities afforded in each particular case. 

 I have described those we more commonly grow, of which some are 

 selected for their intrinsic beauty, as the primrose ; some for their odour, 

 as the violet ; some for their rarity, as the Cuscuta reflexa ; some for 

 their curious contrivances, as Venus's Fly-trap ; some for their associa- 

 tions, as the Linncsa borealis ; some for giving us blossom under trees, as 

 the foxglove ; and many for affording us flowers at various and different 

 seasons of the year. The plants which I have enumerated will suffice, 

 for most general flower gardens as a basis of plant growing; and' if 

 every year two or three other plants are added, the garden will have 

 abundant attractions, and give every enjoyment which cultivation is 

 capable of affording. , 



Looking at the range of plants which we cultivate, there is much 

 to interest and delight us on our visits to the garden. 



" And with childlike, credulous affection 

 We behold their tender buds expand ; 

 Emblems of our own great resurrection, 

 Emblems of the bright and better land." — Longfellow. 



