SHRUBBY AND SUB-SHRUBBY FLOWERS. 125 



raised ; but the usual mode is to strike cuttings in sandy 

 soil under a bell-glass. Allspice, M. Pimento,, is now 

 removed to another genus. M. microphylla has pretty 

 foliage, which pleases by its great regularity. 



Nerium splendens — Oleander, — a handsome evergreen, 

 with full, rose-pink, single or double flowers : there are 

 flesh-coloured and other varieties. It is even tenderer 

 than the Myrtle, and therefore useless here as an out- 

 door shrub. Its merits hardly entitle it to the space 

 it would occupy in the greenhouse, and its great 

 tendency to bleed profusely renders pruning an unsatis- 

 factory operation to keep it in shape. Many a gardener 

 has looked upon the death of an awkward overgrown 

 Nerium as a happy release, and has forthwith consoled 

 himself for the bereavement by taking into favour some 

 less ungainly beauty. It requires abundance of water, 

 and is propagated either by rooted suckers, or by slips 

 pulled off, not cuttings, rooted in a bottle of w r ater, or in 

 light soil kept constantly wet. It is abundant in Algeria, 

 along the banks of streams, which it is said to poison, 

 either by exudations from its root or the drip of its 

 leaves. 



Oleander. — See Nerium. 



Passion Flower — Passijlora ccerulea, the Blue or Com- 

 mon Passion-flower — is the representative of a large 

 genus, which are stove or greenhouse climbers, with the 

 exception of two, — this and P. edulis, — which may be left 

 in the open ground during our ordinary winters, with 

 protection, and a covering of litter at root. Their name 

 is derived from a fanciful resemblance which the various 

 parts of inflorescence bear to the symbols and instru- 

 ments of the Saviour's Passion, — to the glory, the ham- 

 mer, the nails, the wounds, &c. Passion-flowers rapidly 

 exhaust the soil in which they grow r , require plenty of 

 root-room, and consequently are not well adapted for 

 pot-culture ; they thrive in light, rich, deep loam, well 

 drained, and yet not 'too dry. They are propagated by 

 cuttings, layers, suckers, seeds, and by grafting on P. 

 ccerulea. It is always safer to retain in pots small plants 



