230 
THE OLEANDER. 
striped with red, it may not, however, be the same variety as the one introduced 
by Mr. Lane, in which the sanguineous hue preponderates. It may be worth 
inquiring, therefore, whether such a plant as that described by Miller still exists 
either in the country denoted as producing it, or in European collections. 
The opinions of botanists regarding the different Neriums which have been 
imported to this country are much at variance, as to whether they ought to be 
considered species or merely varieties ; and the confusion of synonymes which has 
arisen through this has tended much to increase the difficulty of discovering which 
kind an author really iutends by any of them. 
It matters little, in a cultural point of view, whether they are strictly varieties 
or species : they have gained the popular name of Oleander in common, and it 
would be difficult now to limit its signification to any one of them. They are all 
beautiful plants, inhabiting similar stations, and requiring the same kind of treat- 
ment. Even in their natural haunts they are remarkable for their magnificence. 
A writer on the plants which inhabit the coast of Africa says, " In the summer 
season, when all the more delicate plants have been dried up beneath the scorching 
sun, there is still the Oleander, with its brilliant bunches of rosy flowers, by 
which are traced from afar the courses of the rivers, on the banks of which it 
loves to dwell, and those humid spots which, from accidental circumstances, being 
never dried up, are then a kind of vegetable Oases." 
The conclusions which a cultivator must unavoidably deduce from these 
observations upon its natural habitat are palpable, and well confirmed in practice. 
We usually find a rich soil in the vicinity of rivers — and a rich loamy earth proves 
the best for the culture of the Nerium. But it is chiefly because it delights 
in, and in fact demands, a degree of moisture that would be pernicious to 
many other individuals, that it is met with in its most flourishing state upon the 
banks of streams, where its vigorous roots can penetrate ooze and mire to the 
water's edge, and find a copious fund of fluid constantly flowing gently around 
them ; and it is this fondness or necessity of the plant for an abundant provision of 
water, that has induced the grower to place beneath the pots capacious feeders full 
of water, or the drainings from the dunghill, so soon as the roots have passed 
throughout the soil in the pot in which it is intended the plant should bloom. 
Again, they are found fully exposed to a scorching sun ; and under artificial 
management there is no point more important than a good command of light. An 
abundant supply of water without strong light would be as ruinous as a blazing 
sun with an inefficient supply of moisture. It is true we cannot rule the sky and 
chase away the clouds, but we may prevent other things from obscuring the light 
of the sun ; we may do away with the shade of trees, walls, and canvass, and 
keep the glass perfectly clean. Those plants constantly immured in a gloomy, 
shady situation, produce flowers that are deficient in colour, less redolent with their 
pleasant cinnamon odour, and more fugacious than those disclosed under a bright 
sun. We find also that a temperature gradually reduced from that of a moderately 
