150 
OXYLOBIUM PULTEN^^. 
rently deserve only to be discarded. But when it is properly potted in a compost 
of light loam and heath-mould, mixed with a small quantity of finely-broken 
stones or bricks, and allowed plenty of light and air, stopping the shoots now and 
then to render them dwarf and to bring on a state of bushiness ; it will take a 
totally difi^erent aspect, and develop yearly those splendid heads of flowers of 
which a specimen is exhibited in our drawing. 
Some care is additionally requisite in watering the plant. Having rather 
small and scanty foliage, its roots are more exposed to the influence of the sun 
than those of many similar shrubs. It must therefore be watched lest the soil 
become hardened in the centre, fall away from the sides of the pot, and thus allow 
the passage of water round the edges without ever admitting it into the mass. 
Still, the poverty of its leaves should not be made a pretext for saturating it with 
fluid, because this very fact renders evaporation less abundant. 
Cuttings of the young branches root with tolerable readiness in a sandy soil, 
under a shaded hand-glass, with the aid of a trifling bottom heat. 
Oxylohium is derived from oxys^ sharp, and lohos^ a pod, in reference to the sharp 
point that exists at the extremity of the seed-pods or legumes. 
