98 
POINSETTIA PULCHERRIMA. 
high, with comparatively few branches and leaves ; the extremity of each branch is 
surmounted by the flower envelopes, or hractece ; these, which are disposed in 
irregular whorls, are of an exquisite rich scarlet colour, nearly equal in brilliancy to 
Verbena chamccdrifolia. In the stove nothing can exceed the ornamental effect 
they create ; and, in consequence of the flowers remaining- perfect a considerable 
time, together with the fact of their being produced in the autumn, they are con- 
spicuously exhibited through a great part of winter. 
It grows well in a hot stove, 
potted in good open, rather sandy 
loam, mixed with a little reduced 
dung or vegetable mould, and in order 
to keep it in a clean free-growing 
state, it requires plenty of water at 
the roots, and frequently to be care- 
fully syringed all over the leaves and 
branches ; this will encourage the 
latter to swell, and the former to de- 
velope, the result of which will be 
large, healthy, high coloured hractece 
at the termination of every branch, 
approaching in magnitude and colour 
those grown at Philadelphia, which 
measured as much as twenty inches 
across, and equalled in colour the finest 
tints of Hibiscus Rosea sinensis* In 
spring, before the plant is potted, or the 
buds begin to push, the branches of the 
previous year should be cut down to within three or four eyes of the old wood. 
After this, the wounded parts must be kept dry for a few days, in order to dry up 
the sap which always flows most copiously if the least fracture takes place; the 
portions taken off, made into cuttings, strike with ease in a pot of sand, or sand 
and loam mixed, if placed in a gentle bottom heat with a glass over them; but 
before the cuttings are planted in the soil, it is advisable to lay them for a day or 
two in an airy part of the house, for the purpose of drying up the sap, which will 
favour their striking. 
Our drawing was made from a plant which flowered in the stove at Chats worth 
last autumn, for the character of which, see above figure. 
The generic name is given in compliment to Mr. Poinsette, who discovered the 
plant in Mexico in 1828. 
