132 
RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF WINTER-BLOOMING PLANTS. 
some fresh soil, and a few weeks' protection under glass, will quickly bring them all 
right again. 
Plants thus treated, may be considered as safely set with bloom as any bulbous 
flowering plant, and a plant or two of each kind introduced into a temperature of 
from 50° to 55° about every six weeks, will keep up a regular supply of flowers, from 
November until May. After they have done blooming in the forcing-houses, if 
planted out in May or June, they make beautiful specimens for the lawn or flower 
garden. For the same purpose, also, a few of the best of the variegated kinds should 
be grown into neat specimens, as, apart from the flowers, their variegated foliage 
will make a house look gay in winter. 
Epiphyllum truncatum. — This is a well-known and very admirable winter- 
blooming plant, and when grafted on the Pereskia, or strong-growing Cereus 
speciosissimus, it makes a large and very magnificent plant. It also strikes very 
freely by cuttings of the ripe wood ; and neat plants in thumb pots, producing from 
six to a dozen flowers at a time, are very useful and interesting decorations for the 
drawing-room. One of the most interesting groups of small plants we ever saw was 
placed upon a lady's drawing-room table on Christmas eve, and consisted of our 
present subject, with the Cloth of Gold and common white and blue Crocuses, red 
and white Fairy Roses, Van Thol Tulips, and Portulacca Thellusonii, all grown in 
small pots, and so arranged and covered with moss as to hide the pots, and form a 
remarkably neat group of miniature plants. 
To return, however, to our subject, the Epiphyllums may be grafted at any time 
between Christmas and midsummer, and the only care necessary is to make an 
incision in the stock, force the graft tightly in, and fasten it with a small peg or 
a thorn from white-thorn. A little moss may be tied round the graft if the atmo- 
sphere of the house is dry, but not otherwise. If large specimens of this kind are 
desired, every branch of a strong plant of Cereus speciosissimus may be grafted at 
about six inches apart, and in this manner immense plants may be produced in a 
very short time. In grafting it on the Pereskia it is only requisite to stick the 
grafts on a young growing spine, and they will grow admirably. 
In growing the Epiphyllums it is necessary to treat them rather liberally, giving 
a brisk growing temperature of from 60° to 75°, with plenty of rich manure water; 
but after the growth is completed the plants must be gradually hardened off, so that 
by the beginning of August they can be placed under a south wall in the open air, 
where they will mature the wood and set their bloom. After the bloom is set, water 
must be gradually withheld, and the plants must be kept in the greenhouse until it 
is wished to start them for bloom. E. Russelliana and violaceum are not less 
interesting than E. truncatum ; indeed, where all are beautiful, I am not quite certain 
that E. violaceum is not the most charming. For spring forcing, all the Epiphyllums 
are very beautiful and easily managed, such as E. speciosum, Ackermannii, Jenkinsonii, 
Conway s Giant, &c, and the same treatment is applicable to all, viz., an early and 
thoroughly matured growth, and gradual drying off afterwards. 
