134: RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF WINTER-BLOOMING PLANTS. 
plant, and a fit companion for the Euphorbias. It requires nearly the same treat- 
ment, with the exception that it must not be stopped quite so frequently, but rather 
be allowed to run at random. The flower is almost insignificant, but when 
vigorously grown, the bracts or floral leaves both of this and P. pulcherrima alba, 
the white variety, are remarkably beautiful. 
Poinciana pulcherrima. — Writing of Poinsettia brings to mind this splendid 
stove plant, which is hard- wooded, and belongs to the natural order Leguminosae. 
It is a free-growing plant, producing bright purple-scarlet, bottle-brush-like flowers, 
on small branches from the old wood, so that the plant requires to be grown a season 
or two before it blooms much ; but if it is grown vigorously through the summer, 
and, after the wood is ripe, allowed to go to rest, and pruned closely in, and started 
about Christmas, it will form a magnificent plant in February and March. 
TropcBolum Lobbianus. — This is one of Messrs. Veitch's acquisitions through 
their collector, Mr. Lobb, and is an invaluable plant for winter blooming, producing 
bright orange-scarlet flowers very profusely, and quite as bright in colour as the scarlet 
geranium. It is readily propagated by cuttings, and will grow in any common soil. 
To bloom it properly, it requires during the winter a temperature of from 50° to 55°. 
Oestrum aurantiacum. — A comparatively new plant, producing bright orange 
flowers in November and December, succeeded by fruit which is almost as 
interesting as the flowers, though very dangerous, being a deadly poison. It is 
readily propagated by cuttings, in spring, and the plants require to be grown 
vigorously through the summer, and gradually hardened off for blooming towards 
the autumn. In the second season it merely wants to be cut in and started in the 
spring, giving it plenty of pot-room, and occasionally stopping the strong growths as 
the plants progress in size. It will bloom in a cool greenhouse. 
Eranthemum pulchellum. — This is an old plant, but a very fine one for winter 
blooming, and is also very easily managed. Cuttings struck in the spring, 
occasionally stopped so as to make them branch, and grown in a forcing-house 
through the summer, make admirable winter-blooming plants, and the best of these 
kept through a second season, and properly managed, make magnificent specimens. 
The Eranthemums will grow in almost any soil, and, so long as they have heat 
and moisture, and are kept clear from insects, will scarcely go wrong. E. bicolor is 
also a fine spring-flowering plant. 
Linum trigynum. — Contrasting with the bright purple flowers of the preceding 
plant, this is a very useful and easily-managed plant, striking root readily in any 
common soil in heat, and growing with the greatest possible freedom. It produces 
bright yellow flowers, and a few plants introduced into heat about once a month 
during the winter will give a regular succession of bloom. The only objection to the 
plant is the affection which the red spider has for it ; but if kept vigorously 
growing and copiously syringed, these pests may be kept under. 
Justicia speciosa. — An old, but desirable plant, producing purple flowers, and 
requiring the same treatment as the Eranthemums. J. coccinea is also a very 
