52 
BUGAINVILL^A SPECTABILIS. 
We understand it has been grown many years in the Jardin des Plantes at' 
Paris, where it is planted in the border of a stove, and trained against the back 
wall ; and in this situation has spread over a considerable space, and flowered 
copiously, for at least the last ten years. From all we can learn, it has never 
flowered till the specimens have acquired age and considerable size ; nevertheless,! 
we are far from believing it impossible to obtain blossoms from much younger and 
dwarfer plants. Many plants usually received as shy bloomers, have been induced 
to disclose flowers in profusion, by subjecting them to bottom -heat. The plan 
suggested in a recent number for promoting the fertility of climbers will most 
probably be found beneficial here. And, moreover, the state of the parent 
plant from which the cuttings are procured, exercises a far more extensive 
influence on the progeny, than is generally thought of. Cuttings of a moderate 
strength taken from a plant in a free-flowering condition, bloom much earlier than 
those raised from the vigorous shoots of a young specimen ; and fertility is still 
further hastened by choosing the lateral growths of flowering branches. Ij 
It was originally introduced to this country from Peru, in 1829, and seems to 
require the temperature of the stove. 
The genus commemorates the celebrated De Bugainville, one of the most suc- 
cessful of French circumnavigators, to whose expedition the well known and 
indefatigable botanist, Commerson, was attached from 1766 to 1769. 
