4 
EPIPI-IYLLUM. 
EPIPHYLLUM TRUNCATUM VIOLACEUM. 
WITH AN ENGRAVING. 
A more lovely object tlian the variety of the old and well-known 
Epiphyllum truncatum, now portrayed, it would be difficult to 
select, even from the most extensive range of floral forms: in 
fact it seems hardly possible to conceive anything more beauti¬ 
ful than the rich, vivid, and varied tints which enamel its flowers, 
produced too in the greatest profusion, with the smallest amount 
of skill or attention, and at a season when the meanest of flora’s 
train is greeted with a welcome; it is, beyond comparison, the 
finest of all winter-flowering plants yet known to us. 
There are a few particulars connected with the cultivation of 
the original species and the present variety, which deserve to be 
mentioned. It is usual, on account of the naturally prostrate and 
dense habits of the plant, to assist its development by grafting 
on some upright, free-growing individual of the same natural 
family, when it assumes a very graceful, somewhat pendent cha¬ 
racter ; and by these means is elevated to a height which allows 
more space for the branches, and brings the flowers to a conve¬ 
nient level with the eye, removing the crowded appearance which 
their weight on the flexile stems causes them to take when pro¬ 
duced on dwarf unworked plants. It is very common to select 
for this purpose a stock from the genus Pei'eskia, P. aculeata be¬ 
ing frequently employed because of its free, quick growth, and 
the readiness with which the Epiphyllum “ takes ” upon it: but 
we hold this stock to be objectionable for several reasons. It is 
a climbing, or more properly a creeping plant, which for itself 
requires support, and therefore not suited to carry the additional 
heavy head thus placed upon it; besides the stem of Pereskia 
does not increase in substance, or but very slowly, after the inser¬ 
tion of the grafts, so that it is no uncommon occurrence to find 
a large luxuriant mass of the Epiphyllum balanced as it were upon 
what in the contrast looks like a reed: no proportion existing 
between the stem and the head; and moreover we have found 
that plants of this species, when worked upon these stocks, are 
constitutionally more tender, requiring a much higher tempera- 
