Plate 281 . 
SPHACELE OffiRTJLEA. 
During the last autumn, Mr. Bull, of Chelsea, had in his 
establishment a plant which attracted the attention of all who 
visited it, it was so profusely covered with bloom, and was 
evidently so free in habit and so easily managed; although only 
in an 8-inch pot, it had thirty-seven spikes of bloom on it of a 
delicate lavender blue, and believing it to be likely from its 
character and season of blooming to be a useful plant, we have 
figured it in our present Plate. 
The demand for flowers for decorative purposes, both for 
drawing rooms and also for bouquets, is now so great, that it is 
almost impossible to keep pace with it, and a curious state¬ 
ment appears in a late number of the 4 Revue Horticole,’ of 
the clever manner in which turnips and beet-roots are made to 
do duty as Camellias in the Paris markets. In London the 
demand is continuous, although reaching its height in the 
season from Easter to the end of June, when fortunately 
flowers are more plentiful; but at Brighton, where the season 
is from October to Christmas, it requires a great deal of 
ingenuity to adapt the different flowers to that season for 
blooming, and we were much struck some years ago with the 
manner in which the Brighton nurserymen were able to cater 
for the demand of their customers both in fruit and flowers. 
For all such purposes, we cannot doubt that this plant will be 
found very useful, especially for its colour; it is easy to get 
flowers of different shades of red, pink, crimson, etc., but blue 
flowers are more scarce. Mr. Bull says of it, that it is a useful 
winter-blooming plant. It is soft-wooded, with thick ovate 
serrated foliage, and if cultivated in a warm greenhouse, pro- 
