Qoiusttti*,. 
Paiuscttia puld)ilTiina. Natural Order: Euphorbiacece—Spurge Family. 
|f OEL ROBERTS POINSETT, United States minister to Mexico, 
discovered, in 1828, this magnificent plant, one that excites such 
ID* 1 ® 
universal admiration when in its holiday trim. It is commonly 
||L. grown among hothouse plants, though it will thrive in other situ- 
ations with care and attention. It is a half-shrubby plant, much 
inclined to a straggling growth, and requires pruning about the 
'-second spring month, when it should be cut back to within about 
two inches of the wood of the previous year. This causes the 
plant to send out side branches, which must be preserved with care 
lest the ends of the twigs be broken. In midwinter the scarlet 
bracts or leaves which surround the flowers begin to appear, 
crowning the tip of each shoot as it were with fire, when it is the 
most brilliant, most magnificent plant in our collections. For deco¬ 
rative purposes it is much sought, and as the demand nearly always exceeds the 
supplyq high prices are paid without demur for these floral tips. 
irHfiflnnj* 
Hr HE gay and glorious creatures! they neither “toil nor spin;” 
Yet lo! what goodly raiment they’re all appareled in; 
No tears are on their beauty, but dewy gems more brigh,t 
Than ever brow of eastern queen endiadem’d with light. 
—Miss Bowles. 
/T ROSE! O pearl! O child! O things of light! 
^ O maiden’s eye that melts with beams of love! 
O stars that sparkle in the vault above! 
O peerless moon, thou radiant queen of night! 
O golden sun, so glorious in my sight! 
TJ IS earnest and undazzled eye he keeps [words 
Fix’d on the sun of Truth, and breathes his 
As easily as eagles cleave the air; 
And never pauses till the height is won. 
— Mrs. Hale. 
246 
How doth my soul leap forth to soul in thee, 
To that appealing mute divinity 
Which gives thee glory as it gives thee might! 
’Tis what we worship, though we know it not 
— Sal lie A. Brock. 
TYO what he will, he cannot realize 
Half he conceives — the glorious vision flies; 
Go where he may, he cannot hope to find 
The truth, the beauty pictur’d in his mind. 
— Rogers. 
i 
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