FEBXUAUY. 
19 
to within 3 or 4 inches of the pot, and the plants are kept under glass until the 
end of May or beginning of June, when they are planted on a border at the back 
of a north wall. I have plenty of peat or leaf mould put in around them ; 
they are then well attended to in watering until they begin to grow, after this 
they receive very little attention until the beginning of August, when I have 
the whole taken up carefully and potted ; the small plants are put into as small 
pots as they can be put into without damaging the roots; the larger are 
divided into two or more parts, and these also are put into as small pots as they 
can be got into. When all are potted they are well watered and put into a cold 
pit or frame and kept rather close, and in bright weather shaded until they 
begin to root freely into the fresh soil, when air is given free y. When the 
plants have made some fresh roots and commenced growing they are all put 
into tolerably large-sized pots, the compost used being loam, cowdung, and 
sand. The plants are then carefully attended to during the winter and spring 
months in respect to watering, tying out shoots, and thinning leaves and weak 
shoots. These plants make beautiful specimens for spring flawering. 
A quantity of plants raised from offsets cannot be brought sufficiently 
forward to flower so early as plants raised from seed sown in the first week in 
April; there are also much more labour and attention required in their culture 
during the autumn, when gardeners have so much other work to do in pro¬ 
pagating, and in lifting and potting bedding plants. But even if first-rate 
varieties from offsets could be had in flower as early as plants from seed, 
gardeners would still hesitate to use them for in-door decoration. With seed¬ 
ling plants it is a very different case—they are raised annually in almost any 
quantity with very little labour or attention, and the loss of the plants after 
they have done flowering is of no consequence. 
We want good seedlings, however; if we can obtain flowers of good form, 
well and good, they will be all the more valued; but clear, bright colours we 
must have, we hope not to be disappointed. 
Stourton. M. Saul. 
POINSETTIA PULCHERRIMA. 
At one of the recent meetings of the Floral Committee at South Kensing¬ 
ton, some plants of Poinsettia pulcherrima were produced from the gardens of 
the Royal Horticultural Society. They were from 2 to 3 feet in height, the 
foliage vigorous and healthy, and the “ floral leaves ” of an intensely bright 
vermilion colour. Their culture reflected great credit on Mr. Eyles, the Superin¬ 
tendent of the Gardens, who adopts as his method of growth that prescribed in 
the' Gardeners ’ Chronicle for 1864, page 125. A summary of this mode of treat¬ 
ment may be of interest to many of your readers. The plants should be grown 
from single eyes taken from the hard well-ripened wood of the previous year. 
They should be placed in a very sandy peat, and the pot plunged into a brisk 
bottom heat, or a dung-bed, when they will root freely. They should then be 
potted in single pots, still keeping them in the frame until well established, after 
which they should be placed in a stove, keeping them near the glass. From 
the beginning of June till the end of September they should be kept in a 
greenhouse, and afterwards in the stove. Here they will soon put forth their 
brilliant heads of floral leaves, and make a beautiful display. Proper atten¬ 
tion must be paid to watering, &c., during the time they are in the green¬ 
house. As it is a plant liable to be attacked by red spider, the under part of 
the leaves must be well syringed occasionally, but after the coloured leaves 
appear, syringing should cease. Young plants produce the most brilliant- 
coloured leaves ; but when old plants are depended on, they should not be cut 
