THIS year at Christmas time, as in years gone by, families in all parts of the United States will adorn their homes with poinsettias to help give them the festive air of the season. And to the south of the Rio Grande, where the poinsettia grows wild, Mexican families will use it in the same way. Throughout both countries (and in others too) the flaming poinsettia has come to be a symbol of Christmas.

The name poinsettia, by which the plant is known in this country and, to a certain extent, in Mexico,1 honors the man who was the first to bring it into the United States-Joel R. Poinsett. As often happens, the plant has come to be much more widely known than the man for whom it was named.

Born in South Carolina in 1779, Poinsett devoted most of his life to public service. He served as a member of the South Carolina legislature and as a representative of his native state in Congress. He was a man of remarkable vision, and his ideas in many fields were far ahead of his time. Widely traveled and exceedingly well read, he had the seldom-found ability to view current issues in perspective. Although a southerner he visualized slavery in its world setting and saw that it was doomed. All his life he opposed the growing spirit of sectionalism in the South, and had he and other men of like mind been heeded, the Civil War and Reconstruction Period might never have occurred. He was deeply interested in agriculture and botany, and carried on advanced experiments in rotating and

1 Other names for the plant in Mexico are flor de Noche Buena flower of Christmas Eve) and Mexican flame leaf; in Nicaragua it is called la pastora, the shepherdess; in Argentina, estrella federal, the federal star.

diversifying crops. He realized the need for popular education in a democracy and was one of the pioneers in advocating a system of compulsory attendance at the public schools. Poinsett was one of the first of our statesmen to become interested in the Latin American countries and his most famous speech while he was a member of Congress urged recognition of their independence. In the course of his somewhat chequered diplomatic career, he opened the diplomatic relations of the United States with Argentina and Chile and was the first United States Minister to Mexico.

It was while holding this last post (1825-1829) that Poinsett became interested in the Flor de Noche Buena and brought back cuttings for the gardens of his estate in Charleston. A Scottish nurseryman named Robert Buist persuaded Poinsett to sell him a few cuttings. Buist classified the plant as a member of the spurge family and called it Euphorbia poinsettia. The botanical name has since been changed to Euphorbia pulcherrima (the most beautiful), but to the layman it is still poinsettia.

Despite the general belief to the contrary, the showy part of the plant is not the flower at all, but the modified leaves or bracts which turn from green to scarlet. The real flowers-a cluster of tiny yellow blossoms grow unnoticed in the center of the bracts. In its native habitat in Mexico and Central America and in the many parts of the Americas where it can be cultivated outdoors all year round the poinsettia grows very tall, sometimes attaining a height of fifteen feet or more. In the years since Poinsett brought home the first cuttings, growers have developed larger and finer plants, more and more brilliant and long-lasting. White and pink varieties have been produced, but the original red has retained top billing.

In caring for your poinsettias this Christmas season, remember that they like a warm moist atmosphere and damp, sandy soil. To preserve the handsome state in which they come from the florist's as long as possible, give them plenty of light and water and keep them in a temperature of at least 70°. After they are through blooming, put them just as they are in a dark part of the cellar for the winter months. In the spring they should be cut back to the hard wood, repotted, and placed outdoors. (The cuttings, which should be three to four inches long, may be placed in a sandy soil and later potted.) Then in mid-August or early September the plants should be cut back again and, if you live in a cold climate, brought inside. By Christmas time, they will offer the same flaming beauty that they gave you the year before.

Poinsett always urged his friends who traveled abroad to bring home new plants. "If one of these succeeds," he observed, the tourist "will be rewarded by a consciousness of having conferred lasting benefit upon his country." Surely none of us for whom the poinsettia has become a customary part of Christmas time can fail to be glad that he practiced what he preached.-M. G. R.