This is another frequent Christmas buy, the scarlet poinsetta, a beautiful plant much mis-spelt, especially by me.
This card shows it in the wild, in Mexico or South America, and reveals that “sepals, petals and other parts of flowers are really leaves modified or differentiated to serve a special purpose – that of attracting insects.” and that “the upper leaves are brilliantly coloured for … attracting insects to the flowers which are small and insignificant.”
The poinsetta appears on many Christmas cards but not so many cigarette cards. The only other we have seen is by American Tobacco, a silk, issued in 1910, and the title is “Poinsettia”, not so sure it is one, though hybridisation could have meant that this was the original plant and it is just altered to our eyes. Does anyone know any other cards featuring it? It seems a shame if this plant evolved in such a beautiful way in order to attract insects, but not to grace cigarette and trade card collections... Perhaps for National Poinsettia Day, which is tomorrow, Sunday, 12th of December, we can all have a hunt.
This set was only issued in mainland UK and it is a very attractive set, however it does not seem to turn up in many collections. I believe the reason for this is that the title does not explain itself very well.