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WITH ITS brilliant red bracts and contrasting green leaves, the poinsettia has become as important a part of the Christmas holidays as the Christmas tree. Yet it is only in this century that the plant as we know it was developed. The poinsettia was cultivated by the Aztecs in Mexico before Christianity was brought to the Western Hemisphere. The plant, native to the area near present day Taxco was called Cuetlaxochitl by the Indians. It was highly prized by the Aztec kings because of its brilliant color. The Indians also made a dye from the bracts, as well as a medicine from the white sap.
During the seventeenth century, Franciscan priests living in Taxco began to use the flower for a nativity procession. In 1825, Joel Robert Poinsett, the first United States Ambassador to Mexico, had occasion to visit Taxco. Poinsett, being also a botanist,
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