254 



■inches broad, and ten or eleven inches long, deeply serrate, smaHcr 

 towards the top: the branches many, long, from bolton) to top: the 

 tlowers terminating, small; florets in the ray twelve or thirteen.. 

 These seldom blow before October, and in some seasons they do not 

 expand at all. The seeds never ripen here: the roots creeping, with 

 many tubers clustered together, thirty, forty, or fifty from one plant, 

 measuring u peck, or in good soils half a bushel; they are, like the 

 common potatoc, red on the outside, and very irregular in their 

 shape, the size of a man's fist in the largest. It is a native of Brazil. 

 ■ . Culiiire. — All these flowery plants are easily increased, the two 

 first sorts by seeds, and the others by dividing their roots. -.; , _,, .?, 

 ' ,. The seeds should be sown in the early spring months, in the 

 places where the plants are to grow and flower, in patches of three 

 or four seeds together. When the plants are up they may be thinned 

 out to one or two of the best. 



They may bo had more Ibrward by sowing them on a moderate 

 hot-bed, under glasses, and afterwards transplanting them to the 

 situations where they are to grow. 



The divided roots may be planted out in the places where they 

 are to remain, either in the autumn or the early spring months. 



These plants produce a fine ornamental eflect in the back parts 

 of the borders, clumps, and other parts of pleasure-grounds, and by 

 sowing at ditferent times may be kept in flower for a considerable 

 length of time. •, ; 



In the ])erennial sorts the decayed stems should be cleared away 

 when they begin to decline. They continue long. 



The last, or tuberous-rooted sort, is increased by planting the 

 smaller roots, or the larger ones cut in pieces, a bud being preserved 

 to each, cither in the spring or autumn, allowing a good distance, as 

 the roots multiply greatly. In the autumn following, when the stems 

 decay, the roots may be taken up for use. 



AVhen cultivated for a crop, the sets should be planted in an 

 open part of the kitchen-garden, in rows three feet or more asunder, 

 and at least eighteen inches distant from each other, to the depth of 



