CHAP. XLIXx. MYRTA‘CER. MY’RYEXR. 963 
to the tree at Beddington, which was of the Spanish broad-leaved, or orange- 
leaved, variety, and which Miller and Bradley report, in 1724, to have been 
above 18 ft. high, and to have spread about 45 ft. This tree, however, must 
have been of more than the age assigned to it by Evelyn; and is supposed to 
have been killed by the severe frost of 1739-40, when it was 160 years old. 
Johnson, in his edition of Gerard, states that the broad-leaved and narrow- 
leaved varieties were, in 1633, “nourished in the garden of Mistress Tuggie, 
in Westminster.” (Mart. Mill.) 
Varieties, The following forms, or varieties, of myrtle, the first of which may be considered as 
the species, are given in Don’s Miller, ii. p. 834. :— 
§ i. Melanocérpa Dec., with black Fruit. 
The varieties comprised in this group are all frequent in the south of Europe, where there are 
subvarieties belonging to this division with double flowers and variegated leaves. 
# M.c. 1 romana Dec. Prod., 3. p. 239.; the common broad-leaved, or Roman, Myrtle, with 
ovate leaves, and long pedicels. This kind is sometimes called the flowering myrtle, because it 
flowers more freely in England than any other variety. 
# M. c. 2 tarentina Mill. Icon., t. 184 f. 1.; the Tarentum, or Box-leaved Myrtle. — Leaves small 
and ovate. Flowers small, and opening late in the autumn. Berries round. 
 M. c. 3 itdlica Mill. Dict.,:the Italian, or upright, Myrtle, has the leaves ovate-lanceolate and 
the branches erect. 
# M.c. 4 be'tica Mill. Dict., Blackw., t. 114. ; the Andalusian, or Orange-leaved, Myrtle, has 
the leaves lanceolate and acuminate. 
M. c. 5 lusitinica Lin. Sp.; M. acdta Mill. Dict., Clus. Hist., 1. p. 66. fig. 1.; the Portugal 
Myrtle. The Nutmeg Myrtle appears to be only a subvariety of this. 
# M.c. 6 bélgica Mill. Dict., the broad-leaved Dutch Myrtle, has the leaves lanceolate, acumi- 
nated, crowded together, and of a dark green. The double-flowered Myrtle appears to be a sub 
variety. 
# M. c.7 mucronata L.; M. minima Mill. ; the Rosemary, or Thyme-leaved, Myrtle ; has the 
leaves linear-lanceolate, acuminated. 
§ ii, Leucocarpa Dec. Fruit white. 
# M. c. 8 leucocirpa Dec., the white-berried Myrtle. —This variety is a native of Greece and the 
Balearic Islands. The fruit is rather large, and edible, with a grateful taste and smell. 
§ iii. Garden Varieties. 
The above varieties are constant ; but there are many varictiesin gardens which are more va- 
riable : the following are the names of most of these :— 
1. Gold-striped broad-leaved Myrtle. 
2. Broad-leaved Jews’ Myrtle. This variety has its leaves frequently in threes, on which account 
it is said to be in esteem among the Jews in their religious ceremonies. 
3. Gold-striped Orange-leaved Myrtle. 
Silver-striped Italian Myrtle. 
. Striped-leaved Myrtle. 
. Silver-striped Rosemary-leaved Myrtle. 
Silver-striped Nutmeg Myrtle. 
Cock’s-comb, or Bird’s-nest Myrtle. 
. Spotted-leaved Myrtle. 
Propagation, Culture, §c. All the varieties are readily propagated by cuttings; and those which 
ripen their fruit, such as the common broad-leaved myrtle, come up in abundance from seeds. Cut- 
tings may either be made of the ripe wood, or of that which is in a growing state; the latter root 
soonest, but they require most care, and success will be most certain when they are planted in sand, 
and covered with a bell-glass. The finer varieties of myrtle might be grafted on the common and 
hardier sorts ; and perhaps something might be gained in rendering the Australian Myrtacee more 
hardy, by grafting them on the common myrtle. Perhaps, also, something might be done in the 
way of cross-fecundation between Myrtus, Psidium, Melaleuca, &c. 
Statistics. In the environs of London, the broad and narrow-leaved myrtles stand out, in dry 
warm situations, as bushes; sometimes having the extremities of the shoots killed down by frost; but 
more frequently by the direct influence of the sun after a frosty night, accompanied with snow and 
sleet. After such nights, the plants should either be watered overhead with water, to thaw the 
frost ; or covered with a mat, to prevent them from thawing suddenly by the sun’s rays. The safest 
mode in such weather is, to cover the plant with mats at night ; because, though frost will not kill it, 
yet it always injures the foliage. Both double and single varieties of the common myrtle cover large 
spaces of a wall in the Horticultur:1 Society’s Garden ; and there are many houses and gardens in 
the neighbourhood of London that can exhibit trained plants from 10 ft. to 20 ft. high, and nearly as 
wide. At Cobham Hall, in Kent, there are several trees against the house 30 ft. high. On the 
Sussex coast, about Worthing, there are some very fine plants against houses. In the Isle of Wight, 
and in Devonshire, the myrtle forms hedges to gardens, and, in shrubberies, grows as large as the 
arbutus does about London, At the Willows, near Swansea, in Glamorganshire, there were, in 1828, 
two myrtles 15 ft. high, as standards in the open ground, the branches of the largest of which covered 
a space 90 ft. in circumference. (See Gard. Mag., xi. p. 360.) In Scotland, in East Lothian, more 
especially at Biel, the myrtle grows against a wall with very little protection. In Ireland, in the 
Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dublin, all the varieties, except the orange-leaved, stood out 
against a wall with a southern aspect ; and at Youghall, near Cork, there is a plant in the open gar- 
den 20 ft. high, which has never had any protection. The myrtle will not stand out against a wall, in 
the neighbourhood of Paris, without a good deal more protection than it requires about London ; 
but, about Toulon and Nice, it grows wild in abundance; and in gardens it not only forms hedges, 
but is sometimes trained as a tree with a clear stem. This, however, is no improvement to it; for, as 
the head is thickly crowded with small branches, which only bear leaves at their extremities, it pre- 
sents, when the eye is beneath it, a miserable appearance, looking, as is observed in the Nouveau 
Du Hamel, more like a magpie’s nest, or a dead bush placed on a pole, than a living tree. 
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