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& 
PTELEA. 
340 
PURSHIA. 
fade, and also all the dead or broken | 
branches; but this is a point of | 
culture which is very rarely pro- 
perly attended to. 
Pru'nus.—Rosdacee.—The Plum. 
Though the common Plum-tree 
ranks among fruit-trees, and as 
such is not entitled to a place in 
the present work, yet there are 
many species of Prunus which may 
e considered as some of our most 
ornamental shrubs. Among these 
are P. candicans, with woolly 
leaves and long clusters of white 
flowers; P. cocomilla, a native of | 
taly; P. maritima, with white 
flowers and dark-blue fruit; and P. 
divaricata, with white flowers and 
yellow fruit. "There are many other 
ornamental shrubs which are called 
Prunus in the nurseries, but which 
botanists now class in the genus 
Cr/rasus. Among these are the 
Mahaleb or Perfumed Cherry, form- 
erly called Pri:nus Mahaleb; and 
the Bird Cherry, which Linneus 
called Primus Padus. All the 
kinds of Prunus are quite hardy, 
and will grow in any common 
soil. 
Psi’ pr1um— Myrtacee.—The Gua- 
va. Tropical shrubs, which are 
generally grown in a stove in Eng- 
land, but one kind of which, Cat- 
tley’s Guava, will ripen fruit in a 
greenhouse. In the West Indies 
the fruit is used for making the well 
known Guava jelly. All the kinds 
should be grown in loam and peat, 
and they are all propagated by lay- 
ers. 
Psora‘LeEa. — Leguminosae. — 
Shrubby and herbaceous plants, of 
easy culture, some of which require 
a greenhouse in England. They 
grow freely in loam and peat, and 
are propagated by seeds or cuttings. 
Most of the species are natives of 
the Cape of Good Hope. 
Pre‘Lea. — Terebinthacee. — A- 
merican shrubs, quite hardy in Brit- 
ish gardens, and ornamental for the 
fine yellow which their leaves take 
in autumn. They will grow in any 
garden soil, and they are multiplied 
by cuttings and layers. 
Pre‘ris. — Filices. — Brake. A 
very ornamental kind of fern, For 
| the culture, see PoLypo‘pium. 
Putmona\rta.—- Boraginee.—-Her- 
baceous plants with rather orna- 
mental flowers, natives of Europe 
and America, which will grow in 
| almost any soil and situation. 
Pou'nica.—Granatiacee, or Myr- 
tacee.—The Pomegranate is a very 
handsome deciduous shrub or low 
tree, which, in the climate of Lon- 
don, thrives against a conservative 
wall, and produces fruit which at- 
tain their full size, though they but 
seldom ripen. It also grows in great 
luxuriance near Bath. The fruit, 
which is of a globular shape and 
retains the calyx, has been admired 
for its form from the earliest ages, 
and is one of the most conspicuous 
ornaments directed to be used in the 
construction of Solomon’s temple. 
There is a double-flowered variety, 
which, during the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, was the most 
favourite plant im Continental. and 
British orangeries next to the Or- 
ange and the Lemon ; and there is 
also a dwarf double-flowered varie- 
ty, which, when kept in a green- 
house, produces its fine vermilion 
flowers from August to November. 
The plant requires a dry loamy soil, 
a south wall, and an airy situation ; 
and care should be taken in pruning 
it not to cut out the s lateral 
twigs or spurs, on whi ne the 
lossoms are produced, which should 
be left projecting from the wall. It 
strikes root freely from ripened cut- 
tings and layers, and the yellow 
and the white-flowered varieties are . 
sometimes grafted on the common 
kind. 
Pu'rsuta. — Rosdcea. — A little 
North American shrub, with small 
yellow flowers, which is quite hardy, 
