LAV 



LAV 



plant, with an upright branching woolly stalk 

 two feet high : the leaves hoary, opposite, cut 

 into many divisions to the midrib : these seg- 

 ments are again divided on their borders towards 

 the top into three blunt ones, so that they end 

 in many points : the peduncle is continued from 

 the end of the branch, is naked, and about six 

 fnches long, quadrangular, and terminated by a 

 close spike of flowers about one inch long : the 

 rows of flowers are twisted spirally. There are 

 commonly two small spikes below this, and about 

 an inch from it : the corolla varies from blue to 

 white. Tt is a native of Spain. 



There is a variety which rises with an upright, 

 branching, square stalk, four feet high : the 

 leaves longer, and cut into narrower segments 

 than the Spanish plant : they are of a lighter 

 green, and almost smooth : the naked flower- 

 stalk is also much longer, and terminated with 

 a cluster of spikes of blue flowers : at two or 

 three inches below these are two small spikes, 

 one on each side: the flowers are smaller than 

 those of the first sort. It is a native of the Ca- 

 nary Islands. 



Culture. — All the sorts are readily increased, 

 by planting slips or cuttings of their young shoots 

 in the spring. 



In the first two sorts, a quantity of slips or 

 cuttings should be taken off in the early spring, 

 as March or April, from three or four to six 

 inches long, stripping off the under-leaves, then 

 planting them in a shady border, four inches 

 asunder, giving a good watering, and repealing 

 it occasionally in dry weather. When the plants 

 are well rooted in summer, they should be trans- 

 planted into the place were they are lo grow, 

 early in autumn, as September or October, with 

 balls of earth about their roots. 



When the first sort is intended to produce 

 flowers for economical purposes, it should 

 be planted in rows, two or three feet asunder, 

 and about the same distance in the rows, or in a 

 single row one or two feet asunder, along the 

 edge or divisions of garden-grounds, in a sort 

 of edging or dwarf hedge ; in either of which 

 modes the plants grow freely, continuing in root, 

 stem and branches several years, and produce 

 abundance of spikes of flowers annually forgather- 

 ing in the hitter end of summer: the culture 

 afterwards is principally to cut down any re- 

 maining decayed flower-stalks in autumn, prun- 

 ing or cutting away any disorderly out-growing 

 branches at top and sides, and digging the 

 ground occasionally in spring or autumn along 

 the rows of plants. 



The second sort may also often be raised from 

 seeds, which should be sown in a bed of light 

 earth in the early spring, and raked in evenly 



with a light hand. The plants rise in about a 

 month, when, if there be dry weather, water 

 should he given ; and after they are three 

 inches high, they should be pricked out in beds, 

 half a foot apart, watering them as thev require, 

 until fresh rooted. They should stand here till 

 the following spring, and then be thinned out, 

 and planted where they are to remain. 



The two first sorts are useful for their fine 

 spikes of flowers, as well as ornamental in as- 

 semblage with other shrubby plants, in the 

 borders and clumps of pleasure-grounds ; and 

 the two last sorts in green-house collections 

 with other potted plants. 



Those designed for shrubberies or other similar 

 places, being previously raised to some tolerable 

 bushy growth, and a foot high or more, should 

 be planted either in the early autumn, or in the 

 spring, disposing them singly at proper distances 

 in the fronts. 



The third and fourth sorts may be increased 

 by slips and cuttings, planted in pots in the early 

 spring months, and placed under frames, due wa- 

 ter and shade from the mid-day sun being given 

 till they are rooted ; and when a lit tie advanced in 

 growth, transplanted into separate small pots, and 

 managed as other green-house exotic plants. 



LAVATfc'.RA, a genus containing plants of 

 the herbaceous shrubby perennial kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Monadtlphia 

 Potyandriq, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Columniferce. 



The characters arc : that the calyx is a double 

 perianthium : exterior one-leafed, trifid, obtuse, 

 short, permanent: interior one-leafed, half five- 

 cleft, more acute, more erect, permanent : the 

 corolla has five obcordate flat petals, spreading, 

 affixed below to the tube of the stamens : the 

 stamina have numerous filaments, coalescing 

 below into a tube; loose above (gaping at the 

 tip and surface of the tube) : anthers reniform : 

 the pistillum is an orbicular germ : style cylin- 

 dric, short: stigmas several (seven to fourteen), 

 bristly, length of the style: the pericarpium is 

 an orbicular capsule, composed of as many cells 

 as there are stigmas, bivalve, and articulated in 

 a whorl round the columnar receptacle, at length 

 falling off: the seeds solitary and reniform. 



The species cultivated are : 1 . L. Cretica, 

 Cretan Lavatera; 2. L. irimestris, Common 

 Annual Lavatera; 3. L. Tkuringiaca, Great- 

 flowered Lavatera ; 4. L. arlbrea, 'free Lavatera, 

 or Mallow ; 5. L. OU'w, Downy-leaved Lava- 

 tera ; 0. L. triloba, Three-lobed Lavatera; 7. 

 L. Lusitanica, Portuguese Lavatera. 



The first lias an annual fibrous root of thick 

 fibres, a foot in length, with innumerable other 

 capillary Litres : the stem round, rugged, Live 



