M Y R 



M Y R 



peduncles : the corolla is pale, rugged with tes- 

 taceous dots; ciliate, closed: the stamens op- 

 posite: to, not alternate with, the segments of 

 the corolla: the stigma is pencil-shaped: the 

 berry of the same form and shape with that of 

 UvaUrsi, and blue: the nucleus of the same 

 shape, globular, depressed a little. It is a native 

 of the Cape, flowering from March to May. 



Culture. — This plant may he increased by 

 sowing the seeds in spring on a hot-bed ; and 

 when 'the plants are fit to~transplant, planting 

 them out singly into small pots of good mould, 

 due shade a"nd water being given, and in 

 the autumn they may be removed into the 

 green-house for protection in winter. 



They may also be raised by planting cuttings 

 of the voung shoots in pots in summer, due shade 

 and water being given. They afterwards require 

 the management of other green-house plants. 



They afford variety among collections of this 

 sort of plants. 



MYRTLE. See Myrtus. 



MYRTLE, CANDLEBERRY. SeeMviticA. 



MYRTLE-LEAVED SUMACH. See Co- 



RIARIA. 



MYRTO-CISTUS. See Hypericum. 



MYRTUS, a genus furnishing plants of the 

 evergreen shrubby kind for the green-house and 

 stove. 



It belongs to the class and order Icosandria 

 Monogynia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 HesperidecB. 



The characters arc : that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianlhium, four- or five-cleft, bluntish, 

 superior, raised internally into a subvillose ring, 

 permanent: the corolla has four or five petals, 

 ovate, entire, large, inserted into the calyx : the 

 stamina have very many capillary filaments, the 

 length of the corolla, inserted into the calycine 

 ring : anthers roundish, small : the pistillum is 

 an inferior germ, two-celled or three-celled ; the 

 seeds fixed To the partition: style simple, filiform: 

 stigma blunt : the pericarpium is an oval berry, 

 umbilicated with the calyx, one-, two-, or three- 

 celled: the seeds few, kidney-form. 



The species cultivated arc: 1. M. communis, 

 Common Myrtle; 2. M. tomentosa, Woolly- 

 leaved Myrtle; 3. M. biflora, Two-flowered 

 Myrtle; 4. M. lucida, Shining Myrtle ; 5. M. 

 dioica, Dioecious American Myrtle ; G. M. 

 Zeylanka, Ceylon Myrtle ; 7- M- acris, Cut- 

 leaved Myrtle;' 8. M. eoriaeea, Sumach-leaved 

 Myrtle; 9. M. Pimenia, Pimento, Jamaica Pep- 

 per, or Allspice. 



The first is well known as an elegant ever- 

 green shrub, but just too lender to abide the 

 winter without some protection in ibis climate, 

 except in the most southern and western parts : 



the trunk is irregular, branching, covered with 

 a brown rough scaling bark : the leaves ovate or 

 ovate-lanceolate, entire, smooth on both sides, 

 dark-green, paler underneath, opposite and de- 

 cussated : the flowers come out singly from the 

 axils, and have a two-leaved involucre under 

 them. It is a native of Asia and the southern 

 parts of Europe, flowering in July and August. 



There are several varieties, the principal of 

 which are: 



The Common Broad cleaved or Roman Myrtle, 

 which grows to the height of eight or ten feet 

 in this climate, but much higher in Italy, where 

 it is the principal underwood of some of the 

 forests : the leaves are broader than most of the 

 other varieties, being an inch in breadth ; they 

 are an inch and half long, of a lucid green, ending 

 in acute points, and are subsessile or on very 

 short foot-stalks : the flowers are larger than 

 those of the other varieties, on pretty long slen- 

 der peduncles, from two to four at the same axil : 

 the berries ovate, and of a dark purple colour. 

 It is termed by some the Flowering Myrtle, be- 

 cause it flowers more freely here than the others, 

 and Roman Myrtle, because it abounds about 

 Rome. 



The Box-leaved Myrtle, which has the leaves 

 oval, small, sessile, of a lucid green, and ending 

 in obtuse points ; the branches weak, and fre- 

 quently hanging down when permitted to grow 

 without shortening ; the bark is grayish : the 

 flowers are small, and come late in the summer : 

 the berries small and round. 



The Common Italian Myrtle, which has ovate- 

 lanceolate leaves ending in acute points ; the 

 branches grow more erect than in either of the 

 preceding, as also the leaves, whence it is called 

 by the gardeners Upright Myrtle. The flowers 

 are not large, and the petals are marked with 

 purple at their points, whilst they remain closed : 

 the berries are small, oval, and of apurple colour. 

 There is a subvariety of this with white ber- 

 ries : and the Nutmeg Myrtle seems, according 

 to Miller, to be only a subvariety of it. 



The Orange-leaved, or what is sometimes 

 termed Bay-leaved Myrtle, which has a strong- 

 er stalk and branches, and rises to a greater 

 height : the leaves are ovate-lanceolate, in clus- 

 ters" round the branches, and of a dark green : 

 the flowers are of a middling size, and come out 

 sparingly from between the leaves : the berries 

 are oval, and smaller than those of the first va- 

 riety, but it is not so hardy as that. 



The Portugal Myrtle, which has the leaves 

 much smaller than those of the next, being less 

 than an inch long, and not more than half an 

 inch broad, lanceolate-ovate acute, of a dull 

 green, set pretty close on the branches : the 



