O E N 



OFF 



improperly named frutieosa : the flowers which 

 arc large and showy, though they open in the 

 evening, remain expanded during most of the 

 ensuing day : the flower-buds, germ, and stalk, 

 arc enlivened by a richness of colour which 

 contributes to render this species one or' the 

 most ornamental and desirable. It is a native 

 of Virginia. 



The fifth has also a perennial fibrous root : 

 the lower leaves ovate, small, close to the 

 ground : the stalk slender, near a foot high : 

 the leaves smaller, light green, sessile, ending 

 in blunt points ; the Bowers small, bright yel- 

 low : it sends up many flowering-Stems, pro- 

 ducing blossoms from April to July, opening in 

 the morning as well as evening. It is a native 

 of North America. 



Culture. — These plants are all capable of being 

 raised from seeds, and some of them by parting 

 the roots and cuttings. 



The seed shotild'be sown cither in the autumn 

 or early spring, in the first and third sorts, upon 

 a bed or border in the open ground, thinning and 

 watering the plants properly, and keeping them 

 free from weeds till the following autumn, when 

 they may be removed with balls of earth about 

 their roots to the places where they are to re- 

 main. Or some may be set out at the time of 

 thinning in nursery-rows, six inches apart. 



They also rise without trouble from the scat- 

 tering of the seeds. 



In the second sort, the seed'should be put in- 

 to the ground in the open borders or other parts, 

 about the latter end of March, where the plants 

 are to remain. One plant is sufficient in a place, 

 which should have a stick set to support its 

 branches when they have advanced a little. 



The fourth sort may be readily increased by 

 sowing the seeds as above, and by parting the 

 roots and cuttings of the young branches, plant- 

 ing them out in the open borders or other places 

 where they are to grow in the autumn, for the 

 first method, and the spring for the latter, giving 

 water as there may be occasion. 



In the fifth sort, the seeds should be sown in 

 pots of light earth in the autumn, plunging them 

 in a hot-bed frame during the winter. When 

 tbe plants have attained proper growth in the 

 spring, they should be removed into separate 

 pots, which should he protected in the following 

 winter under a garden frame. And some may 

 be planted out in the open ground, where they 

 often succeed in mild winti 



The parted roots should be planted out in the 

 spring, either in pots or the open ground. 



The plants raised from seed are in genera! the 

 best, as flowering more strongly. 



By cutting down the stems of the plants in 

 the first year of their (lowering before they per- 

 fect their seeds, the plants ma\ sometimes be 

 rendered more durable. 



Tbe first two soiN, as has beenseen, are bien- 

 nial, and the others perennial j the lormer should 

 of course be raised annually. 



They are all proper for affording ornament and 

 variety, either in the open ground or among 

 other potted plants. The second and third sons 

 are often considered as grcccn-house plants, but 

 they succeed well in the open ground. 



OFF-SET, a sort of sucker or small young 

 plant, issuing from the sides of the main root 

 of different sorts of perennial plants, whether 

 bulbous-, tuberous-, or fibrous-rooted, by means 

 of which they are often readily increased. 



The method of increasing by Off-sets is appli- 

 cable in general for all sorts of bulbous- and 

 tuberous-rooted perennial plants, such as tulips, 

 anemones, &c. in which there are small bulb-, 

 or tubers, that on being planted out afford 

 plants of exactly the same kind as those from 

 which they are taken, and which, after having 

 one or two years' growth, ilower, proauce 

 seed, and furnish a supply of Off-sets in their 

 turn. 



In the vast tribe of fibrous-rooted perennial 

 plants, most sorts afford a progeny of this sort, 

 for propagating and perpetuating their respective 

 species and varieties, both in the flowery kind, 

 ike, ar.d in some esculents, but more consider- 

 ably in the former ; bv which numerous sorts of 

 the most beautiful flowering perennials are mul- 

 tiplied. 



Oif-sets arc therefore not only an expeditious 

 and certain method of propagation, but by which 

 there is a certainty of having the desired sorts 

 continued, whether species or particular varieties. 



They have this advantage over seedlings, that 

 the plants of the flowery kind often flower in 

 one year; whereas seedling plants of the bulb- 

 ous kinds are frequently four, five, and some- 

 times six or seven years before they flower in 

 perfection. By seedlings new varieties are prin- 

 cipally gained, the roots of which furnishing 

 Off-sets by which they arc increased. 



The separating Oil-sets may be performed in 

 some sorts every year, in others once in two or 

 three years, according to the sorts, and the in- 

 of Off-sets afforded by the main roots. 



The proper seasons lor separating or taking 

 them off, in the bulbous- and many tuberous- 

 rooted plants, are chiefly summer and autumn, 

 when they have done 'dueling, and the leaves 

 are decayed, as at that period the roots of these 

 sorts, having had their full growth, assume aa 



