PAR 



PAR 



royal, with innumerable other sorts; which 

 from one small siip or ofT-sci of the root, ohen 

 in a season or two multiply into a large cluster 

 of such off-sets; and these clusters of roots be- 

 ine; parted into several sepai with root- 



libies at their bottom, and one or more buds at 

 top, each commences a distinct plant ; m) that, 

 hv parting the roots in this way. one plant may 

 instaniK be multiplied into many, each of which 

 becomes alike m growth and general habit to 

 the original, and all flower the ensuing season in 

 their due course; and in their turns detach from 

 their sides all around, a due supply of off-sets tor 

 further propagation. 



The best general season for Parting Roots is in 

 the latter end of summer or autumn, after they 

 have done flowering, and the stalks are decayed ; 

 which is in August, and the two following 

 months; in which, when the detached off-sets 

 are planted directly, thev will take good root 

 before winter. But in many hardy sorts it may 

 be performed almost any time, in open weather, 

 from September till March; and some of the 

 tender kinds succeed best in spring. In these 

 cases it should, however, be done before they 

 l>egin to shoot forth their stalks or advance con- 

 siderably in their spring shoots. 



In performing the business, when anv plant 

 designed to be increased lias multiplied by its 

 roots into a cluster of off-sets, the whole may 

 either be taken up entirely, and the root parted 

 into as many slips as are furnished with fibres, 

 8cc, or a quantity of slips may be detached 

 from the sides all around as the parent plant 

 stands in the ground : in either method, the 

 work may in many sorts be effected easily with 

 the hand ; and in others by the assistance of a 

 knife, &c. And when it i< wanted to make as 

 great an increase as possible, the root mav be 

 parted into as many slips as may be convenient, 

 provided each is furnished with some fibre or 

 root-part, and crowned with one or more buds 

 or eyes for forming shoots at top. But in the 

 flowery tribe, when the detached off-sets arc 

 wanted for flattering as strong as possible the 

 ensuing season, thev should not be parted too 

 small, but into middling-sized slips, where prac- 

 ticable; which beinc planted in the proper 

 places will flower in Tolerable perfection in the 

 following season. The slips should generally 

 be planted directly by dibble ; the very small 

 ones in nursery-beds to stand till next autumn, 

 to acquire strength: then transplanted with balls 

 into the places where thev arc to remain; but the 

 larger ones at once where they arc to grow. 



This method may be practised in many sorts 

 annually, as numbers of the herbaceous peren- 

 nial.- multiply in oir into large bunches. 



PARSLEY. See Annv. 



PARSNEP, See Pastinaca. 

 PARTHENIUM, a genus containing plants 



of the annual and perennial KimJ -. 



It belongs to the class and order Man 

 Pi -ntandrla, and ranks in the natural order of 

 tfucamentaceee. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a com- 

 mon quite simple pcrianthium, five-!) 

 spreading : leaflets roundish, flat, equal : the 

 corolla compound convex: corollets herma- 

 phrodite many in the disk : females five in the 

 ray, scarcely surpassing the others : proper of 

 the hermaphrodites onc-petalled, tubular, erect, 

 with the mouth five-cleft, the length of the 

 calvx : of the females one-pelalled, tubular, h- 

 gulate, oblique, blunt, roundish, tlie same length 

 with the other: the stamina in the hermaphro- 

 dites — filaments five, capillary, the length ol 

 the corollet: anthers as main', tmckish, scarcely 

 cohering : the pisUHum of the hermaphrodite — 

 germ below the proper receptacle, scarcely ob- 

 servable : style capillary, generally shorter than 

 the stamens : stigma none: of the female, germ 

 inferior, turbinate-cordatc, compressed, large : 

 style filiform, the length of the corollet: stigma- 

 two, filiform, the length of the style, spreading 

 a little : there is no pericarpium : calvx un- 

 changed: seeds in the hermaphrodites abortive; 

 in the females solitary, turbinale-cordate, com- 

 pressed, naked: the receptacle scarcely anv, Hal : 

 chaffs separate the florets, so that each female 

 has two hermaphrodites behind. 



The species are: I, P. fhrsterophorus, C\i\- 

 leaved Parthenium, or Bastard Feverfew ; u). /'. 

 iniegrifblittm, Entire-leaved Parthenium. 



The first is an annual plant, growing wild in 

 great plenty in the island of Jamaica, where it is 

 called Wild Wormwood; and thrives very luxu- 

 riantly about all the settlements in the low lands. 

 It is observed to have much the same qualities 

 with Feverfew. It flowers here in July and 

 August. 



The second species is a perennial plant, which 

 dies to the ground every autumn, and shoots up 

 again the following spring. It rises three feet 

 and more, with thick, round, fleshy stems : the 

 leaves half embracing, hirsute, not hairy, some- 

 what paler underneath, with frequent oblique 

 veins or nerves : root-leaves large and long, on 

 keeled petioles: the flowers grow in a coivmb 

 at the ends of the stem and branches: the I 

 are snow -white above, hke those of Gnapha- 

 lium, whitish green below, and villose at 

 It is a native of Virginia, flowering in July, 

 but seldom produces g ds in" tin? cli- 



mate. 



Culture. — The first sort mav be increased by 



8 B a 



