R U M 



R I! S 



spike-shaped racemes, nodding .md coming out 

 three or lour together on capillary pedicels from 

 a white sheatlilel : valves subcoi J ate, lari£e, 

 bright pose-colour, entire, without any grams. 

 It is a native or German*, 



This, which is called Round-]* sved Sorrel, i» a 

 more grateful acid than the first sort, and of 

 course preferred for kitchen me, in soups, Sec. 



The third has a large root, dividing into many 

 thick fibres, which run downwards ; the bark is 

 brown, but the ins de is yellow, with some red- 

 dish veins : the leaves are broad, lone, acute- 

 pointed, on petioles of a reddish colour : the 

 strins from tour to six feet high, dividing to- 

 wards the top into several erect branches, bay- 

 ing a few narrow leaves on them, and termi- 

 nated by spikes of large flowers, which appear 

 in June. Jt is a native of Italv. 



The fourth species has a fusiform root : the 

 stem is upright, branched, angular, leafy, 

 smooth; all the leaves petioled, smooth, veined, 

 somewhat curled about the edge : the root- 

 leaves verv large, cordate at the base : ra- 

 cemes terminating, spreading, almost leafless ; 

 w ith the flowers in alternate bundles, pedicelled, 

 nodding. 



The fifth species rises with a woody stalk ten 

 or twelve feet high, covered with a smooth 

 brown bark, and sending out many branches : 

 the leaves are smooth, roundish-heart-shaped, 

 two inches long, and an inch and half broad, al- 

 ternate upon pretty long footstalks : the flow- 

 ers come out in loose panicles towards the end 

 of the branches : are of an herbaceous colour, 

 and sometimes succeeded by triangular seeds 

 with smooth covers ; but the seeds rarely ripen 

 in this climate. It is a native of the Canary 

 Islands. 



Culture. — The first and second sorts and va- 

 rieties may be increased by seed and parting the 

 roots, but more particularly the first, as the lat- 

 ter may be very readily increased bv the roots. 

 The seeds should be sown in a bed or border in 

 the earlv spring, as March, raking it in evenly. 

 When the plants come up thev should be regu- 

 larly thinned, and when of some grow th, in the 

 summer, be planted out in row s on a bed or 

 border, about eight or nine inches apart in the 

 common sort, and in the other a foot or more, 

 watering them well ; when thev will be proper to 

 cut the latter end of the same rammer and in 

 the autumn, continuing for several years: but as 

 the seedling plants in the first kind mostly pro- 

 duce larger leaves than the older plants, fresh 

 supplies should be raised annually or v. try other 

 year. 



'I he parted roots may be planted out in the 

 1 



same season, or in autumn, in ro 



(riy*ng them ■ goo. I watering ; when thev 



grow readily, and furnish leaves in tDO latter end 

 of sum. i) r and in the autumn. 



The second 30«t is readily rawed in this wav. 

 They afterwards only require- to be kept clean, 

 and to have the seed Stems cut down in the sum- 

 mer, as '.veil as the rank leaves in the autumn, 

 that more full supplies of fresh leaves 11 

 afforded. 



The third and fourth sorts may be raised also 

 from seeds in the same way, and the forme' 

 from offsets of the root planted out in the au 

 tumnal season ; when thev grow very readily. 



The last sort is easily increased bv cuttings or 

 the young shoots in the spring and rammer 

 months, being planted in pots at the former 

 season, plunging lliein m a hot-bed; but in the 

 latter they succeed without artificial he-it, either 

 in pots or the natural ground, beine occasion- 

 ally shaded and watered; when they become well 

 rooted by the autunui. 



The third and fourth sorts afford variety in the 

 clumps and borders, and the last among the 

 green-house collections. 



RLSCUS, a genus containing plants of the 

 shrubby and under-shrubby evergreen kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Dioecia Si/n- 

 genesia, and ranks in the natural order of Sar- 

 meiitacece. 



The characters are : that in the male, the ca- 

 lyx is a six-leaved perianth, from erect-spread- 

 ing : leaflets ovate, convex, with the lateral 

 margin reflexed : the corolla has no petals, un- 

 less the alternate calyx-leaves be called so : nec- 

 tary central, ovate, the size of the calyx, in- 

 flated, erect, coloured, perforated at the top : 

 the stamina have no filaments: anthers three, 

 spreading, placed on the top of the nectary it- 

 self, united at the base — female: the calyx is a 

 perianth as in the male: tiie. corolla petals as in 

 the male : nectary as in the male : the pistillum 

 is an oblong-ovate germ, concealed within the 

 nectary: Style cylindric, the length of the nec- 

 tary : stigma obtuse, prominent beyond the 

 mouth of the nectary : the pericarpium is a glo- 

 bular, three-celled berry: the seeds mo, globular. 



The species cultivated are: 1. R. aculealus, 

 Prickly Butcher's Broom ; g. R. Hypoplujllum, 

 Broad-leaved Butcher's Broom ; .'>. /,. 7. 



■it, Doublc-Kaved Buteher'a Broom ; j. 

 K- "•• . Alexandrian Laurel; b. R. an- 



drogynus, Climbing Butcher's Broom. 



The tir-t has the roots thick, white, twining 



about each other, putting out frequent fibres like 



aragus, oblique, striking deep in 



the ground : the stem aiitl'rutieosc, tough, stiff, 



