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II. HEBBS. Plants used for their Fragrance, for Medicinal Purposes, 

 or as Poisons for Vermin. 



Odoraceous herbs, syn. fragrant herbs, plants used in domestic dis- 

 tillation ; comprehending lavender, rosemary, peppermint, and others. 



Medicaceous herbs, syn. medicinal herbs, plants used in domestic 

 medicine ; comprehending chamomile, hyssop, wormwood, horehound, 

 balm, rue, liquorice, blessed thistle, blue melilot, and some others. 



Toxicaceous herbs, plants used in gardens for subduing or destroying 

 insects ; comprehending the tobacco, white hellebore, foxglove, &c. 



Propagation and Seed-saving. The greater number of culinary 

 vegetables are annuals, or biennials, which are propagated by seeds, 

 but a few are perennials or shrubby, and these are increased by divi- 

 sion of the root, or by cuttings or layers. The seeds are for the most 

 part purchased annually from the seedsman, whose business it is to pro- 

 cure from all quarters the best kinds, and have them grown for him 

 by a particular class of cultivators known as seed-growers. The more 

 select varieties are frequently grown by private gardeners for their own 

 use ; but this can only be done to a limited extent, on account of the 

 liability of varieties of the same species or race, as of different kinds of 

 cabbage or turnip, to become hybridized by proximity, and by their 

 flowering at the same time. The care and labour, also, which are 

 required for saving seeds on a small scale, are so disproportionate to the 

 produce, that it would render the seeds much more expensive than if they 

 were purchased, and hence the practice is seldom resorted to, except to 

 preserve a valuable variety, and to grow a large quantity of only one 

 or two kinds for the sake of selling to, or exchanging with, the seeds- 

 man, for small quantities of the different kinds which may be wanted. 



The selection of varieties is an important part of the gardener's 

 care, and one of more difficulty than in the case of fruit trees ; be- 

 cause in culinary vegetables the kinds are continually changing, from 

 the influence of soil, culture, neglect, fashion, &c. ; so that a sort of 

 pea, onion, broccoli, or cabbage, which is esteemed the best at one 

 time, may in the course of a few years be almost forgotten. The 

 number of synonymes of varieties is also very great, and though the 

 Horticultural Society has at various times done good service by test- 

 ing and proving them, yet from the frequent introduction of new 

 sorts, the task would require to be undertaken yearly. We shall give a 

 selection of the best varieties in culture at the present time, recom- 

 mending the amateur and young gardener to deal only with the most 

 respectable seedsmen, and to be guided by them in cases where he 

 cannot profit from the information contained in books. 



Some crops require to be sown where they are to remain, and 

 others do best transplanted. Such plants as the turnip, with the excep- 

 tion of the Swedish, will not produce a crop when transplanted ; and 

 others, such as the beet and spinach,succeed but indifferently ; while for 

 the pea and bean, the labour, except in the case of the earliest crops, 

 would be disproportionately great to the advantage gained. The carrot 



