176 



B L I 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL ; 



B L I 



would be subject to scorch up the tender blossoms. 2. An- 

 other cause of blights in the spring is, sharp hoary frosts, 

 which are often succeeded by hot-sunshine in the day time : 

 this is the most sudden and certain destroyer of fruits that is 

 known ; for the cold of the night starves the tender parts of 

 the blossoms, and the sun rising hot upon the walls before 

 the moisture is dried from the blossoms, (which being in 

 small globules, collects the rays of the sun,) a scalding heat 

 Is thereby acquired, which scorches the tender flowers, and 

 other parts of plants. The method to prevent this mischief 

 is, to cover the walls carefully with mats, canvass, or reeds, 

 fastened so as not to be disturbed by the wind, and suffered 

 to remain on during the night, bnt taken off every day when 

 the weather permits. Although this method is thought by 

 some to be of little service, (and may be really prejudicial, if 

 the trees be too long covered, or incautiously exposed,) yet 

 when this covering is conducted properly, it frequently 

 proves a great protection to fruit-trees ; and if the covering 

 be fixed near the upper part of a wall, and be fastened to 

 pulleys, so as to be drawn up or let down occasionally, the 

 operation will be easy, and the success will sufficiently repay 

 the trouble. 3. But there is another sort of blight that some- 

 times happens later in the spring, namely, in April or May, 

 which is often very destructive to orchards and open planta- 

 tions ; against which we know not any remedy. This is called 

 a fire-blast, which in a few hours has not only destroyed the 

 fruit and leaves, but many times parts of trees, and sometimes 

 entire trees, have been killed by it. This is supposed to 

 be effected by volumes of transparent flying vapours, which 

 among the many forms they revolve into, may sometimes 

 approach so near to a hemisphere or hemicylinder, either 

 in the upper or lower surfaces, as thereby to make the beams 

 of the sun converge enough to scorch the plants or trees they 

 fall upon, in proportion to the greater or less convergency of 

 the sun's rays. Against this enemy there is no guard, nor 

 any remedy to core it : but as this more frequently happens 

 in close plantations, where the stagnating vapours from the 

 earth, and the plentiful perspirations from the trees, are pent 

 in for want of a free air to dissipate and dispel them, (which 

 are often observed in still weather to ascend in so plentiful a 

 manner as to be seen with the naked eye, but especially with 

 reflecting telescopes, so as to make a clear and distinct ob- 

 ject become dim and tremulous,) than in those which are 

 planted at a greater distance, or are not surrounded with 

 hills or woods ; this directs us in the first planting of kitchen- 

 gardens and orchards, that we should allow a greater distance 

 between the trees, and make choice of clear healthy situa- 

 tions, that the air may freely pass between the trees, to dissi- 

 pate those vapours before they are formed into such volumes; 

 whereby the circumambient air will be clear, and less subject 

 to injuries, as also the fruits which are produced in this 

 clearer air will be much better tasted than those that are 

 surrounded with a thick rancid air ; for as fruits are often in 

 a respiring state, they consequently, by imbibing a part of 

 these vapours, are rendered crude and ill-tasted, which is 

 often the case with a great part of our fruits in England. 

 4. But that blights are frequently no more than an inward 

 weakness or distemper in trees, will evidently appear, if we 

 consider how often it happens, that trees against the same 

 wall, exposed to the same aspect, and equally enjoying the 

 advantages of sun and air, with every other circumstance 

 which might render them equally healthy, yet very often are 

 observed to differ greatly in their strength and vigour ; ami 

 indeed we generally find the weak trees to be blighted, 

 when the vigorous ones in the same situation shall escape very 

 well ; which must therefore, in a great measure, be ascribed 



to their healthy constitution. This weakness, therefore, ia 

 trees, must proceed either from the want of a sufficient supply 

 of nourishment to maintain them in perfect vigour, or from 

 some ill qualities in the soil where they grow ; or perhaps 

 : rom some bad qualities in the stock, or inbred distemper of 

 the buds or scions, which they had imbibed from their 

 mother-tree, or from mismanagement in the pruning, &c.all 

 which are productive of distempers in trees, and of which 

 they are with difficulty cured. Now if this is occasioned by 

 a weakness in the tree, we should endeavour to trace out the 

 true cause : first, whether it has been occasioned by ill 

 management in the pruning, which is too often the case ; for 

 low common is it to observe peach-trees trained up to the 

 'ull length of their branches every year, so as to be carried 

 :o the top of the wall in a few years after planting, when at 

 ;he same time the shoots for bearing have been so weak, as 

 scarcely to have strength to produce their flowers ; but thi = 

 jeing the utmost of their vigour, the blossoms fall off, and 

 many times the branches decay, either the greatest part of 

 their length, or quite down to the place where they were 

 produced ; and this, whenever it happens to be the case, is 

 ascribed to a blight. Others there are, who suffer their 

 trees to grow just as they are naturally disposed, during the 

 summer season.without stopping shoots,or disburdening their 

 trees of luxuriant branches ; by which means two, three, or 

 four shoots shall exhaust the greatest part of the nourishment 

 of the trees all the summer ; which shoots, at the winter 

 pruning, are entirely cut out ; so that the strength of the tree 

 was employed only in nourishing useless branches, while the 

 fruit-branches are thereby rendered so weak as not to be 

 able to preserve themselves. (See Amygdalus.) But slwuld 

 the weakness of the tree proceed from an inbred distemper, 

 it is the better way to remove the tree at first, and, after 

 renewing the earth, plant a new one in its place. Orif your 

 soil be a hot burning gravel or sand, in which your ptach- 

 trees are planted, you will generally find this to be the 

 case, after their roots have got beyond the earth of your 

 borders ; for which reason it is much more adviseable to dig 

 them up and plant Grapes, Figs, Apricots, or any other sort 

 of fruit which may do well in such a soil, rather than to be 

 annually disappointed of your hopes ; for by a variety of 

 experiments, it has been found that Apricots attract and 

 imbibe moisture with a much greater force than Peaches and 

 Nectarines, and consequently are better able to extract the 

 nutritive particles from the earth,than the others which require 

 to be planted in a generous soil, capable of affording them a 

 sufficiency of nourishment without much difficulty : and it is 

 in such places we often see Peaches do wonders, especially if 

 assisted by art ; but as for the Vine and Fig-tree, they perspire 

 very slowly, and are very often in an imbibing state, so that 

 a great part of that fine racy flavour, with which their fruits 

 abound when planted in a dry soil, is probably owing to those 

 refined aerial particles, which are collected when in a state 

 of respiration ; and therefore as these trees delight not in 

 drawing much watery nourishment from the earth, so they 

 will better succeed in such a soil, than in one that is more 

 generous : we should therefore always endeavour to suit the 

 particular sorts of fruits to the nature of our soil, and not 

 pretend to have all sorts of good fruit in the same ground. 



lilitum; a genus of the class Monamlria, order Digynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Cala : perianth three-parted, 

 spreading, pemanent ; divisions ovate, equal, two more 

 gaping than the other. Corolla : none. Stamina .- filaments 

 setaceous, longer than the calix, within the middle division, 

 erect; anthereetwin. Pittil: gernaenovate, acuminate; styles 

 two, erect, gaping, the length of the stamen; stigmas simple. 



