272 



C E L 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



C E L 



ranths, great care should be taken in the choice of seed, for if 

 they be not carefully selected, the whole expense and trouble 

 of raising them will be lost : they must be sown on a hot-bed 

 which has been prepared a few days before, that the violent 

 heat may abate, about the beginning of March ; and if the 

 bed be in good temper, in about a fortnight's time the plants 

 will rise ; but as they are tender when they first appear, they 

 require great care for a few days, till they get strength ; first 

 in giving them a due proportion of air, to prevent their draw- 

 ing up weak, and next to keep them from too great moisture, 

 a small quantity of which will cause their tender stems to 

 rot : in sowing the seeds, care must be taken not to put 

 them too close, for when the plants come up in clusters, they 

 frequently spoil each other for want of room to grow; in 

 a fortnight or three weeks' time, they will be fit to remove, 

 when you must prepare another hot-bed, covered with good 

 light rich earth, about four inches thick ; which should be 

 made a few days, that it may have a proper temperature of 

 heat ; then raise up the young plants with your finger, so as 

 not to break off the tender roots, and prick them into the 

 new hot-bed about four inches' distance every way, giving 

 them a gentle watering, to settle the earth to their roots ; 

 but in doing this be very cautious not to bear the young 

 plants down to the ground by hasty watering. After the 

 plants are thus replanted, they must be screened from the 

 sun till they have taken fresh root ; but as there generally is 

 a great steam arising from the fermentation of the dung, 

 which condenses against the glasses, and dropping upon the 

 plants, very frequently destroys them ; the glasses should 

 be frequently turned in the day-time, whenever the weather 

 will permit ; but if the weather happen to prove bad, it will 

 greatly assist the plants to wipe off all the moisture two or 

 three times a day with a woollen cloth, to prevent its drop- 

 ping upon the plants : when your plants are firmly rooted 

 and begin to grow, you must observe to give them more 

 or less air every day, let the weather be cold or hot, to 

 prevent their drawing up too fast, which greatly weakens 

 their stems : in about a month or five weeks these plants will 

 have grown so as to meet ; therefore another hot-bed, of a 

 moderate temperature, should be prepared, and covered with 

 the same rich earth, about six inches thick, in which they 

 should be planted (observing to take them up with as much 

 earth about their roots as possible) at seven or eight inches' 

 distance everyway, giving them some water to settle the earth 

 about their roots, but taking care not to water them heavily, 

 so as to bear them down : they must be kept shaded in the 

 heat of the day, until they have again taken root, and should 

 be gently refreshed with water in proportion to the heat of 

 the weather, covering the glasses with mats every night, lest 

 the cold chill your beds, and stop the growth of the plants. 

 In the middle of May you must provide another hot-bed, 

 which should be covered with a deep frame, that your plants 

 may have room to grow : upon this hot-bed you must set as 

 many threepenny pots as can stand within the compass of 

 the frame ; these pots must be filled with good rich earth, 

 and the cavities between each pot filled up with any common 

 earth, to prevent the heat of the bed from evaporating, and 

 filling the frame with noxious steams ; then with a trowel take 

 up the plants, with as much earth as possible to the roots, 

 and place each plant in the middle of one of the pots, filling 

 the pot up with the earth before described, and settling it 

 close to the root of the plant by the hand ; then water them 

 gently as before, and shade them in the heat of the day from 

 the violence of the sun, by covering the glasses with mats ; 

 refresh them often with water, and give them a good quantity 

 of air in the day-time : in about three weeks more these 



plants will have grown to a considerable size and strength, 

 so that you must now raise the glasses very much in the day- 

 time ; and when the air is soft and the sun is clouded, draw 

 off the glasses, and expose them to the open air, and repeat 

 it as often as the weather will permit, which will harden 

 them by degrees, and prepare them to be removed abroad 

 into the plants where they are to remain the whole season ; 

 but it is not advisable to set these plants out till some time in 

 July, observing to do it when the air is perfectly soft, and, 

 if possible, in a gentle shower of rain. Let them be at first 

 set near the shelter of a hedge for two or three days, where 

 they may be screened from the violence of the sun and strong 

 winds, to which they must be inured by degrees : these 

 plants perspire very freely when they have grown to a good 

 stature, and must be refreshed every day with water, if the 

 weather prove hot and dry, otherwise they will stunt, and 

 never produce their plumes so fine as when they are taken 

 care of. The above is the proper management in order to 

 have fine Amaranths, which, if rightly folio wed and the kinds 

 be good, in a favourable season will produce wonderfully 

 large fine heads, and are the greatest ornament to a good 

 garden for upwards of two months : by this method plant s 

 five or six feet high, with crests nearly a foot in breadth, 

 have been raised ; and if the kind be good, and there be no 

 want of dung or conveniences, in a kindly season they will 

 grow much larger. By the middle or end of September, the 

 Amaranths will have perfected their seeds, so that you must 

 make choice of the largest, most beautiful, and least branch- 

 ing plants, of each kind, for seed ; which you should remove 

 under shelter, especially if the weather prove wet or the nights 

 frosty, that the seeds may be perfectly ripened. The seeds 

 should not be taken from side-branches or the neck of the 

 plume, but those only which are produced in the middle of 

 the plant, which, though generally few in number, are the 

 only ones that can be depended upon for producing good 

 plants in the succeeding year. 



4. Celosia Paniculata ; Panirled Celosia. Leaves ovate- 

 oblong; stem rising, panicled ; spikes alternate, terminal, 

 remote. Mr. Miller says, that the stems are nearly four feet 

 in length, and that the slender spikes are of a pale yellow, 

 shining with a gloss like silk ; that it grows naturally in 

 most of the sugar islands, and that Dr. Houston sent him the 

 seeds from Jamaica. 



5. Celosia Cocci nea; Scarlet Celosia, or Chinese Cockscomb. 

 Leaves ovate, stiff, earless ; stem grooved : spikes mani- 

 fold, crested. It has a furrowed stalk, four or five feet high, 

 and terminated by several spikes of flowers variously formed, 

 some being crested, others plumed like feathers, of a bright 

 scarlet colour, and making a good appearance. Native of 

 China. 



6. Celosia Castrensis ; Branched Celosia, or Cockscomb. 

 Leaves lanceolate-ovate, marked with lines, very much acu- 

 minated : stipules falcated ; spikes crested. Native of the 

 East Indies ; cultivated generally in China and Cochin-china. 



7. Celosia Trigynia; Oval-leaved Celosia. Leaves ovate- 

 oblong ; raceme lax ; pistil trifid. Stem upright, simple, 

 slightly angular, striated, stiff, a foot and half high ; corolla 

 ovate, acute, scariose, permanent. Native of Senegal. 



8. Celosia Lanata ; Woolly Celosia. Leaves lanceolate, 

 tomentose, obtuse ; spikes crowded ; stamina woolly. This 

 rises with a white woolly stalk from two to three feet high. 

 Native of the island of Ceylon. 



9. Celosia Gnaphaloides. Shrubby, woolly : leaves oppo- 

 site, ovate, white beneath ; head globular, peduncled. It 

 was found on Monte Video in Urasil. 



10. Celosia Nodiflora ; Knotted Celosia. Leaves wedge- 



