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THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



D I A 



have raised, in which plant them at six inches' distance eacl 

 way, and not above four rows in each bed, for the more con 

 veniently laying such of them as may prove worth preserving 

 for in these beds they should remain to flower ; the alley 

 between these beds should be two feet wide, to afford room 

 for passing between and clearing them. If the season 

 should prove very dry, they ought not to be transplanted til 

 there is some rain, so that in some years it may happen to b< 

 the middle or end of September, before there may be we' 

 enough u> moisten the ground for this purpose ; but if there 

 be time enough for the plants to strike root before the frost 

 commences, that will be sufficient. If the winter shook 

 prove severe, the beds must be arched over with hoops, that 

 they may be covered with mats, otherwise many of the plants 

 may be destroyed, for the good flowers are not so hardy as 

 the ordinary ones. They will only require weeding, and to 

 be supported by sticks to prevent their breaking when they 

 shoot up their stalks to flower : they ought to be attentively 

 looked after as soon as they begin to blow, to ascertain which 

 of them promise to be good flowers, as all the layers should 

 be laid down upon them. Those which are well marked, 

 and blow whole without breaking their pods, should be re- 

 served to plant in borders, in order to secure seed ; and those 

 which burst their pods, and seem to have good properties, 

 should be planted in pots, to try what their flowers will be 

 when managed according to art, for until the second year no 

 one can pronounce what the value of a flower will be. Hav- 

 ing chosen such flowers as promise well for the large sort, 

 mark them separately for pots, and the round whole-blowing 

 flowers for borders : pull up all single or ill-coloured flowers, 

 to allow the rest more air and room. When these have been 

 laid at a proper season, as soon as they have taken root, 

 which will be some time in August, they should be taken off 

 and planted out ; those that blow large,- in pots, and the others 

 in borders. The whole-blowing flowers have been latterly 

 much more esteemed than those large flowers which burst 

 their pods, but especially those round flowers which have 

 broad stripes of beautiful colours and round rose-leaves, of 

 which kind there have been a great variety introduced from 

 France within these few years; but as the French flowers are 

 extremely apt to degenerate into plain colours, and are much 

 tenderer than theEnglish, less prices are now given than for 

 some years past : from the present taste for the whole-blowing 

 flake flowers, many of the old varieties have been revived, 

 and large prices paid for such as some years before were sold 

 for one shilling a dozen, or even less ; so variable is the taste, 

 so capricious the fancy, of the florists. To propagate these 

 plants by layers, (the best time for doing which is in June,) 

 strip off the leaves from the lower part of the shoot intended 

 to be laid, making choice of a strong joint about the middle 

 part of the shoot, not too near the heart of it, nor yet in the 

 hard part next to the old plant ; then with a small knife make 

 a slit in the middle of the shoot from the joint upwards, half 

 way to the other joint, or more, according to their distance; 

 then with your knife cut the tops of the leaves, and remove 

 the swelling partof thejoint where the slit is made, so that the 

 part slit may be shaped like ,1 tongue ; for if that outward skin 

 be left on.it would prevent their pushing out roots ; then hav- 

 ing loosened the earth about the plant, and, if necessary, raised it 

 with fresh mould that it may be level with the shoot intended 

 to be laid down, lest by the ground being too low, by forcing 

 down the shoot you should split it off; then make a hole in 

 the earth with your finger, just where the shoot is to come, 

 and bend it with your finger and thumb gently into the earth, 

 observing to keep the top us upright as possible, that the 

 slit may be open, and being provided with forked sticks for 



that purpose, thrust one of them into the ground, so that the 

 forked part may take hold of the layer, in order to keep it 

 down in its proper place ; then gently cover the shank of the 

 layer with the same sort of earth, giving it a gentle watering 

 to settle the earth about it, which should be repeated as often 

 as is necessary to promote their rooting. They will have 

 taken root in about five or six weeks afterwards ; and may 

 then be transplanted into earth proper for them, which should 

 have been previously prepared in the following manner : 

 Select some good upland pasture, or a common that is of a 

 hazel earth, or light sandy loam ; dig eight inches deep from 

 the surface, taking all the turf, and laying the whole in a 

 heap to rot and mellow for one year : this heap must be 

 turned once a month to sweeten, and ought then to hare 

 about a third part of rotten cow-dung, or rotten dung from 

 a Cucumber or Melon bed, well mixed with it six or eight 

 months before it be used, the better to incorporate their 

 parts. They should be removed from the pots or beds, with 

 balls of earth about their roots, in the beginning of autumn, 

 into small pots, to have shelter during the winter. In thr 

 middle or latter end of February, if the season be good, 

 you must transplant these layers into pots for their bloom ; 

 the pots should be full eight inches over at the top, and 

 should have the holes stopped with oyster-shells or pot- 

 sherds, to draw off the water ; these pots should be filled 

 about halfway with the same good compost as WHS before 

 directed : the plants should then be shaken out of the small 

 pots with all the earth about their roots, and you must 

 take off some of the earth round the outside of the ball, 

 and from the surface removing the fibres of the roots on 

 the outside of the ball of earth, plant one good plant exactly 

 in the middle of each pot, but neither so low as to bury 

 the leaves of the plant, nor so high that the shank may 

 rise above the rim of the pot, which must now be filled up 

 with the before-mentioned earth, closing it gently to the 

 plant with your hands, and giving it a little water in dry 

 weather, to settle the earth about it, and placing it afterwards 

 where it may be sheltered from the north wind, and watered 

 as the season may require : here they are to remain till the 

 middle of April, when a stage of boards should be prepared 

 to set the pots on. This stage should be so ordered that the 

 slants may have little cisterns of water round their pots, to 

 prevent insects, particularly the earwig, from attacking the 

 lowers in bloom : as those insects never fail to destroy the 

 jetals of the flowers, which are very tempting to them on 

 account of their sweetness. But since the making of these 

 stages is somewhat expensive, and not very easy to be under- 

 stood by such as have never seen them, we shall here describe 

 a very simple one, which will answer the purpose as well as 

 iny other. First, prepare some common flat pans about six- 

 teen inches over, and three deep ; place these two and two 

 opposite to each other, about two feet distance, and at every 

 eight feet lengthways two of these pans ; in each of these 

 whelm a flower-pot (which should be about six inches overat 

 he top), upside-down, and lay a flat piece of timber about 

 wo feet and a half long, and three inches thick across, from 

 >ot to pot, till you have finished the whole length of your st; 

 hen lay yoiirplanks length waysupon these timbers, which will 

 lold two rows of plants in the pots, of the size ordered for 

 lurnations ; and when you have set your pots upon the stage, 

 11 the flat pans with water, replenishing them wheneverit de- 

 creases, which will effectually guard the flowers against in- 

 ects. The stage should be placed in a situation open to 

 he south-east, but defended from the west winds, which 

 would probably blow the plants down, being particularly 

 riolent at the season in which the flowers begin to appear. 



