D I A 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



D I A 



449 



The stage indeed should be defended by trees, at some dis- 

 tance, from the wind of every point ; but care ought to be 

 taken that the trees be not too near. In the middle of April 

 the layers will begin to shoot up for flower, when some square 

 deal sticks, about four feet and a half long, which should be 

 thicker toward the bottom, and planed off taper at the top, 

 should be carefully stuck into the pots as near to the plants 

 as possible without injuring them ; then fasten the spindle to 

 the stick with a slender piece of bass-mat, to prevent its being 

 broken; repeating this as the plant advances in height, observ- 

 ing also to pull off all side-spindles as they are produced, never 

 suffering more than twospindles to remain upon one root, nor 

 above one when you wish the flower to blow exceeding large. 

 Towards the beginning of June, the flowers will have attained 

 theirgreatest height, and their pods begin to swell, and some 

 of the earliest begin to open on one side ; observe therefore 

 to open it in two other places at equal angles, which must be 

 done as soon as you perceive the pod break, otherwise your 

 flower will run out on one side, and be in a short time past 

 recovering so as to make a complete flower, and in a few 

 days after the flower begins to open, you must cover them 

 up with glasses, which are made for that purpose, in the fol- 

 lowing manner : Upon the top of the glass, exactly in the 

 centre, is a tin collar or socket, about three-fourths of an 

 inch square, for the flower-stick to come through ; to this 

 socket are soldered eight slips of lead at equal distances, 

 which are about six inches and a half long, and spread open 

 at the bottom about four inches asunder ; into these slips of 

 lead are fastened slips of glass, cut according to the distances 

 of the lead, which when they are fixed in, are bordered 

 round the bottom with another slip of lead quite round, so 

 that the glass has eight angles, with the socket in the middle, 

 and spread open at the bottom, about eleven inches wide. 

 When the flowers are open enough to be covered with these 

 glasses, make a hole through your flower-stick, exactly to 

 the height of the under part of the pod, through which put 

 piece of small wire about six inches long, making a ring 

 at one end of the wire to contain the pod, into which ring 

 r:x the stem of the flower ; then cut off all the lyings of bass, 

 and thrust the stem of the flower so far from the stick, as 

 may give convenient room for the flower to expand without 

 pressing against the stick, to which distance you may fix it 

 by turning your wire so as not to draw back through the 

 hole ; then make another hole through the stick, at a conve- 

 nient distance above the flower, through which put a piece 

 of wire, an inch and a half long, which is to support the 

 glasses from sliding down upon the flowers ; and be sure to 

 observe that the glasses are not placed so high as to admit 

 the sun and rain under them to the flowers, nor so low as to 

 corch their leaves with the heat. At this time also, or a few 

 days after, as you shall judge necessary, cut some stiff paper, 

 cards, or some such thing, into collars about four inches 

 over, and exactly round, cutting a hole in the middle of it 

 about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, for the bottom of 

 the flower to be let through ; then place these collars about 

 them to support the petals of the flower from hanging down , 

 this collar should be placed withinside the calix of the 

 flower, and should be supported thereby : then observe 

 daily what progress the flowers make, and if one side come 

 out faster than the other, turn the pot round with that side 

 towards the sun, and shade the glasses with cabbage leaves in 

 very hot weather during the heat of the day, to prevent their 

 being scorched or forced out too soon ; and when the middle 

 pod begins to rise, take out the calix thereof with a pair of 

 ippers made for that purpose, but this should not be done 

 too soon, lest the middle part of the flower should advance 

 VOL. i. 38. 



too high above the sides, which will greatly diminish its beau- 

 ty : you must also observe whether there be more leaves in the 

 flower than can be properly expanded in the space allotted to 

 it, and if that be the case, put out some of the lowermost to 

 spread, drawing out and expanding the others at the same 

 time ; and when the flowers are fully blown, if you cut them oH', 

 put on a fresh collar of stiff paper, which should be cut exactly 

 to the size of the flower, that it may support the petals to their 

 full width, but not to be seen wider than the flower in any 

 part : when this is put on, draw out the widest leaves to form 

 the outside of the flower, which although they should be in 

 the middle, yet by moving the other leaves, they may be 

 drawn down, and then the next longest leaves upon them 

 again, that the whole flower may appear equally globular, 

 without any hollow parts : in the doing of this some florists 

 are so curious as to render an indifferent flower very hand- 

 some ; and on this, in a great measure, depends the skill of 

 the artist to produce large fine flowers. During" the flower 

 season, particular care should be taken not to let them suffer 

 for want of water, which should on no account be raw spring 

 water, nor compound waters, such as are enriched with va- 

 rious sorts of dung ; but the best and most natural water is 

 that of a fine soft river ; next to that is pond-water, or stand- 

 ing water; but if you have no other than spring water, it 

 should be exposed to the sun and air two days before it is 

 used, otherwise it will give the flowers the canker, and spoil 

 them. The directions here introduced are chiefly intended 

 for the management of those large Carnations, which require 

 the greatest skill of the florists, although of late years they 

 have been less esteemed than formerly, and those flowers 

 which do not break their pods, and are termed whole-blowers, 

 have now the preference. These are generally planted in 

 pots, and treated in the same way as the large flowers, but 

 do not require so much trouble to blow them ; all that rs 

 necessary to be done for these, is to fasten their stems up to 

 flower-sticks, to prevent them from being broken, and to 

 take off the pods which proceed from the side of their stalks, 

 leaving only the top- bud to flower, if they be intended to be 

 large and fair ; and when the flowers begin to open, if they 

 be screened from the sun in the heat of the day, and also 

 from the wet, they will continue much longer in beauty. But 

 although the most valuable of these flowers are usually 

 planted in pots, and thus carefully treated, yet many of these 

 whole-blowing flowers may be planted in beds, or borders 

 of the flower-garden, where they form a principal ornament 

 during their continuance in flower, which is from the begin- 

 ning of July till the middle of August, especially if the seve- 

 ral colours be properly intermixed ; for the flakes and bizarrs 

 should be intermixed with the picquettes, and not planted 

 separately, unless where they are designed for saving the 

 seeds, in which case, those which are the finest of each sort 

 should be planted in beds at a distance from each other, 

 especially where persons are desirous to keep them distinct ; 

 for where the sorts are blended together, there will be an ad- 

 mixture of their farina, so that the seeds will vary, and not 

 produce the particular kinds : the flowers that are planted in 

 the full ground, generally produce such seeds better than those 

 in pots. But whoever proposes to raise a supply of new (lowers 

 from seeds, must always observe to save the best of their seed- 

 ling flowers for this purpose ; for it is well known, that aftrt- 

 any of these flowers have been a few years propagated by 

 layers, they become barren, and do not seed; which is also the 

 case of most other plants that are propagated by slips, layers, 

 or cuttings, so that the young plants which have been newly 

 obtained from seeds, are always the most productive of seeds : 

 the plants which are propagated by layers or slips, will 

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