684 



H ES 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



H I B 



observed the wild single sort between Salerno and Naples. 

 The Siberian Rocket is very fragrant. This being biennial, 

 young plants should be raised every year, to supply the place 

 of those which decay : if the seeds are permitted to scatter, 

 the plants will come up without trouble in the spring; but if 

 they are sown, the best season for it is in the autumn ; because 

 those sown in the spring often fail when the season proves dry, 

 or will remain long in the ground before they vegetate. It 

 ,will thrive better in a loamy undunged soil than in rich land. 



3. Hesperis Inodora; Scentless Rocket. Stem simple, 

 upright ; leaves subhastate, toothed, blunt. It rises with an 

 upright stalk nearly two feet high ; the flowers grow in loose 

 spikes on the top of the stalks ; in some they are white, in 

 others purple, and sometimes both colours striped in the same 

 flower ; but having no odour, they are not so deserving of 

 being introduced into gardens. From this species the double 

 white and purple Rockets have been accidentally obtained : 

 they are much esteemed for the beauty of their flowers ; and 

 if they also possessed the agreeable odour of the Garden 

 Rocket, they would be some of the best furniture for the 

 borders of the flower-garden, for, though scentless, many 

 highly esteem them for the beauty of their flowers. This sort 

 being naturally biennial, the plants with single flowers rarely 

 survive the second year ; nor will those with double flowers 

 continue much longer ; so that unless young plants are annu- 

 ally raised to supply the place of the old ones., there will soon 

 be a scarcity of them. There should be some strong roots of 

 each sort kept apart for this purpose, which are not intended 

 to flower : when these have shot up their flower-stalks about 

 six inches high, they should be cut close to the bottom; 

 each of these may be divided in the middle to make two cut- 

 tings, which should be planted in a soft, gentle, loamy soil, to 

 an east exposure, where they may have only the morning sun. 

 They may be planted near together, so as to be covered with 

 hand or bell glasses, which should be put over them after the 

 cuttings have been well watered, and closely shut down, draw- 

 ing the earth round the rim of the glasses to exclude the air ; 

 then the glasses should be shaded with mats every day when 

 the sun is hot ; and if the cuttings be gently refreshed with 

 water once in seven or eight days, it will be sufficient, for too 

 much moisture would rot them. After they are watered, the 

 glasses should be shut down closely as before. In five or six 

 weeks the cuttings will begin to put out roots, and will shoot 

 up ; then the glasses should be gradually raised on one side 

 to admit the air to them, that they may be hardened, and 

 prevented from drawing up weak. When they have made 

 good roots, they should be carefully removed, and planted in 

 an east border about eight or nine inches asunder, observing 

 to shade and water them till they have again taken root ; after 

 which they will only require to be kept clean till autumn, when 

 they may be transplanted into the borders of the pleasure- 

 garden where they are designed to flower. The roots which 

 are thus cut down, will send up more stalks than before; and 

 when these are of a proper height, they may be cut off, and 

 treated in the same way : so that when the roots are sound, 

 two or three crops of these cuttings may be taken from them, 

 and thus the old roots may be continued much longer than if 

 they were permitted to flower, which will always secure a 

 supply of good plants for the flower-garden. 



4. Hesperis Africana ; African Rocket. Stem very much 

 branched and diffused ; leaves lanceolate, petioled, sharply 

 toothed, scabrous ; siliques sessile ; the stem, leaves, and 

 pods of this plant, are rough with three-barbed hairs ; the 

 flowers are flesh-coloured, with narrow, sublanceolate, blunt- 

 ish petals. It is annual, and a native of Africa. If the seeds 

 be permitted to scatter, the plants will come up without care, 



and only require to be kept clean from weeds ; or they may 

 be sown in the spring or autumn where they are to stand, 

 for they do not bear transplanting well. 



5. Hesperis Verna ; Early-Jlowering Rocket. Stem upright 

 branched ; leaves cordate, stem-clasping, serrate, villose ; 

 the stalk rises nine inches high, branching towards the top; 

 the flowers are produced in loose panicles at the ends of the 

 branches, they are of a lively purple colour ; and those plants 

 which rise in the autumn, flower in the spring. Native of 

 the south of France. The seeds sown in the autumn suc- 

 ceed much better than those sown in the spring. 



6. Hesperis Lacern. Leaves runcinate; siliques tricuspi- 

 date, knotted. It is a low annual plant, with pointed leaves, 

 having the borders indented as if torn ; the corolla is purple, 

 and the flower has an unpleasant smell. Native of Portugal 

 and the south of France. If the seeds be sown in the spring 

 upon sheltered borders where the plants are to remain, and 

 they are thinned and kept clean from weeds, the plants will 

 flower in July, and produce ripe seeds in autumn. 



7. Hesperis Laciniata. Stem branched ; leaves unequally 

 jagged ; corolla sulphur-coloured ; root biennial ; the whole 

 plant villose with short hairs; stalks round. Native of Pied- 

 mont, about La Briga and Sospello, on rocks exposed to 

 the suu. 



8. Hesperis Pinnatifida. Leaves serrate, superior, lanceo- 

 late, inferior, winged on the under side. It flowers in June. 

 Native of the shady woods of Kentucky and Tennessee. 



Heuchera; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Cahx : perianth one-leafed, five- 

 cleft, rounded, narrow; clefts obtuse. Corolla: petals five, 

 inserted into the edge of the calix, oval-linear, the length of 

 the calix. Stamina: filamenta five, subulate, upright ; an- 

 theree roundish. Pistil: germen roundish, half five-cleft, 

 ending in straight styles, the length of the stamina : (accord- 

 ing to Gaertner, permanent, subulate-setaceous, long, diverg- 

 ing;) stigmas blunt. Pericarp: capsule ovate, acuminate, 

 half five-cleft, two-beaked, two-celled, the beaks bent back ; 

 (according to Geertner, inferior, closely barked by the calix, 

 opening by a hole within the styles.) Seeds: many, small. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Petals: five. Capsule: two- 

 beaked, two-celled. These plants are propagated by part- 

 ing the roots in autumn, and should be planted in a shady 



situation : they will bear the open air in England. The 



species are, 



1 . Heuchera Americana ; American Heuchera, or Sanicle. 

 Scapes almost naked ; thyrse elongated ; root-leaves seven- 

 lobed, on long petioles, doubly and sharply crenate ; root 

 perennial ; scapes a foot high, dividing at lop into a loose 

 panicle, sustaining many small hairy flowers of an obsolete 

 purple colour. Perennial. It flowers in May; ripens seed 

 in August; and is a native of Virginia. 



2. Heuchera Dichotoma. Stem branched ; peduncles two- 

 flowered, axillary ; leaves linear-lanceolate, opposite, entire 

 on the stem. This species, in the appearance of the flower, 

 recedes a little from the characters of the genus, but not so 

 much as to justify the institution of a new genus for it. The 

 whole plant is hairy ; peduncle emerging laterally from the 

 bosom of the divarications of the branches, erect, long, 

 dilated at the base, two-flowered, with two small pedicels, of 

 which one is Ion ger than the other ; seeds many, minute. 

 Native place uncertain. 



Hibiscus; a genus of the class Monadelphia, order Poly- 

 andria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth double; 

 outer many-leaved, permanent ; leaflets linear, more rarely 

 one-leafed, many-cleft; inner one-leafed, cup-shaped, half- 

 five-cleft, permanent, or five-toothed, deciduous. Corolla: 





