J A S 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



J A S 



737 



into the root. These two striped sorts should be planted in 

 a warm situation, especially the white-striped ; for they are 

 much more tender than the plain, and are very subject to be 

 destroyed by great frosts when exposed. They should have a 

 south or south-west aspect, and in very severe winters must 

 have their branches covered with mats or straw, to prevent 

 their being 1 killed. The yellow-striped is not so tender, and 

 may be planted against walls to east or west aspects ; but 

 neither of these are so much esteemed as formerly. 



14. Jasminum Grandiflorum; Spanish or Catalonian Jasmin. 

 Leaves opposite, pinnate; leaflets bluntish ; buds horizontal. 

 It has much stronger branches than the preceding sort, of 

 which it was once supposed to be a mere variety. The leaf- 

 lets are placed closer, and are of a lighter green ; the side ones 

 are obtuse, but the odd one ends in an acute point. The 

 flowers are axillary, on peduncles two inches long, each sus- 

 taining three or four tiowers, of a blush red on their outside, 

 but white within.- Native of the East Indies, and of the 

 island of Tobago, where the woods are full of it. It came 

 to us from Spain, and thus it acquired its name of Spanish 

 Jasmin. It is propagated by budding or inarching; it upon 

 the common White Jasmin, on which it takes very well, and 

 becomes hardier than those which are upon their own stocks. 

 But the plants are seldom raised in England, being brought 

 annually from Italy in great numbers. We shall therefore 

 proceed to detail the management of ^uch plants as are usually 

 brought into England. They are generally tied up in small 

 Imnehes containing four plants, with their roots wrapped in 

 moss to prevent them from drying, which, when the ship has a 

 long passage, will often occasion them to put out long shoots 

 from their roots, and which shoots must always be taken off 

 before they are planted, otherwise they will exhaust the whole 

 nourishment of the plant, and destroy the graft. In choosing 

 these plants, observe carefully if their grafts be alive and in 

 good health ; for if they are brown and shrunk, they will not 

 push out, so that there will be only the stock left, which is of 

 the common sort. When you receive them, clear the roots 

 of the moss, and take oft' all the decayed branches : plate the 

 roots in a pot or tub of water, which should be set in the 

 green-house, or some other room, where it may be screened 

 from the cold; in this situation they may continue two days, 

 .il'ter which prune off all the dry roots, arid cut down the 

 branches within four inches of the place where they were 

 grafted, planting them in pots filled with fresh light earth ; 

 ihen plunge the pots into a moderate hot-bed of tanners' bark, 

 observing to water and shade them as the heat, of the season 

 may require. In about a month or six weeks after, they will 

 hegin to shoot, when you must carefully rub off all such as are 

 produced from the stock below the graft; and admit a great 

 share of air, by rising the glasses in the heat of the day. As 

 the shoots extend, they should be topped, to strengthen them, 

 and by degrees should be hardened to endure the open air, 

 into which they should be removed in the beginning of June, 

 but must have a warm situation the first summer, for they 

 will not make much progress if greatly exposed to the wind, 

 being rendered somewhat tender by the hot-bed. If the 

 summer prove warm, and the trees have succeeded well, they 

 will produce some flowe.rs in the autumn following, though 

 they will be few in number, and not near so strong as they 

 will be in the succeeding year, when the trees have acquired 

 better roots. These plants are commonly preserved in green- 

 houses with Oranges, Myrtles, &c. and during the winter 

 season will require to be frequently watered, which should 

 be sparingly performed each time, especially in cold weather. 

 In April their shoots should be shortened down to four eye-s, 

 and all the weak branches cut off; and if you have the con- 

 voj,. i. 62, 



veniency of a glass stove or a deep frame to place the pots 

 in at that season, it will be of great service in forwarding 

 the flowering of the plants. They ought not, however, to be 

 too much forced; and as soon as they have made shoots three 

 or four inches long, the glasses should be opened in the 

 day-time, that the plants may by degrees be inured to the 

 open air, into which they may be removed by the latter end 

 of May, or the beginning of June, otherwise their flowers 

 will not be so fair, nor continue so long. If the autumn 

 prove favourable, they will sometimes continue to produce 

 fresh flowers until November, and will sometimes continue 

 flowering much later when they are strong; but in mild 

 weather they must have a great share of air, otherwise the 

 flower-buds will grow mouldy, and decay. Although most peo- 

 ple preserve these plants in green-houses, yet they will endure 

 the cold of our ordinary winters in the open air, when planted 

 against a warm wall, and covered with mats in frosty weather ; 

 they will also produce ten times as many flowers in one season 

 as those kept in pots, and the flowers will also be much larger. 

 They ous;ht not, however, to be planted abroad till they have 

 acquired strength; so that it will be necessary to keep them 

 in pots three or four years, to shelter them from the severities 

 of winter; and when they are planted against a wall, which 

 should be in May, that they may take good root in the 

 ground before the succeeding winter, you must turn them 

 out of the pots, preserving the earth to their roots, and hav- 

 ing made holes in the border where they are to be planted, 

 place them therein with their stems close to the wall ; then 

 fill up the holes round their roots with good fresh rich earth, 

 and give them some water, to settle the ground about them, 

 nailing up their shoots to the wall, and shortening such of 

 them as are very long, that they may push out new shoots 

 below to furnish ibe wall, continuing to nail up all the shoots 

 as they are produced. In the middle, or towards the latter 

 end of July, they will begin to flower, and continue to pro- 

 duce new flowers until the frost prevents them ; which, when 

 you observe, carefully cut off all the tops of such shoots as 

 have buds formed upon them, as also those which have the 

 remains of faded flowers left: for if these are suffered to 

 remain on, they will soon grow mouldy, especially when the 

 trees are covered, and thereby infect many of the tender 

 branches, and greatly injure the trees. Towards the middle 

 of November, if the weather prove cool and the nights frosty, 

 begin to cover the trees with mats, which should be nailed 

 pretty closely over them, and done when the trees are per- 

 fectly dry, otherwise the wet being lodged upon the branches 

 will cause a mouldiness, which the exclusion of the air will 

 convert into a rot: hence it will be very necessary to take off 

 the mats as soon as the weather will permit, to prevent this, 

 and keep them closely covered at night and in frosty weather; 

 at which time some mulch should be laid upon the surface of 

 the ground about their roots, and some hay-bands fastened 

 about their stems; to which, in very severe weather, a double 

 or treble covering of mats over the trees should be added, by 

 which precautions they may be preserved through the hardest 

 winters. In the spring, take off these coverings by degrees ; 

 but take care not to expose them too soon to the open air, as 

 also to guard them against the morning frosts and dry easterly 

 winds, which are so destructive to tender plants in the month 

 of March. The covering should not be wholly removed until 

 the middle of April, when the season is settled ; at which 

 time you should prune the trees, cutting out all decayed and 

 weak branches, shortening the strong ones to about two feet 

 long, which will cause them to shoot strong and produce 

 many flowers. There is a variety of this with semi-double 

 flowers, which is only to be found in some curious gardens 

 9B 



