LIR 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



LIR 



ther with flowers, which have the shape, size, and partly tlit 

 colour, of tulips; the wood is used for canoes; whence thr 

 Swedes in North America call it Canoe-tree. He speaks oi 

 having seen a barn of considerable size, the sides and roof u' 

 which were made of a single tulip-tree split into boards. But 

 one inconvenience attends it, for there is no wood that contracts 

 and expands itself so much as this. The bark is divisible into 

 very thin laminae, which are tough, like fibres of bass-mats : it 

 is pounded, and given to horses that have the hots. The roots 

 are supposed to be as efficacious in agues as Jesuit's hark. 

 One of the handsomest trees of this kind is in the garden of 

 Mr. Jones, at Waltham Abbey. This tree is propagated by 

 seeds, which are annually imported in great plenty from 

 America. They may either be sown in pots or tubs filled 

 with light r:\f\li from the kitchen-garden, or in a bed in the 

 full ground : those which are sown in the first way may be 

 placed on a gentle hot-bed, which will forward their growth, 

 so that the plants will acquire more strength before winter. 

 When they are thus treated, the glasses of the hot-bed should 

 be shaded from the sun every day, and the earth in the pots 

 should be frequently refreshed with water ; for unless it is 

 kept moist, the seeds will not grow : but this must be done 

 with care, so as not to make it too wet, which will rot tin 

 seeds. When the plants appear, they must be still shaded in 

 the heat of the day from the sun ; but fresh air must be 

 admitted daily, to prevent their drawing up weak; and as thr 

 season advances, they must be gradually hardened, to bear 

 the open air. While the plants are young, they do not require 

 much sun, and should be either shaded, or placed where the 

 morning sun only shines upon them ; they must also be con- 

 stantly supplied with water, but not have it in too great 

 plenty. As the young plants commonly continue growing late 

 in the summer, so when there happens early frosts in autumn, 

 it often kills their tender tops, which occasions their dying 

 down a considerable length in winter; therefore they should 

 be carefully guarded against these first frosts, which are always 

 more hurtful to them than harder frosts afterwards, when their 

 shoots are better hardened : however, the first winter alter 

 the plants come up, it will be the better way to shelter them 

 in a common hot-bed frame, or to arch them over with hoops, 

 and cover them with mats; exposing them always to the open air 

 in mild weather. The following spring, just before the plants 

 begin to shoot, they should be transplanted into nursery-beds, 

 in a sheltered situation, where they are not too much exposed 

 to the sun. The soil of these beds should be a soft gentlt 

 loam, not too stiff, nor over light ; this should be well wrought, 

 and the clods well broken and made fine. Great care must 

 be taken not to break the roots of the plants, in taking them 

 up, for they are very tender; they should be planted again as 

 soon as possible ; for if their roots are long out of the ground, 

 they will be much injured thereby. These may be planted in 

 rows at about a foot distance, and at six inches' distance in 

 the rows : for as they should not long remain iu these nursrry- 

 beds, so this will be room enough for them to grow ; and by 

 having them so close, they may be shaded in the summer, or 

 sheltered in the winter with more ease than when they are 

 farther apart. When the plants are thus planted, if the sur- 

 face of the beds is covered with rotten tanner's bark, or with 

 moss, it will prevent the earth from drying too fast; so that 

 the plants will not require to be so often watered, as they 

 must be where the ground is exposed to the sun and air: after 

 this, the farther care will be to keep them clean from weeds ; 

 and if the latter part of summer should prove moist, it will 

 occasion the plants to grow late in autumn; so the tops will 

 be tender, and liable to be killed by the first frosts : in this 

 case they should be covered with mats, to protect them. If 

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the plants make great progress the first summer, they may be 

 transplanted again the following spring; part of them may be 

 planted in the places where they are to remain, and the other 

 should he planted in a nursery, where they may grow two or 

 ihrce years to acquire strength, before they are planted out 

 for good: though the younger they are planted in the places 

 where they are to stand, the larger they will grow, for the 

 roots run out into length, and when they are cut, it greatly 

 retards their growth: so that these trees should never be 

 removed when large; for they rarely succeed, when they are 

 grown to a large size, before they are transplanted. When 

 the seeds are sown upon a bed in the full ground, the bed 

 should be arched over with hoops, and shaded in the heat of 

 the day from the sun, and frequently refreshed with water; 

 as also should the plants when they appear: for when they 

 are exposed much to the sun, tliey make small progress. The 

 care of these in summer must be to keep them clean from 

 weeds, supplying them duly with water, and shading them 

 from the sun in hot weather: but as these seeds will not come 

 tip so soon as those which were placed on a hot-bed, they 

 generally continue growing later in autumn, and will there- 

 lore be sheltered from the early frosts; for as their shoots will 

 be much softer than those of the plants which had longer time 

 to grow, so if the autumnal frosts should prove severe, they 

 will be iu danger of being killed down to the surface of the 

 ground ; by which the whole summer's growth will be lost, 

 and the unprotected plants are sometimes entirely killed by 

 the first winter. As these plants will not have advanced so 

 much in their growth as the other, they should remain in the 

 seed-bed, to have another year's growth, before they are 

 removed ; therefore all that will be necessary the second year, 

 is to keep them cleau from weeds. After the plants have 

 grown two years in the seed beds, they will be strong enough 

 to remove; therefore in the spring, just at the time when 

 their buds begin to swell, they should be carefully taken up, 

 and transplanted into nursery beds, and treated in the same 

 way as has been before directed for the plants raised upon a 

 hot-bed. There are SOUIP persons who propagate this tree by- 

 layers, which are commonly two or three years before they 

 take root ; and the plants so raised seldom make such straight 

 trees as those raised from seed, though indeed they will pro- 

 duce flowers sooner ; as is always the case with stinted plants. 

 This tree should be planted on a light loamy soil; on which, 

 when not too dry, it will thrive much better than upon a strong 

 clay, or a dry gravelly ground: for in America they are 

 chiefly found upon a moist light soil, growing to a prodigious 

 size. It will not however be proper to plant these trees in a 

 soil which is too moist in England, which might rot the fibres 

 of the roots, by the moisture continuing too long about them ; 

 especially if the bottom be clay, or a strong loam, which will 

 detain the wet. To raise them in the open ground, at the 

 beginning of March prepare a bed of good mellow rich earth 

 well mixed with old rotten cow-dung, exposed to the sun, 

 and sheltered from cold winds: place an old frame over the 

 bed ; and having sown the seeds, sift over them, half an inch 

 thick, a soil composed some months before, of one load of old 

 pasture earth, one of well rotted cow-dung, and half a load 

 of sea or fine pit sand. Some of these seeds will probably 

 make their appearance in nine or ten weeks, but much the 

 greater part will lie in the ground till next spring. Water the 

 beds therefore no more than barely sufficient to cherish the 

 plants that have appeared : for four or five weeks screen them 

 from the sun during the heat of the day, but afterwards let 

 them receive its full influence. During bad weather in winter 

 throw double mats over the frames. Iu March, the succeeding 

 year, pick off all mossy hard-crusted earth from the bed. 



