164 



NAR 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



NAR 



ceed to prepare the earth necessary to plant them in; for if 

 the aatural soil of the spot be very strong or poor, it will be 

 proper to make the border of new earth, removing the ori- 

 ginal earth to the depth, of three feet. The .best earth for 

 these flowers is a fresh light hazel loam, mixed with a little 

 very rotten cow'a dung: this should be well mixed together, 

 and often turned over, in order to sweeten it; then having 

 removed away the old earth to the forementioned depth, put 

 a layer of rotten dung or tan in the bottom about four or five 

 inches thick, upon which you must lay some of the prepared 

 earth about eighteen or twenty inches thick, making it exactly 

 level ; then having marked out by line the exact distances at 

 which the roots are to be planted, which should not be less 

 than six or eight inches square, place the roots accordingly, 

 observing to set them upright; then cover them over with 

 the before-mentioned earth about eight inches deep, being 

 very careful in doing it not to displace the roots ; when this 

 is done, you must make the surface of the border even, and 

 make up the side straight, which will appear handsome. 

 The best time for planting these roots is in the end of August 

 or beginning of September; for if they be kept too long out 

 of the ground, it will cause their flowers to be weak. You 

 should also observe the nature of the soil where they are 

 planted, and whether it be wet or dry, according to which 

 the fresh earth must be adapted and the beds disposed ; for 

 if the soil be very strong, and the situation moist, a light 

 earth should be chosen, and the beds must be raised six or 

 eight inches, or a foot, above the level of the ground, or the 

 roots will be in danger of being destroyed by too much wet: 

 but if the situation be dry, and the soil naturally light, you 

 should then allow the earth to be a little stronger, and the 

 beds need not be raised above three or four inches high ; for 

 if they be made too high, the roots will suffer very much 

 in dry springs ; and in very severe winters those beds which 

 are raised much above the level of the ground, will be more 

 exposed to the cold than those which are lower, unless the 

 alleys are filled up with rotten tan or litter. During the 

 summer, the only culture which these flowers require, is 

 weeding, and when their leaves are entirely decayed, they 

 should be raked off, and the beds made clean : but on no 

 account ought their leaves to be cut off till they are quite 

 decayed, for that greatly weakens the roots. Towards the 

 middle of October, if the weeds have grown upon the beds, 

 in a dry day gently hoe the surface of the beds to destroy 

 them, observing to rake the earth over, and smooth it again. 

 Before the frosts come on, the beds should be covered over 

 two inches thick with rotten tan, to keep out the frost; -after 

 which they will require no further care till the spring, when 

 their leaves will appear above ground, at which time the 

 surface of the earth ought to be gently stirred with a small 

 trowel, being Very careful not to injure the leaves of the 

 plants, and rake it smooth with your hands, clearing off all 

 weeds, &c. which, if suffered to remain at that season, would 

 soon grow so fast as to appear unsightly, and will exhaust 

 the nourishment from the earth. With this management 

 these roots will flower very strong, some of which will appear 

 in March and others in April; which, if suffered to remain, 

 will continue in beauty a full month, and are at that season 

 very great ornaments to a flower-garden. After the flowers 

 are past and the leaves decayed, stir the surface of the ground 

 to prevent the leaves from growing; and if at the same time 

 you lay a little very rotten dung over the surface of the beds, 

 the rain will wash down the salts thereof, which will strengthen 

 the roots in the succeeding year. During the summer they 

 will require no further care but to keep them clear from 

 weeds till October, when the surface of the beds should be 



again stirred, raking off all weeds, &c. and laying some good 

 fresh earth over the beds about an inch deep, which will 

 make good the loss sustained by weeding, &c. and in the 

 spring, manage as was directed for the preceding year. These 

 roots should not be transplanted oftener than every third 

 year, if they be expected to flower strong and make a great 

 increase; because the first year after removing, they never 

 flower so strong as they do in the second and third; nor will 

 the roots increase so fast when they are often transplanted ; 

 but if you let them remain longer than three years unremoved, 

 the number of offsets which will by that time be produced, 

 will exhaust the large bulbs, and cause them to produce very 

 weak flowers; therefore at that time of transplanting them, 

 all the small offsets should be taken off, and planted in a 

 nursery bed by themselves, but the large bulbs may be 

 replanted for flowering. If you plant them in the same bed 

 where they grew before, you must take out all the earth two 

 feet deep, and fill it up again with fresh, in the way already 

 described, which will be equal to removing them into another 

 place : this is the constant practice of the gardeners in Hol- 

 land, who have but little room to change their roots ; there- 

 fore they every year remove the earth of their beds, and put 

 in fresh, so that the same place is constantly occupied by the 

 same flowers. But those persons take up their roots every 

 year, for as they cultivate them for sale, the rounder their 

 roots are, the more valuable they will be: the way to have 

 them so, is to take their offsets from them annually; for 

 when their roots are left two or three years unremoved, th 

 offsets will have grown large, and these pressing against each 

 other, will cause their sides to be flatted ; so that where the 

 roots are propagated for sale, they should be annually taken 

 up as soon as their leaves decay; and the large bulbs may 

 be kept out of the ground till the middle or end of October, 

 but the offsets should be planted the beginning of September 

 or sooner, that they may get strength, so as to become 

 blowing roots the following year: but where they are designed 

 for ornament, they should not be removed oftener than every 

 third year, for then the roots will be in large bunches, anS 

 a number of stalks with flowers coming from each bunch, 

 they will make a much better appearance than where a single 

 stalk rises from each root, which will be the case where tie 

 roots are annually removed. 



13. Narcissus Bulbocodium; Hoop Petticoat Narcissus. 

 Spathe one-flowered; nectary turbinate, larger than the 

 petals ; stamina and style declining; bulbs small; flower-stalk 

 slender, taper, about six inches loiig; petals scarce half an 

 inch long, cut into six acute segments ; the nectary or cup is 

 more than two inches long, very broad at the brim, lessening 

 gradually to the base, formed somewhat like the old farthin- 

 gale or bell-hoop petticoat worn by the ladies; flower in- 

 odorous, of a golden yellow. Native of Portugal. 



14. Narcissus Serotinus; Late-flowering Narcissus. Spathe 

 one-flowered; nectary six-parted, very short; leaves awl- 

 shaped; bulb-small; stalk jointed, nine inches high; corolla 

 white cut into six narrow segments; cup yellow. It flowers 

 late in the autumn. Native of Spain, Italy, and Barbary. 



15. Narcissus Jonquilla; Common Jonquil. Spathe many- 

 flowered: nectary bell-shaped, short; leaves awl-shaped. 

 Scape round, hollow, producing at top from three to five 

 flowers from a spathe, sometimes no more than two; petals 

 very fragrant, orbiculate, of a golden yellow, like the cup; 

 bulb small, white, covered with dark membranes. It flowers 

 in April and May, and varies with double flowers. Native 

 of Spain. This, and the tenth and eleventh species, should 

 be planted in beds or borders separate from other roots, 

 Because they require to be transplanted at least every year, 



