PEL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PEL 



263 



* Stemless : Root Turnip-like : Umbel compound. 

 1. Pelargonium Hirsutum ; Various-leaved Crane's Bill. 

 Leaves obovate or lanceolate, quite entire or pinnatifid, 

 rough-haired, ciliate ; root turbinate, perpendicular, at the 

 upper part thickened and imbricate as it were with red sti- 

 pules ; stem none, except peduncles or scapes, on which there 

 is one leaf near the origin of the umbels ; flowers umbelled. 

 Native of the Cape of Good Hope. All the species of this 

 genus may be propagated by seeds : they may be sown upon 

 a bed of light earth towards the end of March, where the 

 plants will appear in a month or five weeks after, and will 

 be fit to remove by the beginning of June, when they should 

 be carefully taken up, and each planted into a separate pot 

 filled with light kitchen-garden earth, and placed in a shady 

 situation till the plants have taken new root ; then they may 

 be removed into a sheltered situation, and placed among 

 other of the hardier green-house plants, where they may 

 remain till autumn, when they must also be removed into the 

 green-house, and treated in the same manner as other hardy 

 kinds of green-house plants. But those who are desirous of 

 having their plants large and flowering soon, sow the seeds 

 upon a moderate hot-bed in the spring, because they will 

 then come up much sooner, and will be fit to remove long 

 before those which are sown in the open air ; yet when these 

 plants come up, there must be great care taken to prevent 

 their becoming weak ; and when they are transplanted, the 

 pots should be plunged into another moderate hot-bed, ob- 

 serving to shade them from the sun till they have taken new 

 root ; then they must be gradually inured to bear the open 

 air, into which they should be removed at the beginning of 

 June, and placed in a sheltered situation with other exotic 

 plants. If these plants be brought forward in the spring, 

 most of the sorts will flower in the same summer, and the 

 plants being strong before the winter, will make a better 

 appearance in the green-house. The shrubby African Gera- 

 niums are commonly propagated by cuttings, which if plant- 

 ed in a shady border in June or July, will take good root in 

 five or six weeks, and may then be taken up, and planted 

 into separate pots, placing them in the shade till they have 

 taken new root; after which they may be removed into a 

 sheltered situation, and treated in the same manner as seed- 

 ling plants. They should be hardened gradually in the 

 spring, and towards the middle or end of May they may be 

 taken out of the green-house, and at first placed under the 

 shelter of trees, where they may remain a fortnight or three 

 weeks to harden, and then should be removed into a situa- 

 tion where they may be defended from strong winds, and 

 enjoy the morning sun till eleven o'clock ; where they will 

 thrive better than in a warmer situation. As they grow 

 pretty fast, they soon fill the pots with their roots ; and if 

 they stand long unremovcd in summer, they frequently put 

 out their roots through the holes at the bottom of the pots 

 into the ground, and then the plants will grow vigorously ; 

 but when they are suffered to grow long in this manner/it 

 will be difficult to remove them, for if their roots be torn 

 off, all the younger branches will decay, and many times the 

 plants are killed. Therefore the pots should be moved once 

 in a fortnight or three weeks, in the summer months, and the 

 roots, which may be then pushing through the holes in the 

 pots, cut off, to prevent their striking into the ground. These 

 plants will also require to be new-potted at least twice in the 

 summer ; the first time should be after they have been three 

 weeks or a month out of the green-house ; the second should 

 be toward the end of August or the beginning of September, 

 that the plants may have time to establish their new roots 

 before they are removed into the green-house. When these 

 VOL. ii. 88. 



are new potted, all the roots on the outside of the balls of 

 earth should be carefully pared off", and as much of the old 

 earth drawn away from the roots as can be done with safety 

 to the plants ; then, if they require it, they should be put into 

 pots a size larger than those out of which they were taken, 

 putting a quantity of fresh earth into the bottom of the pot ; 

 then place the plants upon that, being careful that the ball 

 about the roots of the plant is not so high as the rim of the 

 pot, that some room may be left to contain the water which 

 may be given to the plants. Then the cavity all round the 

 ball should be filled up with fresh earth, which should be 

 gently pressed down, and the bottom of the pot beaten upon 

 the ground to settle down the earth ; then the plant should 

 be well watered, and the stem fastened to a rail, to prevent 

 the wind from displacing the roots before they are fixed in 

 the new earth. The compost in which these plants thrive 

 best, (where there is not a conveniency of getting some good 

 kitchen-garden earth,) is fresh hazel-loam from a pasture, 

 mixed with a fourth or fifth part of rotten dung : if the earth 

 be inclinable to "bind, then a mixture of rotten tan is prefer- 

 able to dung ; but if it be light and warm, then a rnj^ture 

 of cow-dung is best : this compost should be mixed three or 

 four months before it is used, and should be turned over 

 three or four times, that the parts may be well mixed and 

 incorporated ; but where a quantity of good kitchen-garden 

 earth can be had, especially if it be such as has been well 

 worked, and is clean from the roots of bad weeds, there will 

 need no composition, for in that they will thrive full as well 

 as in any mixture which can be made for them, especially if 

 the earth have lain in a heap for some time, and has been 

 two or three times turned over, to break the clods, and make 

 it fine : these sorts should not be planted in very rich earth, 

 for although that would cause them to grow very luxuriantly, 

 they will not flower so well as in a poorer soil. These plants 

 must be frequently looked over during the winter, whilst 

 they are in the green -house: all the decayed leaves should 

 be carefully picked off", for if left on they will not only render 

 the plants unsightly, but when they fall off" will make a litter 

 among the other plants ; and if suffered to rot in the green- 

 house, will occasion a foul, nasty, damp air, which will be 

 very prejudicial to all the plants: hence, to avoid this, they 

 should be constantly picked off every week, and during the 

 summer season they will require to be picked every fortnight 

 or three weeks ; for as the branches advance, and new leaves 

 are produced on the top, the under ones as constantly decay, 

 and require to be removed. The species of the two first 

 divisions of this genus, are generally increased by parting 

 their roots in August. Every tuber will grow, if it have a 

 bud or eye to it. They may be planted in the same sort of 

 earth as above directed ; and if the pots be plunged into an 

 old tan-bed, under a good frame in winter, the plants will 

 thrive better than in a green-house : the glasses may be 

 drawn oflf every day in mild weather, and if they are well 

 covered in severe frosts, it is all the shelter they require ; 

 they should have little wet in winter, and therefore the glasses 

 should be kept over them in heavy rains, or in mild weather 

 raised only at the top. 



2. Pelargonum Pinnatum ; Pinnated Crane's Sill. Um- 

 bel subcompound; leaves pinnate; leaflets roundish, ovate, 

 undivided, hirsute on both sides. Root thick, yellowish, 

 descending, having few fibres ; stem scarcely any, except the 

 scapes, which have sometimes leaves, sometimes none; corolla 

 papilionaceous, reddish white, with deeper-coloured veins. 

 It flowers in. April. Native of the Cape. 



3. Pelargonium Rapaceum ; Caraway-leaved Crane's Bill. 

 Leaves decompoundedly laciniate, villose. Root fleshy, two 



3 X 



