V IT 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



VIT 



757 



propagated by planting the cuttings early in spring, before 

 they shoot, in a fresh light soil, watering them frequently 

 before they take root ; after which the plants must be care- 

 fully cleared from weeds during the summer season, and if 

 the following winter prove severe, a little mnlch must be laid 

 upon the surface of the ground between the plants, to pre- 

 vent the frost from penetrating to their roots. As the cut- 

 tings are apt to shoot late in the year, their tops will be very 

 tender, and the early frosts in the autumn often cut them 

 down a considerable length, if they are not protected by 

 mats or some other covering. Towards the middle of March, 

 in favourable seasons, transplant them either into the place 

 where they are designed to remain, or into a nursery to grow 

 two or three years to get strength, where they must be pruned 

 up, in order to form them into regular stalks, as they are 

 liable to shoot out their branches in a straggling manner. 

 They may also be propagated by laying down their branches 

 in the spring of the year, in doing which be careful not to 

 break them, for their shoots are apt to split if they are vio- 

 lently forced ; these will take root in one year, if watered 

 in very dry weather, and may then be transplanted, and 

 managed as directed for those raised from cuttings. 



7. Vitex Incisa ; Cut-leaved Chaste Tree. Leaves digitate, 

 quinate, gash-pinnatifid ; spikes subverticillate. The branches 

 are terminated by spikes of flowers, three or four inches long, 

 disposed in whorls; in some plants they are white, in others 

 blue, and some have bright red flowers. They are in beauty 

 from the middle of July to the beginning of September, but 

 no seeds are produced in Europe. Propagation, Sfc. Plant 

 cuttings in the spring in pots, plunging them into a mode- 

 rate hot-bed, and covering them with glasses. When these 

 are well rooted, take them carefully up, and plant each in a 

 separate small pot filled with light earth, placing them in the 

 shade until they have taken new root : then remove them to 

 a sheltered situation with other green-house plants, where 

 they may remain all the summer. In autumn they must be 

 put under shelter, but as they cast their leaves early, they 

 should not be much watered in winter. They are late in 

 putting out new leaves in the spring, and have the appear- 

 ance of dead plants, before the leaves appear. 



8. Vitex Leucoxylon ; White-wooded Chaste Tree. Leaves 

 digitate, quinate; leaflets petioled, oblong, quite entire; 

 panicles dichotomous ; berry one-seeded. It differs from the 

 next species in having the 'leaves very smooth on both sides. 

 Native of Ceylon. 



9. Vitex Trifolia ; Three-leaved Chaste Tree. Leaves ter- 

 nate and quinate ; leaflets ovate, acute, quite entire, hoary 

 beneath ; panicle with a straight rachis ; pedicels dichoto- 

 mous. It is in great esteem both for internal and external 

 use among Indian practitioners. The plant has a bitter 

 taste, with a strong aromatic smell. The fruit, in the eastern 

 countries, is reputed to be warm, discutient, nervine, cepha- 

 lic, and emmenagogue ; and to be useful in paralysis, weak- 

 ness, and pains of the limbs. Native of the East Indies. 

 This species is too tender to live in the open air in this 

 country, and therefore must be planted in pots, and con- 

 stantly kept in the stove. It is propagated both by cuttings 

 and layers : the cuttings must be planted in pots, and plung- 

 ed into a moderate hot-bed, covering them close with a hand 

 or bell glass, to exclude the air; they should be refreshed 

 with water now and then, but it must be given sparingly. 

 The best time to plant the cuttings is about the middle or 

 latter end of April ; for if they succeed they will put out 

 roots in six or seven weeks, and will then begin to shoot ; 

 they should therefore have the free air gradually admitted to 

 them, to prevent their shooting weak ; then they may be 



carefully taken up, and each planted into a separate small 

 pot filled with light earth, and plunged into the hot-bed 

 again, shading them from the sun till they have taken new 

 root; after which they should have plenty of free air at all 

 times when the weather is good,' treating them in the same 

 manner as other tender plants. 



10. Vitex Umbrosa; Umbrageous Chaste Tree. Leaves 

 quinate, quite entire, smooth on both sides; racemes com- 

 pound, axillary. A large spreading tree, with nearly cylin- 

 drical branches, leafy at the summit. Native of Jamaica. 



11. Vitex Capitata ; Capitate Chaste Tree. Leaves qui- 

 nate, digitate ; leaflets lanceolate, smooth, quite entire ; 

 flowers capitate, subumbelled. Branches roundish, warted, 

 at the warts a little dilated and four-cornered, smooth, with 

 an ash-coloured bark, even ; branchlets leafing and flower- 

 ing, the lower alternate, the end ones often in threes, alter- 

 nately compressed ; peduncles axillary, solitary, length of 

 the petiole, smooth, slender. Native of Trinidad. 



12. Vitex Negundo; Five-leaved Chaste Tree. Leaves 

 quinate and ternate, serrate ; flowers raceme-panicled. Stem 

 arboreous, twisted, the thickness of the human arm, with 

 spreading branches; flowers in opposite, axillary, whorled 

 spikes, terminating the branches, blue. Native of the East 

 Indies, China, and Cochin-china. See the seventh species. 



13. Vitex Spicata. Leaves quinate, crenate; spikes linear, 

 terminating. Stem shrubby, erect, eight feet high, thick; 

 corolla tube short, globular. It has the same qualities as 

 the ninth species : the leaves are used externally in wander- 

 ing pains, paralysis, and contraction of the limbs. Native of 

 China, and Cochin-china. It is increased by cuttings in the 

 spring, a little before the buds open, and must be managed 

 in the same way as the seventh species. 



14. Vitex Pinnata; Pinnate Chaste Tree. Leaves pinnate, 

 quite entire ; panicles trichotornous. This is a tree eight feet 

 high, with the wood hard and yellowish, the bark thin and 

 brown, the branches spreading, and the head very close and 

 thick ; flowers yellow, very small, globular, sweet-smelling, 

 upon oblong, axillary racemes ; fruit small, red. Native of 

 China and Cochin-china, where it is cultivated in the gar- 

 dens of the great for its beauty and sweetness. See the 

 seventh and ninth species for its culture, &c. 



Vitis ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogynia. 

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

 toothed, very small. Corolla: petals five, rude, small, cadu- 

 cous. StamirM: filamenta five, awl-shaped, from erect spread- 

 ing, deciduous ; antheroe simple. Pistil: germen ovate; style 

 none, or very short ; stigma obtuse, headed. Pericarp : berry 

 globular, ovate, one-celled. Seeds: five, bony, turbinate, 

 cordate, contracted at the base, semilocular. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Petals: cohering at the top, shrivelling. 

 Berry : five-seeded, superior. The species are, 



1. Vitis Vinifera ; Common Vine. Leaves heart-shaped, 

 five-lobed, sinuate, naked. Stem twisted, irregular, weak, 

 covered with a brown cloven bark ; branches very long, tough, 

 flexible, trailing along the ground, or climbing trees by means 

 of tendrils, which are opposite to a leaf, and are attended by 

 the flowers in a raceme ; the flowers are whitish and herba- 

 ceous, very small and insignificant in appearance, but having 

 a very agreeable smell ; the petals cohere at the tip, forming 

 a veil concealing the genitals, but they soon fall off; berries 

 globular, in some varieties ovate, before they are ripe regu- 

 larly divided into five cells, but afterwards one-celled, almost 

 pellucid, coloured in some, colourless in others. In the 

 middle is a short column, springing from the woody pedicel 

 of the berry ; to the top of this the seeds are fastened by 

 its peculiar umbilical chord ; this chord is filiform, running 



