A M B 



A M E 



half high: the stems are hairy : the leaves very 

 »oft and pubescent; and, upon being handled, 

 emit a strong odour : the spikes of flowers arc 

 axillary: the racemes close: the male flowers 

 Bubsessile : the spike not sitting on a long pe- 

 duncle, as in the above sort. 



Culture. — These plants are raised cither from 

 eeecls or cuttings, according to the kinds. The 

 soils most adapted to their culture are those that 

 are of the more poor, but moist sort. 



The plants in the first species are capable of 

 coming up and thriving well in the open air in 

 this climate; but when so raised do not pro- 

 duce good seeds, unless the season he warm : 

 therefore to have them good every year, it is 

 necessarv to cultivate them in a different man- 

 ner. They should be sown on a moderate hot- 

 bed in March; and when the plants are come up 

 two inches high, be transplanted into another 

 moderate hot-bed, allowing each plant three or 

 four inches square ; taking care to water and 

 shade them pretty well, until they have taken 

 new root : they should afterwards have a large 

 share of fresh air every day, when the weather is 

 warm, and frequent waterings, as they are thirsty- 

 plants. When the plants are grown pretty strong, 

 they may be taken up with balls of earth to their 

 roots, and be planted in large pots tilled with light 

 earth ; and if they are then placed on a very mo- 

 derate hot-bed, till they are perfectly rooted, it will 

 greatly forward their flowering. About the lat- 

 ter end of May, they should be placed in the 

 open air with other hardy annual plants. 



The second species is capable of being propa- 

 gated either by cuttings or seeds; if by the for- 

 mer, they should be planted in a shady border 

 in any of the summer months, and be frequently 

 watered. In about a month or live weeks they 

 will generally have formed good roots, and should 

 then be taken up and potted; as when thev are 

 left longer in the open ground they arc apt to 

 grow too luxuriant, and not so soon recover 

 their removal. 



This sort is hardy enough to be exposed to the 

 open air in summer ; and in winter, if sheltered 

 in a common greenhouse, it will live several years. 

 In mild winters, the roots live in the full ground, 

 in a warm border, but in severe frosts the plants 

 are in danger of being destroyed. 



As the seeds, when sown in the sprinsr, seldom 

 come up the same year, the autumn should be 

 preferred, as they will then come up in the fol- 

 lowing spring. 



As the third sort seldom perfects its seeds in 

 this climate, unless the plants are brought for- 

 ward by heat in the spring, they should be sown 

 in the autumn in a warm border; and when the 

 plants come up in the spring, be transplanted in- 



to another warm border of poor ground ; as when 

 they are put into rich moist land, they grow too 

 luxuriantly, and do not flower till late in the 

 season. The best method to obtain good seeds 

 is to plant some of them in lime-rubbish. The 

 seeds of this sort are also capable of rising spon- 

 taneously. This is not a plant that possesses 

 much beauty; but it may be admitted into gar- 

 dens or other places for the sake of variety. 



All these plants may be employed for the pur- 

 pose of ornament in beds, or the borders of plea- 

 sure-grounds. 



AMKLLUS, a genus comprehending peren- 

 nial exotic plants of the Star Flower kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Syngenesta 

 Po/j/gamia Super/lua, and ranks in the natural 

 order of Composite OppositifoUee. 



The characters of which are : that the calvx is 

 common, imbricate and roundish : the scales 

 linear and pressed close : the compound corolla 

 is radiate : the corollets hermaphrodite, very 

 many in the disk .- females very many in the ray, 

 proper; of the hermaphrodite tubulous, live-cleft r 

 female ligulate, lax, two or three-toothed : the 

 stamina m the hermaphrodites have five capil- 

 lary, short filaments : the anther is cylindrical and 

 tubulous : the pistillum in the hermaphrodites 

 has an obovate germ : the style filiform, of the 

 length of the stamina : the stigmas two, and 

 filiform : females very like the hermaphrodites : 

 no pericarpium : the calyx unchanged : :-ecds to 

 the hermaphrodites solitary, obovate : down ca- 

 pillary : to the females very like the others : the 

 receptacle chaffy. 



Tlie species cultivated are: 1. A. lychnitis, 

 Trailing Amcllus, or Star Flower; 2. A. umbel* 

 lotus, Umbelled Amcllus, or Star Flower. 



The first of these species rises with a round, 

 bushy, trailing stem, from two to three feet in 

 height, sending out branches on every side, ter- 

 minated by flower-stalks, each supporting one 

 violet-coloured flower, with a yellow disk, shaped 

 like those of the Aster ; and appearing in July or 

 August. The leaves are quite entire, sessile, 

 roughish. The peduncles terminal, with one or 

 two leaflets. It is a native of the Cape of Good 

 Hope. 



The second has upright, simple, round, hairy 

 stems, two feet or at most two feet and a half 

 in height. The leaves at first radical ; but after- 

 wards each stemis naked at bottom, pctiokdand 

 wedge-shaped at the base ; somewhat deeurrent 

 and serrate, nerved, smooth, dark green, white 

 and soft beneath. The upper s,tc-r» -leaves are 

 on shorter petioles, and smaller. The stem to- 

 wards the top i.-> generally divided into three 

 branches; each of which is subdivided into many 

 small flower-branches, forming a sort of umbeL 

 K -2- 



