ARU 



A RU 



the autumn or spring' months. With the hardy 



sorts, as the three first, the planting may he per- 

 formed in the common borders ; but in the ten- 

 der kinds, as the fourth, fifth, .sixth and seventh 

 species, it should be in pots of light earth, in 

 older to be promoted in their taking root by a 

 gentle hot-bed. They are afterwards to be kept 

 in the bark-stove. When kept in shelves in the 

 dry stove they do not succeed so well. The 

 sixth and seventh sorts require to be guarded from 

 cold by being placed in the tan-bed of the stove. 

 The two last species may be propagated bv 

 cuttings of the stem-- three or four joints in 

 length, which, after being sufficiently dried, so 

 as to heal the cut parts, may be placed separately 

 in small pots of light sandy mould, and plunged 

 in a moderate tan hot-bed, no water being given 

 till they are well rooted. They should be con- 

 stantly retained in the stove. 



Such of the hardy kinds as produce seeds, 

 may also be raised by sowing them in puts in the 

 aulunm, which should be placed in a gentle hot- 

 bed in the early spring months, to promote their 

 germination and growth. 



The three first are curious, and serve to afford 

 diversity in the borders anil clumps of pleasure- 

 grounds ; but the Dracunculus, though a singu- 

 lar plant, is disagreeable from its unpleasant 

 smell. The others are kept in the stove for the 

 purpose of variety. 



ARUNDO, a genus comprising plants of the 

 herbaceous, perennial, and reed kind, some of 

 which are of rapid growth. 



It belongs to the class and order Triandria Di- 

 gynia, and ranks in the natural order of Grarnina. 

 The characters of which are : that the calyx 

 is a one- or many-flowered, two-valved, erect 

 glume: the valves oblong, acuminate, awnless, 

 one shorler than the other : the corolla is two- 

 valved, the valves the length of the calyx, ob- 

 long and acuminate, a lanugo arising from their 

 base, almost thelength of the flower: thenectary 

 two-leaved, and very small : the stamina con- 

 sist of three capillary filaments : the antherse 

 forked at both ends : the pistillum is an oblong 

 germ : the styles are two, capillary, reflex and 

 villose : the stigmas simple; there is no peri- 

 carpium : the corolla adheres to the seed without 

 gaping: the seed is single, oblong, acuminate 

 at both ends, and furnished with along down at 

 the base. 



The species mostly cultivated are : 1 . A. Don/ix, 

 Cultivated Evergreen or Portugal Heed; 2. A. 

 Bambos, Bamboo-Cane, or Great Indian Reed; 

 3. A. colorala, Reed Canary-grass. 



The first, in its natural situation, has the culm 

 *ix feet high ormore, (leu, fifteen, and according 

 to someauthors twenty or thirty feet) hard, almost 



woody, with knots or joints and diaphragms. 

 Above each joint is a leaf, embracing the culm 

 with a yellow, hollow sheath, two feet long, and 

 three inches broad. The top of the culm ends 

 in a point, the leaves rolling up in form of a 

 cone. The panicle is a foot and half long, erect, 

 and many-flowered. There are two flowers, 

 and sometimes three in one calyx, but two only 

 ripen. The calyxes are in general considered as 

 three-flowered; but in the late editions of the 

 Systema VegetaliMum, Martyn observes, " that 

 they are given as live-flowered, on the autho- 

 rity of Turra." It is a native of the south of 

 Europe, &c. and flowers here in July and August. 



There is a variety with variegated leaves called 

 Striped or Parti-coloured Reed, but which never 

 grows to a third part of the height of the other, 

 and the leaves are narrower and much shorter. 



The second species has a woody, hollow, 

 round, straight culm, in its native situation, 

 forty feet high and upwards, simple and sinn- 

 ing : the intemodes afoot in length and circum- 

 ference : sheaths thick, hairy, rough, convo- 

 lute, deciduous: branches alternate, slender, so- 

 lid, spiny, reclining, springing out from the 

 base to the verv top; the lower ones being usu- 

 ally cut off": the leaves small, quite entire, lan- 

 ceolate, roundish at the base, striated, rough, 

 on alternate round petioles. The hollow inter- 

 nodes of the culm are frequently found filled with 

 a limpid liquor, which in Indiabeyond theGanges 

 is not condensed into the substance called Ta- 

 baxir or Tabasheer, as it is, though rarely, in 

 Malabar. The panicle of flowers is diffused, in 

 spikes; spikelets oblong, imbricate: the calyx is 

 two-valved, one-flowered; the valves acute, and 

 convolute : the corolla two-valved, membranace- 

 ous, very small, and surrounded with hairs : sta- 

 mina six, filaments verv short, antherai oblong : 

 stigmas three, subsessile, long and villose: seed 

 one, oblong. It is a native of most of the tropical 

 regions, and may be raised here in the stove. 



The third has a perennial root, long, thick, 

 jointed, creeping, covered with whitish or 

 brownish scales: the culms from two or three 

 to five or six feet in height, upright, strong, 

 round, smooth, with six or seven purplish or 

 brownish knots ; at each of which is a leaf from 

 a hand to a span, a foot in length, and from 

 five to eight lines in breadth, smooth except to- 

 wards the end and on the sides, where they are 

 somewhat scabrous, bright green, white about 

 the edge, and with a white nerve : the sheaths 

 striated, smooth, ending in a whitish, cloven 

 ligule : the panicle from six inches to a foot in 

 length, much contracted at first so as to re- 

 semble a spike, but spreading out in flowering 

 time, branched, the branches crowded, closely 



