BAR 



upper branches bear flowers, aiul are panicled : 

 the inner margin of the winged seed is sharp, 

 the outer blunt : it has no toothlet besides the 

 lateral ones at the base. It sends out many 

 branches, which are subdivided into others, grow- 

 ing without order, and becoming bushy up- 

 wards, sending forth tendrils by which they 

 fasten themselves to the neighbouring trees, and 

 climb to a great height. It is garnished with 

 oval stiff' leaves, ending in a point. The flowers 

 are produced in tall spikes at the end of the 

 branches, which are first of a gold colour, then 

 fading to scarlet : they are succeeded by slender 

 thin seeds, mostly single. It is a native of 

 Carthagena. 



The fifth has slender winding stalks, which 

 rise five or six feet in height : the flowers grow 

 in a round bunch at the exirenhty of the 

 branches, and are of a brownish yellow colour: 

 the seeds are smaller, and have narrower wings 

 than in the third species : the leaves are ovate 

 with a point, villose beneath, shining and 

 smooth on the upper surface. A solitary branch 

 comes forth from the axils, furnished with 

 leaves, producing at top, in a kind of umbel, 

 several lihform, simple, one-flow cred peduncles: 

 the seeds arc erect, the outer angle decreasing to 

 an edge, the inner more blunt, putting forth a 

 small sharp membranaceous angle next the 

 pistil : by the seeds on each side next the base, 

 arc three small apprcssed toothlets. 



Culture. — These plants may be raised by 

 sowing the perfectly ripened seeds, procured from 

 abroad, as soon as they are obtained, in pots of 

 light sandy mould, which in the autumn and 

 winter season should be plunged in moderate 

 Ian hot-beds, carefully preserving them from 

 frost and too much moisture till the spring, when 

 they should be removed to afresh very mild hot- 

 bed just to bring up the plants : when they 

 have obtained a little growth, they should 

 be placed in separate pots of the same sort of 

 earth, and plunged in the bark-bed. If the 

 plants do not appear the Iirst year, the pots 

 should be left till the following, as the seeds 

 are often slow in vegetating. The after cul- 

 ture is the same as that of other tender stove 

 plants of similar growth. They are only cul- 

 tivated for variety in the stove. 



BARBERRY. See Bsubeuis. 



BARK, Tanxkks, the astringent cortical 

 substance peeled from oak and some other trees ; 

 which, after being ground and made use of in 

 tan-vats, constitutes a material of great utility 

 in forming hot-beds where a regular heat is re- 

 quired for some length of time, as in stoves, 

 pits, Sec. for the culture of various plants of the 

 tender exotic kind. — See Hot-Bed. 



BAR 



Bark-Bed, that sort of hot-bed which \i 

 cither wholly or principally formed of tanner's 

 bark. Beds of this kind, from their preserving 

 the most uniform and regular degrees of heat, are 

 found by much the most useful in the propaga- 

 tion and culture of all kinds of tender exotic 

 plants that are brought from warm climates, and 

 which stand in need of the continued assistance 

 of artificial heat in ibis part of the world. Beds 

 of this nature, with a little trouble in the ma- 

 nagement of them, are found sometimes to sup- 

 port a pretty uniform and regular temperature 

 for a considerable length of time. 



These are the kind of hot-beds that are gene- 

 rally employed in hot-houses, being formed- in 

 pits or cavities, constructed for the purpose in 

 them, frequently the whole length of the houses ; 

 six or seven feet in width, and three in depth, 

 bcimr inclosed by means of brick-work. — See 

 Baiik>Pit. 



In these beds the pots of such tender exotics 

 as have been mentioned are plunged and sup- 

 ported ; and they at the same time afford as- 

 sistance in supplying such houses or stoves 

 with those degrees of heat that may be proper 

 for the growth and support of various other 

 plants that do not require to be plunged into the 

 beds, the heat of the surrounding air, produced 

 in this way, being sufficient for their growth 

 and preservation. Thus, by the aid of bark 

 heat, and that of fire during the severity of 

 the winter season, the gardener is enabled to 

 imitate, within the hot-house, the temperature 

 of distant climates, and not only to cultivate and 

 bring to perfection the pine-apple, but also va- 

 rious other tender plants from different quar- 

 ters of the globe, both of the herbaceous and 

 woody kinds, and to exhibit them in their 

 most healthy and beautiful states of growth in 

 this country. 



Bark hot-beds arc likewise occasionally formed 

 in pits constructed for them, in the open ground, 

 separately, and detached from hot-houses.. 

 These are walled round with bricks, chiefly 

 above the surface of the ground, having a frame 

 or coping of wood upon the top, on which glass 

 lights are fixed, so as to slide with, facility. — 

 See Bark-Pit. 



In these pits the bark-beds arc made to the 

 depth of three feet or more, in order to afford 

 an uniform and lasting heat, for the purpose of 

 raising and propagating different sorts of tender 

 plants from seeds, suckers, layers, cuttings, &c. 

 both of the stove and green-house kinds, as 

 well as those of the natural ground. Such beds 

 are of course of great utility where there are 

 large collections of tender exotic plants, and 

 as nursery-pits for young pine-apple plants 



