D I C 



D I G 



lower end; and to make them more complete, they 

 should he shod with a thin socket of iron seven or 

 eight inches in length, made tapering to a point 

 at hottom, as iron-shod dihbles make the holes 

 much easier, cleaner, and inure expeditiously 

 than those wholly of wood, whic !i are apt to clog 

 with earth, and retard the business of' planting. 



These implements are proper tor planting out 

 most sorts of young plants, especially the 

 fibrous-rooted kinds, and different sorts of cut- 

 tings, 8te. 



Besides these, blunt-pointed ones for planting 

 large kinds of seeds and bulbous roots, such as 

 broad beans, potatoes, large kinds of nuts, 8tc. 

 and the bulbs of crocus, narcissus, tulips, and 

 other bulbous roots, are necessary ; which, by 

 being rounded at the end, make the holes so as 

 to admit them to the bottom; whereas the nar- 

 row-pointed ones form the holes deeper than is 

 requisite, so as to leave a vacancy under the 

 seed or roof, in which water may stagnate and 

 do injury, especially in winter : besides, when 

 the seeds or roots go clean to the bottom, the 

 growth of the plants is more effectually pro- 

 moted. This implement in some places is term- 

 ed Dibber. 



DICTAMNUS, a genus affording a plant of 

 the herbaceous hardy flowering perennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Decandria 

 Monogynia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Mvltisiliquce. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a five- 

 leaved perianthium, very small, deciduous: leaflets 

 oblong, acuminate : the corolla has five petals, 

 oval-lanceolate, acuminate, with claws, une- 

 qual; of which two are bent upwards; two 

 placed obliquely at the sides; one bent down- 

 wards : the stamina consist of ten subulate fila- 

 ments, length of the corolla, situated between 

 the two lateral declining petals, unequal ; small 

 point-like glands scattered over the filaments; 

 anthers four-sided, rising upwards : the pistil— 

 lum is a five-cornered germ, elevated from the 

 receptacle: style simple, short, bent downwards, 

 incurved: stigma sharp, rising upwards: the 

 pericarpium has five capsules, conjoined inward- 

 ly at the border, compressed, acuminate, with 

 distant tips, two-valved: the seeds in pairs, 

 ovate, very smooth, within a common aril, 

 which is two-valved, and cut down. 



The species cultivated is D. albus, Fraxi- 

 nella, or White Dittany. 



It has a perennial root, striking deep into the 

 ground, and the head annually increasing in 

 size : the stalks many, two or three feet high, 

 round, here and there slightly grooved, some- 

 times subaneipital, not branched, at bottom 

 green and beset with white hairs, ferruginous- 



red towards the top, with resinous glands : the 

 leaves are alternate, the larger above a foot in 

 length, spreading out horizontally, ascending 

 towards the end ; the midrib flat at top and 

 edged on both sides, convex beneath and hairy ; 

 leaflets from two to five pairs, with an odd one 

 at the end, most of them alternate, except the 

 top pair or two, sessile or subsessile, except the 

 end one, which is on a long winged petiole, 

 smooth, stiff", oblique except the end one, 

 ovate, acute, serrate, shining on both sides, 

 about two inches long and an inch wide ; the 

 whole somewhat resembling an Ash leaf. The 

 flowers in a long pyramidal loose spike or ra- 

 ceme, nine or ten inches long, of a purplish 

 colour: the branches of the raceme alternate, 

 with a bracte at the foot of each, one or two- 

 flowered; there is also a short, lanceolate, hairy 

 bracte to each pedicel. To each flower succeeds 

 a fruit consisting of five compressed capsules, 

 spreading out like the points of a star. 



The whole plant, especially when gently rub- 

 bed, emits an odour like that of lemon-peel, 

 but when bruised it has something of a balsamic 

 scent. It is a native of Germany, flowering here 

 at the end of May. 



There are varieties with white flowers, with 

 red and purple striped, and with short spikes of 

 flowers. 



Culture — These plants may be increased by 

 sowing the seeds in the beds, borders, or other 

 parts of pleasure-grounds or gardens where the 

 plants are to remain, in the beginning of the 

 autumn soon after they become ripe, or in the 

 spring ; but the former is the best season, as the 

 plants r;se stronger and with more certainty. 

 The plants should afterwards be kept perfectly 

 clear from weeds, and have their stems cut down 

 and cleared away every year in the autumn, as 

 well as the earth dug round them in the early 

 spring. Some, however, advise the roots of the 

 plants in the first autumn to be taken up and 

 planted out in small beds at six or eight inches 

 distance each way, to stand two or three years 

 till they are strong enough to flower, when they 

 are to be carefully taken up in the autumn, and 

 placed where they are to remain. They conti- 

 nue for a great length of time, and require little 

 culture except that of being kept free from weeds, 

 and trimmed as above in the autumn. 



They are plantj well suited to the middle parts 

 of beds, borders, clumps, and other parts of or- 

 namented grounds. 



DIGGING, the operation by which garden 

 ground is rendered fit for the reception of vari- 

 ous sorts of crops. It should always be per- 

 formed as near the time of putting in the seeds 

 as poisible, as in this state a new sort of f'er- 



