E R Y 



ESP 



pearaiice ; are mostly in beauty in May and 

 June, but not succeeded by pods here : in Ame- 

 rica they have thick swelling crooked pods, 

 containing large seeds of a reddish purple co- 

 lour. The leaves fall off in spring, and new 

 ones are put forth in autumn, which continue 

 green all the winter ; but the flowers do not 

 appear till the leaves are shed. 



The fourth species has shrubby branched 

 stalks, seldom above eight or nine feet high, 

 armed in every part with strong crooked black 

 spines. The leaves are smaller than those of 

 the preceding, and have a nearer resemblance 

 to the first ; "the foot-stalks are armed with the 

 same sort of spines, and the midrib has also 

 some which are smaller, and not so black : the 

 flowers are of a paler scarlet, and grow in looser 

 spikes. The seeds are as large as those of the 

 third sort, but of a dark purple colour. It is 

 usually planted in the East Indies as a support 

 to Pepper plants. 



Culture. — These plants may all be raised by 

 sowing the seeds, obtained from their native 

 situations, in pots filled with light good mould, 

 in the early spring, plunging them in a mode- 

 rate hot-bed. When the plants have attained 

 an inch or two in growth they may be shaken out 

 of these pots, and planted in separate small pots of 

 the same sort of earth, re-plunging them in a 

 mild bark hot-bed, giving them proper shade, 

 air, and water during the summer ; but keeping 

 them in autumn in the stove. As the plants 

 advance in growth they must be removed into 

 larger pots. 



They are likewise capable of being increased 

 by planting cuttings of the young shoots in 

 pots of light earth during the summer season, 

 plunging them in the hot-bed. The seedling 

 plants are however the strongest. 



They afford ornament and variety among col- 

 lections of other stove plants. 



ERYTHRONIUM, a genus consisting of a 

 plant of the low flowery perennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Hexandria 

 Monogynia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 SarmeutacecB. 



The characters are : that there is no calyx : 

 the corolla has six petals, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, alternately incumbent towards the 

 base, gradually more spreading, from the middle 

 bent backwards: nectaries two: tubercles ob- 

 tuse, callous, growing to each alternate and in- 

 terior petal near the base : the stamina consist 

 of six subulate filaments, very short : anthers 

 oblong : the pistillum is a turbinate germ : style 

 simple, shorter than the corolla, straight: stig- 

 ma triple, spreading, obtuse : the pericarpium 

 is a somewhat globose capsule, narrower at the 



b«ise, three-celled, threc-valved : the seeds are 

 very rnanv, ovate, acuminate. 



The species is E.Dens canis, Dog-tooth Violet. 



It has two ovate leaves joined at their base, 

 three inches lonsr, and one inch and a half 

 broad in the middle, gradually lessening towards 

 the ends ; these at first embrace each other, in- 

 closing the flower, but afterwards spread flat 

 upon the ground ; are spotted with purple and 

 white all over their surface. Between them 

 rises a single, smooth, purple, naked stalk, 

 about four inches high, sustaining one flower of 

 a purple colour, which hangs down. The roots 

 arc white, oblong, and fleshy, shaped like a 

 tooth. It grows naturally in the south of France. 



There are varieties with longer and narrower 

 leaves, and the flowers a little larger, but not so 

 well coloured ; with darker green leaves, and 

 pale yellow flowers ; and with white flowers. 



Culture. — The plant maybe increased by plant- 

 ing off-sets from the roots, in shady situations, 

 where the soil is of a loamy quality, in the latter 

 end of the summer, after the stems are decayed, in 

 patches of several together. They should not 

 be too often removed, or kept long out of the 

 ground. 



They have a good effect in the fronts of 

 borders, &c. as early flowering plants. 



ESCULENT PLANTS, all such as are eat- 

 able, and cultivated in the kitchen-garden for 

 the purpose of food, whether of the root, 

 bulb, or herb kinds. 



ESPALIER TREES, such fruit-trees of low 

 growth as are trained to treillages or framed 

 wood-works for the purpose, in ranges, so as to 

 constitute a sort of hedge. They are usually 

 planted in single rows along the borders, on 

 the sides of the principal walks, in the main 

 divisions of the garden, affording shelter to other 

 plants as well as ornament. 



The sorts of fruit-trees mostly employed in 

 this way are those of the apple, pear, and pltun 

 kinds; but many others may be managed in this 

 method, where variety is wanted; as the quince, 

 cherry, almond, apricot, mulberry, and filbert. 

 And it is necessary, with a view to beauty and 

 uniformity, to manage them in such a manner 

 as to have those that are nearly of the same 

 growth in the same range or line. 



The sorts of apple most adapted to this use 

 are those of the golden and other pippin kinds, 

 the nonpareil, rennet, and russet. 



In the pear kind, the jargonelle, blanquette, 

 bergamot, burre du Roy, &c. the melting pears 

 being always better in this way than those of the 

 breaking kind. On strong moist soils those 

 grafted on quince stocks are the best, but on 

 dry ones those onj'ree stocks. 



