GRE 



Most of the ericas, or heaths, and other beau- 

 tiful plants from the Cape of Good Hope, from 

 America and Botany Bay, delight and flourish in 

 that sort of earth which conies nearest to their 

 native soil: thus, the heaths like a black peat or 

 moorish soil; and the others, that which is made 

 a degree stronger with loamy earth. 



Keep the heads and every part clean from 

 dust and other filth, by occasionally washing 

 with water in all the sorts, which in most is 

 done by waterings over their heads; but in 

 others, when very foul, by washing their leaves 

 with a sponge and water, especially in winter. 

 This is often necessary to the oranges and le- 

 mons, and other large-leafed kinds of plants. 



When the heads of any of the shrubby kinds 

 are become very irregular or shabby, the branches 

 may be pruned, shorter or longer as necessary, 

 in the early spring. 



And where any of the principal exotics assumea 

 declining state, such as oranges, lemons, &c. 

 or have thin, straggling, weakly heads, or are 

 apt to drop their leaves, it is proper either to 

 shift them wholly, or apply some fresh earth to 

 their roots, and then prune the heads moderate- 

 ly close in the early spring, plunging them in 

 a bark-pit under glasses. The heat of the bark- 

 bed so greatly revives their growth, that they 

 break forth into many strong new shoots, 

 and form handsome renewed full heads in the 

 summer. 



While in the green-house, some plants drop 

 all their leaves, either by the effects of cold, or 

 over-watering, or sometimes by being kept long 

 in too dry a state, as frequently occurs in myr- 

 tles and geraniums, and sometimes oranges, 

 lemons, and others ; in which case, it is proper 

 in the spring to prune the heads, shortening the 

 long strong shoots and branches, and to shift 

 them with balls into fresh earth, or, if not 

 shifted, to loosen the earth in the tops and sides 

 of the pots, drawing out the loosened mould, 

 and supplying the place with fresh. They after- 

 wards soon push forth into young shootsand leaves, 

 and renew their heads with verdure. Sometimes 

 myrtles, geraniums, &c. in this state, when 

 headed, may, on being brought forth in the 

 summer, be drawn out of the pots, and plunged 

 in the ground in a sheltered situation, and wa- 

 tered in dry weather; when they will send their 

 roots into the full earth, and break forth strong- 

 ly at top into young wood and foliage, and 

 form full heads, being then re-potted with balls 

 of earth to the roots. 



The heads of green -house plants should 

 never be clipped with garden - shears, nor, 

 by any mode of pruning, trimmed into any 



GRE 



formal figure, as sometimes practised ; but every 

 sort be let assume its own natural growth, 

 only just using the knife to regulate any very 

 irregular or rambling shoot or branch, or to 

 thin out some where too much crowded, and to 

 cut out the dead wood they may contain. 



GREWTA, a genus containing plants of the 

 tender shrubby kind for the greerT-house. 



It belongs to the class and order Gijnandria 

 Poli/aiulria, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Coltunniferop. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a five- 

 leaved perianthium : leaflets lanceolate, upright, 

 leathery, coloured within, spreading, deciduous : 

 the. corolla has five petals, the same form with 

 the calyx, often smaller, emarginate at the base: 

 the nectary a scale inserted nito each petal at 

 the base, thickish, bent in, inclined to a rim 

 surrounding the style : the stamina have very 

 numerous filaments, the length of the petals, 

 bristle-shaped, inserted into the base of the 

 germ : anthers roundish : the pistillum is a pe- 

 dicelled germ, roundish, sitting on a columnar} 

 upright receptacle, surrounded by a five-corner- 

 ed rim : style filiform, the length of the sta- 

 mens : stigma obtuse, four-cleft : the pericar- 

 pium is four-lobed, four-celled : the seeds soli- 

 tary, globular, and one-celled. 



The species cultivated are: 1. G. occidentalis, 

 Elm-leaved Grewia; 2. G. orientalis, Oriental 

 Grewia. 



The first grows to the height of ten or twelve 

 feet, and has a stem and branches very like 

 those of the small-leaved elm, the bark being 

 smooth, and of the same colour as that of elm 

 when young: the leaves are also very like those 

 of the elm, and fall off in winter: the flowers 

 are produced singly along the young branches 

 from the axils, and are of a bright purple co- 

 lour; they appear towards the end of July, and 

 continue through August to the beginnino; of 

 September, but are never succeeded by fruit in 

 this climate. 



The second species, in its native situation, is 

 a tree of a middling size : the leaves serrate, 

 petioled : peduncles from the axils, tomentose, 

 trifid, three-flowered : berry sub-globular, de- 

 pressed, becoming obtusely four-cornered in 

 drying, succulent ; the skin, when fresh, saffron- 

 coloured, villose; flesh pulpy, fugacious; stones 

 hard, like grape-stones, having a deep furrow 

 on the back, two-celled. It is a native of the 

 East Indies, flowering in July and August. 



Culture. — These plants are capable of being 

 increased by cuttings or layers. 



In the first method the cuttings should be 

 made in the early spring, and planted in pots 



