PAR 



PAR 



roj'al, with innumerable other sorts; which 

 from one small slip or ofT-set of the root, often 

 in a season or two multiply into a large cluster 

 of such otf-sets ; and these clusters of roots be- 

 ing parted into several separate slips, with root- 

 fibres at their bottom, and one or more buds at 

 top, each commences a distinct plant ; so that, 

 by parting the roots in this way, one jilant may 

 instantly be multiplied into many, each of which 

 becomes alike in growth and general habit to 

 the original, and all flower the ensuing season in 

 their due course; and in their turns detach from 

 their sides all around, a due supply of off-sets for 

 further propagation. 



The best general season for Parting Roots is in 

 the latter end of summer or autumn, after they 

 have done flowering, and the stalks arcdecaved ; 

 which is in August, and the two following 

 months; in which, when the detached ofl"-sets 

 are planted directly, tliey will take good root 

 before winter. But in many hardy sorts it may 

 be performed almost any tim'^, in open weather, 

 from September till March ; and some of the 

 tender kinds succeed best in spring. In these 

 cases it should, however, be done before they 

 begin to shoot forth their stalks or advance con- 

 siderably in their spring shoots. 



In performing the business, when any plant 

 designed to be increased has multiplied by its 

 roots into a cluster of ofl'-sets, the whole may 

 either be taken up entirely, and the root parted 

 into as many slips as are furnished with fibres, 

 &c., or a quantity of slips may be detached 

 from the sides all around as the parent plant 

 stands in the ground : in either method, the 

 work may in many sorts be effected easily with 

 the hand ; and in others by the assistance of a 

 knife, &c. And when it is wanted to make as 

 great an increase as possible, the root may be 

 parted into as many slips as may be convenient, 

 provided each is furnished with some fibre or 

 root-part, and crowned with one or more buds 

 or eyes for forming shoots at top. But in the 

 flowery tribe, when the detached ofl'-sets are 

 wanted for floweiing as strong as possible the 

 ensuing season, they should not be parted too 

 small, but into middling-sized slips, where prac- 

 ticable; which being planted in the proper 

 places will flower in tolerable perfection in the 

 foUowin'? season. The slips should generally 

 be planted directly by dibble; the very small 

 ones in nursery-beds' to stand till next autumn, 

 to acquire strength: then transplanted with balls 

 into the places where they are to remain ; but the 

 larger ones at once where they are to grow. 



This method may be practised in many sorts 

 annually, as numbers of the herbaceous peren- 

 flials multiply in one season into large bunches. 



PARSLEY. See Apium. 



PARSNEP. See Pastinaca. 



PARTHENIUM, a genus containing plants 

 of the annual and perennial kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Monoecia 

 Pentandria, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Nucamcntucece. 



'i'he characters are : that the calyx is a com- 

 mon quite simple perianthiun), five-leaved, 

 spreadine: : leaflets roundish, flat, equal : the 

 corolla compound convex : corollets herma- 

 phrodite many in the disk : females five in the 

 ray, scarcely surpassing the others : proper of 

 the hermaphrodites one-petalled, tubular, erect, 

 with the mouth five-cleft, the length of the 

 calyx : of the females one-petalled, tubular, li- 

 gulate, oblique, blunt, roundish, tlie same length 

 with the other : the stainina in the hermaphro- 

 dites — filaments five, capillary, the length of 

 the corollet: anthers as many, tliickish, scarcely 

 cohering : the pistillum of the hermaphrodite — 

 germ below the proper receptacle, scarcely ob- 

 servable : stvle capillary, generally shorter than 

 the stamens : stigma none: of the female, germ 

 inferior, turhinate-cordatc, compressed, large : 

 style filiform, the length of the corollet: stigmas 

 t'\'o, filiform, the length of the stvle, spreading 

 a little : there is no pericarpium : calyx un- 

 changed: seeds in the hermaphrodites abortive; 

 in the females solitarv, turbinate-cordate, com- 

 pressed, naked: the receptacle scarcely an v, fiat : 

 chafls separate the florets, so that each female 

 has two hermaphrodites behind. 



The species are : \. P. Hi/stei'ophor?/-;, Cut- 

 leaved Parthenium, or Bastard Feverfew ; '2. P. 

 integrifhlhim, Entire-leaved Parthenium. 



The first is an annual plant, growing wild in 

 great plenty in the island of Jamaica, where ills 

 called Wild Wormwood; and thrives verv luxu- 

 riantly about all the settlements in the low land';. 

 It is observed to have much the same qualities 

 with Feverfew. It flowers here in July and 

 August. 



'i'he second species is a perennial plant, which 

 dies to the ground every autumn, and shoots up 

 again the following spring. It rises three feet 

 and more, with thick, round, fleshy stems : the 

 leaves half embracing, hirsute, not hairy, some- 

 what paler underneath, with frequent oblique 

 veins or nerves : root-leaves large and long, on 

 keeled petroles : the flowers grow in a corymb 

 at the ends of the stem and branches: the heads 

 are snow-white above, like those of Gnapha- 

 lium, whitish green below, and villose at first. 

 It is a native of Virginia, flowering in Jidy, 

 but seldom produces good seeds in this cli- 

 mate. 



C'«//Hre.— The first sort may be increased by 

 2 B 2 



