POT 



POT 



The first has a perennial root, penetrating 

 deep into the earth : the stems nearly upright, 

 from nine inches to a toot high, and a toot and 

 half in cultivation ; branched, striated, reddish, 

 smooth except at bottom, where they are slightly 

 hairy : the leaves unequally pinnate, on pretty 

 long peduncles, next the root collected into a 

 tuft, on the stem alternate : the leaflets smooth, 

 pale or blueish underneath, deeply serrate about 

 the edge, tlie lower ones on the same leaf com- 

 nioniv alternate, and the upper ones opposite: 

 the bottom leaves have seven or eight pairs of 

 njuudish leaflets ; the stem-leaves have five or 

 six, or at top only two pairs of ovate pointed 

 leaflets : "the petiole is lliree-cornered, chan- 

 nelled, hairy, and somewhat membranaceous at 

 the base. Stipules toothed : the flowers are pe- 

 duncled in little roundish heads ; greenish, 

 sometimes purplish on tlie outside, the termi- 

 nating one largest ; each head has male flowers 

 below, and female or fertile flowers above, ex- 

 panding before the former, which are frequently 

 imperfect hermaphrodites. It is a native of 

 Englapd, Germany, Switzerland, &c., flowering 

 in May, and sometimes in April. 



It is frequently cultivated for winter and 

 spring salads, and for cool tankards. 



The leaves and seeds are mildly astringent, 

 and have been used in dysenteries and hjemor- 

 rhages. 



The second species is a biennial plant, decay- 

 ing soon after the seeds are ripe : the leaves are 

 composed of three or four pairs of oblong leaf- 

 Jets, placed a little alternate ; they are deeply in- 

 dented, and have an agreeable scent : the stems 

 two feet high, with one of these leaves at each 

 ioint, gradually diminishing in size to the top ; 

 and just above the leaf arises a long peduncle, 

 which supports two or three small ones, each 

 sustaining a small roundish spike of flowers. 

 These appear in July, and are succeeded by seeds 

 which ripen in autunm. It is a native of the 

 South of France, Italv, and Barhary. 



The third has a shrubby stalk, rising about 

 three feet high, and dividing into several slender 

 branches, armed with sharp branching thorns : 

 the leaves are very sn)all, unequally pinnate, 

 with six or seven pairs of opposite leallets, of a 

 lucid green, and continuing all the year : the 

 flowers of an herbaceous colour, in small heads 

 at the ends of the branches : they appear the be- 

 ginning of June, and there is a succession of 

 them most part of the summer; but those only 

 which come early, are sometimes succeeded by 

 seeds in England. It is a native of the Levant. 

 Culture. — The first sort may be readily in- 

 creased bv seeds and parting the roots. 



The seeds should be sown in the autumn, on 



a bed or border of light mould, when they arc 

 perfectly ripened. When the plants have at^ 

 tained two or three inches in heiiiht, they .should 

 be planted out on a bed, at the distance of a 

 foot, when for salads, or in the borders where 

 they are to remain. 



The roots may likewise be parted in the au- 

 tumn, and planted where they are to remain, in 

 the same manner as the above. 



The second sort may be increased in the same 

 wav. 



And the last sort may be raised from slips or 

 cuttings, which should be planted in a bed of 

 light earth during the summer season, and co- 

 vered with glasses or in pots, and placed under 

 a frame and glasses, giving shade and water oc- 

 casionally. 



They may also be had more forward by plun- 

 ging the pots in a moderate hot-bed under glasses. 

 They should be removed into separate pots when 

 they have stricken good root and are well esta- 

 blished. They should afterwards be protected 

 from frosts in the winter, by being placed in a 

 mild hot-bed, and have but little water in the 

 winter season. 



The first sorts are ornamental in the borders, 

 clumps, and other parts, and the last among 

 other potted greenhouse plants. 



POT, GARDEN, such as are made use of for 

 plants and flowers. 



Pots of these kinds are particularly necessary 

 in the culture of numerous sorts of plants, such 

 as all tender exotics of the greenhouse and stove 

 sorts, which must be planted in them for 

 the convenience of moving them in and out of 

 their departments as there may be occasion. 



They are also exceedingly useful in raising 

 many young seedlings and cuttings that require 

 moving to occasional shade, shelter, and arti- 

 ficial heat ; likewise for many young plants that 

 are tender whilst young, and require to be re- 

 moved under shelter for the first two or three 

 winters, but become hardy enough afterwards 

 to bear the full air the year round; and likewise 

 to plant many of the more curious hardy flower- 

 ing plants and others, and choice flowering 

 shrubs, &c. in, to remove occasionally to adorn 

 particular compartments or situations. 



In general there are about eight difl\rent sizes 

 of this sort of jMJts made use of, which are ne- 

 cessary ill order to ■ suit the different sorts of 

 plants, as well as all sorts in their difierent 

 stages of growth ; as, when the plants are voung 

 and of small size, they may be first planted in 

 small ones, and as they increase in bulk be 

 shifted into those a size larger, repeating it as 

 often as necessary. See Planting in Pots and 

 Shifting Plants. 



