RUB 



RUB 



shoots, which, if carefully taken off in tlic 

 spring, soon after they are above ground, be- 

 come so many plants. These roots are of a 

 dark colour on their outside, somewhat transpa- 

 rent, and have a yellowish red pith in the middle, 

 which is tough and of a bitterish tase ; from the 

 root arise many large, four-cornered, jointed 

 stalks, which in good land will grow five or six 

 feet lone;, and, if supported, Konietinics seven or 

 eight ; "they are armed with sliort herbaceous 

 prickles, and at each joint are placed five or bix 

 spear-shaped leavet^, about three inches long, 

 and near one broad in the niiddle, drawing to a 

 point at each end; their upper surfaces are 

 smooth, but their midribs on the under side are 

 armed with rough herbaceous spines ; the leaves 

 sit close to the branches in whorls. From the 

 joints of the stalk come out the branches, which 

 sustain the flowers ; they are placed by pairs op- 

 posite, each pair crossing the other ; these have 

 a few small leaves toward the bottom, which are 

 by threes, and upward by pairs opposite ; tlie 

 branches are terminated by loose branching 

 spikes of yellow flowers, which are cut into four 

 segments resembling stars. They appear in 

 June. It is a native of the South of Europe, 

 the Levant, and Africa. 



Madder is so essential to dyers and calico- 

 printers, that these businesses cannot be carried 

 on without it. 



Cul(7(re.— They are increased by offsetsorsuck- 

 crs, from the roots of the old plants in the spring, 

 as April or the following month ; which should be 

 slipped off'soon after they appear above ground, by 

 opening the earth round the roots, and taking otF 

 the side suckers with as much root-part and fibres 

 to each as possible, preserving the tops entire ; 

 which should be planted directly, in the manner 

 directed below. The ground being well prepared 

 by frequent deep ploughing, or trenching over, 

 and the proper quantity of sets or suckers pro- 

 vided, they should with a dibble be planted in 

 rows two feet asunder, and one distant in the 

 row, putting each plant low enough in propor- 

 tion to the length of its root, leaving most of 

 the green top out of the ground, and closing the 

 earth well about each set, as the work proceeds. 

 Some set these plants in beds, three rows 

 len<ith-ways, at two feet distance, with wide 

 alleys between bed and bed, in order for land- 

 ing up the crowns of the roots two or three 

 inches deep in winter. 



They shoot up into stalks the same year in 

 cither mode, but the roots rc(|uire two or three 

 vcars' growth before they are large enough for 

 iise ; during which period they should be kept 

 clean trom weeds all the summer by broad-hoe- 

 ing, in dry weather ; and in autumn, when the 



stalks decay, cutting them down, and then 

 slightly digging the ground between the rows, 

 raising it somewhat ridge-ways along the rows 

 of the plants, an inch or two thick over their 

 crowns ; or, if they are in beds, they may be 

 landed up from the alleys to the same depth ; the 

 same culture being repeated till the autumn of 

 the third year, when the roots will be fit for 

 taking up for use. This is performed by trench- 

 ing the ground the way of the rows, beginning 

 at one end of it, and opening a two-feet-wide 

 trench close along by the first row of plants, 

 digging down to the depth of the roots to get 

 them clean out to the bottom ; then opening 

 another trench close to the next row, turning 

 the earth into the first; and so on, trench and 

 trench, till the whole is taken up and removed. 



These plants succeed best in a light rich deep 

 soil : the roots are sometimes used fresh for 

 dyeing, being prepared by washing and pound- 

 ing; but commonly when designed for keep- 

 ing, or to be sent to a distance, are dried in 

 some covered airy shed; then all the mould being 

 rubbed off, and the roots made sufficiently dry, 

 are sold to those who manufacture them for 

 nse, if not performed by the cultivator : this 

 consists in drying them in a kiln or some 

 stove-honse, &;c. then thrashing them to beat 

 oft' the outer skin, in order to separate it from 

 the inner part of the root, as being of an inferior 

 quality. The roots being then dried in a kiln 

 about twenty-four hours, are removed to a mill 

 or pounding-house, where they are pounded in 

 a long hollow oaken block, with stampers kept 

 in motion by the mill ; and when thus reduced 

 to powder, sifted and put up in casks. 



The plants are sometimes employed for variety 

 in the border or other (jpen parts of gardens or 

 pleasure-grounds. 



RUBUS, a genus containing plants of the 

 under-shrubby and herbaceous perennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Icosandria 

 Polygi/nia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Senticosce. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed, five-eleft, perianth : segments oblong, 

 spreading, permanent : the corolla has five round- 

 ish petals, the length of the calyx, from upright 

 spreadmg: the stamina have numerous filaments, 

 shorter than the corolla, inserted into the calyx: 

 anthers roundish, compressed: the pistilium has 

 numerous germs: styles small, capillary, spring- 

 ing from the side of the germ : stigmas smiple, 

 permanent: the pericarpium is a berry com- 

 pounded of roundish acini, collected into a eon- 

 vex head, concave below ; each one-celled : the 

 seeds solitary, oblong : the receptacle of the pe- 

 ricarps conical. 



