RUM 



R U S 



gpike-shapcd racemes, nodding and cominii; out 

 three or tour togcilier on capillary pedicels From 

 a white sheaihlet : valves subcordate, large, 

 bright rose-colour, entire, without any grains. 

 It is a native of Germany, 8cc. 



This, which is called Round-leaved Sorrel, is a 

 more grateful acid than the first sort, and of 

 course preferred for kitchen use, in soups, &c. 



The third has a large root, dividing into niauy 

 thick fibres, which run downwards ; the bark is 

 brown, but the inside is yellow, with some red- 

 dish veins: the leaves are broad, lonsr, acute- 

 pointed, on petioles of a reddish colour : the 

 stems from four to six feet high, dividing to- 

 wards the top into fevcral erect branches, hav- 

 ing a few narrow leaves on them, and termi- 

 nated by spikes of large flowers, which appear 

 in June. It is a native of Italy. 



The fourth species has a fusiform root : the 

 stem is upright, branched, angular, leafy, 

 smooth ; all the leaves petioled, smooth, veined, 

 somewhat curled about the edge : the root- 

 leaves very large, cordate at the base : ra- 

 cemes terminating, spreading, almost leafless ; 

 with the flowers in alternate bundles, pedicellcd, 

 nodding. 



The fifth species rises with a woody stalk ten 

 or twelve feet high, covered with a sniooth 

 brown bark, and sending out many branches : 

 the leaves are smooth, roundish-heart-shaped, 

 two inches long, and an inch and half broad, al- 

 ternate upon pretty long footstalks : the flow- 

 ers come out in loose panicles towards the end 

 of the branches : are of an herbaceous colour, 

 and sometimes succeeded by triangular seeds 

 with smooth covers ; but the seeds rarely ripen 

 in this climate. It is a native of the Canary 

 Islands. 



Cidlure. — The first and second sorts and va- 

 rieties may be increased by seed and parting the 

 roots, but more particularly the first, as the lat- 

 ter may be very readily increased by the roots. 

 The speeds should be sown in a bed or border in 

 the early spring, as March, raking it in evenly. 

 When the plants come up they should be regu- 

 larly thinned, and when of some growth, in the 

 summer, be planted out in rows on a bed or 

 border, about eight or nine inches apart in the 

 conuTion sort, and in the other a foot or more, 

 "watering them well ; when they will be proper to 

 cut the latter end of the same summer and in 

 the autumn, continuing for several years; but as 

 the seedling plants in the first kind mostly pro- 

 duce larger leaves than the older plants, fresh 

 supplies should be raised annually or every other 

 year. 



The parted roots may be planted out in the 

 1 



same season, or in autumn, in rows a foot 

 apart, giving them a good watering ; when they 

 grow readily, and furnish leaves in the latter end 

 of summer and \n the autumn. 



The second sort is readily raised in this way. 

 They afterwards only require to be kept clean, 

 and to have the seed-stems cut down in the sum- 

 mer, as well as the rank leaves in the autumn, 

 that more full supplies of fresh leaves may be 

 aftordcd. 



The third and fourth sorts may be raised also 

 from seeds in the same way, and the forme' 

 from offsets of the root planted out in the au 

 tumnal season ; when they grow very readily. 



The last sort is easily increased by cuttings of 

 the young shoots in the spring and summer 

 months, being planted in pots at the former 

 season, plunging them in a hot-bed; but in the 

 latter they succeed without artificial heat, either 

 in pots or the natural ground, being occasion- 

 ally shaded and watered; when they become well 

 rooted by the autumn. 



The third and fourth sorts afford variety in the 

 clumps and borders, and the last among the 

 green-house collections. 



RUSCUS, a genus containing plants of the 

 shrubby and under-shrubby evergreen kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Dioecia Syn- 

 geJiesia, and ranks in the natural order of Sar- 

 menlacece. 



The characters are : that in the male, the ca- 

 lyx is a six-leaved perianth, from erect-spread- 

 ing : leaflets ovate, convex, with the lateral 

 margin reflexed : the corolla has no petals, un- 

 less the alternate calyx-leaves be called so : nec- 

 tary central, ovate, the size of the calyx, in- 

 flated, erect, coloured, perforated at the top : 

 the stamina have no filaments : anthers three, 

 spreading, placed on the top of the nectary it- 

 self, united at the base — female; the calyx is a 

 perianth as in the male: the corolla petals as in 

 the male : nectary as in the male : the pistillum 

 is an oblong-ovate germ, concealed within the 

 nectary : style cylindric, the length of the nec- 

 tary : stigma obtuse, prominent beyond the 

 mouth of tlie nectary : the pcricarpium is a glo- 

 bular, three-celled berry: the seeds two, globular. 



The species cultivated are: 1. R. uculeatus. 

 Prickly Butcher's Broom ; 'i. R. Hijpopkyllum, 

 Broad-kaved Butcher's Broom ; 3. ^. Hijpo- 

 glossum, Double-kaved Butcher's Broom ; 4. 

 R. racemosiis, Alexandrian Laurel; 5. R. an' 

 drogynus, Climbing Butcher's Broom. 



The first has the roots thick, white, twining 

 about each other, putting out frequent fibres like 

 those of the asparagus, oblique, striking deep in 

 the ground : the stem suflruticose, lough, stiff. 



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