T A M 



T A M 



bristle-shaped; headed, very short ; the two 

 lateral ones lower than the others : bristles two, 

 springing from the calyx below the filaments, 

 and incmnbent on them, very small : the pistil- 

 liim is an oblong germ, compressed, curved in, 

 placed on a pedicel fastened to the bottom ol the 

 calyx, and growina; longitudinally to its lube un- 

 der the back, beyond the tube, with the upper 

 margin villose: style awl-shaped, ascending, pu- 

 bescent on the lower margin, a little longer than 

 the stamens : stigma thickened, obtuse : the peri- 

 carpium is a legume, oblong, compressed, blunt 

 with a point, swelling at the seeds, covered with 

 a double rind, the outer dry and brittle, the 

 inner membranaceous; a soft pulp between 

 both; one-celled, not opening: the seeds few, 

 aiigular-rounuish, piano-compressed, shining, 

 hard. 



The species is T. Indica, Tamarind-tree. 



Tt grows to a very large size in the countries 

 where it is a native : the stem is very large, 

 •covered with a brown bark, and divides into 

 many branches at the top, spreading wide every 

 way ; the leaves pinnate, composed of sixteen 

 or eighteen pairs of leaflets, without a tingle 

 one at the end; they are about half an inch 

 long, and a sixth part of an inch broad, of a 

 bright green, a little hairy, and sit close to the 

 ■midrib : the flowers come out from the side of 

 the branches, five, six, or more together, in 

 loose bunches ; the pods are thick and com- 

 pressed ; those from the West Indies from two 

 to five inches in length, with two, three, or 

 four seeds ; those froin the East Indies are al- 

 most twice as long, and contain five, six, and 

 • even seven seeds. It is a native of both the 

 Indies, &c. 



Culture. — ^This plant is increased from seeds, 

 which should be sown in the spring on a hot- 

 bed, and when the plants are come up, each 

 planted in a separate small pot filled with light 

 rich earth, plunging them into a hot-bed of tan- 

 ner's bark to bring them forward, watering and 

 shading them until they have taken root; and as 

 the earTh in the pots becomes dry, they must be 

 watered from time to time, and have air given in 

 proportion to the warmth of the season, and the 

 bed in which they are placed : when the pots in 

 which they are planted are filled with their roots, 

 the plants should be shifted into pots of a larger 

 size, which must be filled up with rich light 

 earth, and again plunged into the hot-bed, giving 

 them air as before, according to the warmth of 

 the season ; but in very hot weather the glasses 

 should be shaded with mats in the heat of the 

 day,' otherwise the sun will be too violent for 

 them through the glasses; nor will the plants 

 thrive if they are exposed to the open air^ even 



in the warmest season ; so that thev must be 

 constantly kept in the bark-stove both summer 

 and winter, treating them in the same manner 

 as the Coffee-tree. These plants have a good 

 effect in the stove collections. 



TAM ARIX, a genus furnishing plants of the 

 hardy, deciduous, tree, and shrub kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Fentandria 

 Trlgyiiia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 SucculentcB. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a five- 

 parted perianth, obtuse, erect, permanent, 

 shorter by half than the corolla : the corolla has 

 five petals, ovate, concave, obtuse, spreading ; 

 the stamina have five capillary filaments ; an- 

 thers roundish : the pistillum is an acunjinate 

 germ : style none : stigmas three, oblong, revo- 

 lute, feathered : the pericarpium is an oblong 

 capsule, acuminate, three-sided, longer than 

 the calyx, one-celled, three-valved : the seeds 

 very many, very small, pappose. 



The species cultivated are: 1. T. Gallica, 

 French Tamarisk; 2. T. Germanicaj German 

 Tamarisk. 



The first in its native situation grows to a tree 

 of middling size, but in this chmate seldom 

 more than fourteen or sixteen feet Iiigh : the 

 bark is rough, and of a dark brown colour: it 

 sends out many slender branches, most of which 

 spread out flat and hang downward at their ends ; 

 these are covered with a chesnut-coloured bark, 

 and garnished with very narrow finely divided 

 leaves, which are smooth, of a bright green 

 colour, and have small leaves or indentures 

 which lie over each other like scales offish : the 

 flowers are produced in taper spikes at the end of 

 the branches, several of them growing on the 

 same branch : the spikes are about an inch long, 

 and as thick as a large earth-worm : the flowers 

 are set very close all round the spike, are 

 very small, and have five concave petals of 

 a pale flesh colour, with five slender stamina ter- 

 minated by roundish red anthers : they appear in 

 Julv. It is a native of the South of France, &c. 



The second species is rather a shrub than a 

 tree, having several woody stalks arising from 

 the same root, which grow quite erect, sending 

 out inany side branches which are also erect; 

 they have a pale-green bark when young, after- 

 wards changing to a yellowish colour : the leaves 

 are shorter, and set closer together than those 

 of the first sort, and are of a lighter green, ap- 

 proaching to a gray : the flowers are produced 

 in long loose spikes at the end of the branches, 

 standing erect, and are larger than those of the 

 first. It is a native of Germany, &c. 



Culture. — These plants may be incrsased 

 either by laying down their tender shoots in 



