PRIMROSE PEERLESS. 



coloured, with a darker radiating spot in the 

 middle ; their scent agreeable, though slight. 

 There are cultivated varieties, white, purplish, 

 or brown, single or double, of which the double 

 sulphur-coloured is peculiarly elegant. 



2. Oxlip primrose (P. elatior). This is a 

 less common species, found in woods and pas- 

 tures, but rare. It is perennial, and flowers in 

 April. 



3. Common cowslip, or paigle (P. wHJ 

 See COWSLIP. 



4. Bird's-eye primrose (P. farinosa}. This 

 species is fpund growing in wet pastures and 

 b^ rivulets, on mountains in the north of Eng- 

 ia'nd as well as in Scotland. It flowers later 

 than the preceding species, in June and July, 

 and is only about half the size of the cowslip. 

 It is distinguished by the white mealiness of 

 the flower-stalks and backs of the leaves, 

 whose upper sides are green, smooth, and 

 even, as well as by the beautiful rose-coloured 

 flowers, whose mouth is surrounded with a 

 notched, yellow, glandular border. 



5. Scottish primrose (P. Scotica). This spe- 

 cies is met with occasionally in the north of 

 Scotland, and is near akin to that last described. 



PRIMROSE PEERLESS, or NARCISSUS. 



PRIVET (Ligustrum, from ligare, to tie; in 

 allusion to the very flexible branches). The 

 common privet, print, or prim-print (L. vulgare), 

 is a hardy shrub, growing from 6 to 8 feet in 

 height, in its wild state tenanting rather moist 

 thickets and hedges, on a gravelly or chalky 

 soil : but it grows well in any situation, and in 

 all soils. It may be propagated by seeds, 

 layers, or cuttings. These plants are well 

 suited for making cut-hedges in gardens, espe- 

 cially the evergreen varieties of the common 

 privet. The branches are straight, filled with 

 pitch, and the wood is hard. 



PROPAGATION OF PLANTS. The 

 greater number of plants are propagated na- 

 turally by means of seeds ; but, in addition to 

 these, many plants are extended over the sur- 

 face on which they take root by the production 

 of runners, or lateral shoots, which spread 

 along the surface, and root at the joints or buds, 

 from which they send up new plants, by suck- 

 ers, or side, shoots from the roots, by bulbs, by 

 tubers, rhizomes, and by various other natural 

 means. Artificially, plants are propagated by 

 seed, by runners, suckers, offsets, dividing the 

 tubers, layers, cuttings, grafting, budding, in- 

 arching, &c. Seeds are gathered when mature, 

 and sown on recently-stirred soil, and covered 

 to different depths according to the size of the 

 seed, the nature of the soil and situation, and 

 other circumstances. The plants formed by 

 runners are separated from the parent plant by 

 cutting through the runner, and removing the 

 young plant, in order to plant it elsewhere. 

 Suckers, slips, or side-shoots from the roots are 

 separated from the parent plant by being slipped 

 down, or cut off, so as to carry with them a 

 ponrm.of fibrous roots; and they are after- 

 wards planted in suitable soil, &c. Offsets 

 *re small bulbs which are produced round the 

 base of larger ones, or on stems, in the axillae 

 >f the leaves, and, being taken off and planted, 

 hfc^me plants. Tubers are underground 

 strms containing leaf-buds; and these may be 

 934 



PULSE. 



separated and planted entire; or cut into aa 

 many pieces as there are buds, in either of 

 which cases new plants will be formed. Lay- 

 ers are branches or shoots of either woody or 

 herbaceous plants, which' are bent down, and 

 a portion of their length buried a few inches 

 in the soil ; that portion having been previous- 

 ly wounded by cutting, bruising, or twisting, 

 which, by checking the descent of the sap, 

 gives rise, after a certain period, to the pro- 

 duction of roots. 



After these roots are formed, the portion of 

 the layer which has produced them is sepa- 

 rated from the main stock or parent plant, and 

 planted by itself. 



Cuttings are portions of shoots, either of 

 ligneous or herbaceous plants, and they are 

 made of the young shoots with the leaves on, 

 or of the ripened wood, either with or without 

 its leaves ; and after they have, either in an 

 herbaceous state* with the leaves on, or with the 

 wood mature, and with or without the leaves, 

 been properly prepared and planted, they form 

 roots at the lower extremity, each cutting be- 

 coming a perfect plant. In general, cuttings 

 should be taken from those shoots of a plant 

 which are nearest the soil ; because, from the 

 moisture and shade there, such shoots are 

 more predisposed to emit roots than those on 

 the upper part of the plant. 



The young, or last-formed shoots, are to be 

 taken in preference to such as are older, as 

 containing more perfect buds in an undeve- 

 loped state, and a bark more easily permeable 

 by roots ; and the cutting is to be prepared by 

 severing its lower extremity across at a joint, 

 the lenticells, or root-buds, being there most 

 abundant. When the cutting is planted, the 

 principal part of the art consists in making it 

 quite firm at the lower extremity, so as com- 

 pletely to exclude the air from the wounded 

 section. Cuttings emit roots at this section, 

 either in consequence of the action of the ac- 

 cumulated sap in the cutting, as in the case 

 of the ripened wood in deciduous trees and 

 shrubs ; or in consequence of the joint action 

 of the accumulated sap and of the leaves, as 

 in the case of cuttings of soft wood with the 

 leaves on, and in a living state. A few plants 

 are propagated by cuttings of the leaves, the 

 petiole of the leaf being slipped off from the 

 parent plant, and probably containing the latent 

 embryos of buds. Grafting, inarching, and 

 budding, are processes which have been al- 

 ready explained. See BUDDIITG, GRAFTING, 

 LAYERING, &c. 



PUCCOON (Batschia Canadensis). A plant 

 in the United States with an extremely red 

 root, called American Alkanet. 



PULSE. A term applied to all leguminous 

 plants, as peas, beans, tares, vetches, lupins, 

 &c. All the species of pulse afford excellent 

 manure when turned into the soil in a green 

 state. The custom of ploughing in green suc- 

 culent plants of this kind is very ancient. All 

 the Roman agricultural writers commend it 

 ! highly. Columella, particularly, advises lupins 

 ; as a manure, which, if cut down and turned in 

 while green, will have as good effect as the best 

 and strongest dunging whatever. They may 

 i be sown upon poor land about the middle of 



