POT 



warmth. If the hyacinth, or tulip, or 

 dahlia are submitted to similar unpro- 

 pitious contingencies, their bulbs or 

 tubers similarly decay. It is not a new 

 disease, for to a less extent it has been 

 noticed before. 



The best rules to obtain and preserve 

 sound potatoes, and a good crop, are 

 1. Grow none but those which ripen by j 

 August. 2. Plant whole, middle-sized j 

 potatoes, o. Plant on moderately light 

 soil manured some months previously. 

 4. Apply no manure at the time of 

 planting. f>. Plant in November in light 

 dry soils, but not until February in wet 

 soils. 6. Preserve your seed potatoes 

 between layers of earth until required. 

 7. Plant as you dig ; that is, dig enough 

 for one row, and then plant it with the 

 dibble so as to avoid trampling on the 

 ground. 8. Let the tops of the sets be 

 six inches below the surface. !). Do 

 not earth up the stems. 10. Do not 

 cut down the stems. 11. Take up the 

 crop as soon as the leaves begin to look 

 yellow in July or early August. 12. Store 

 in a dry shed between layers of earth, 

 sand, or coal-ashes. 



POTATO, or UNDER-GROUND ONION. 

 A' Hi um agyr -ega 'turn. Produces a clus- 

 ter of bulbs or offsets, in number from 

 two to twelve, and even more, uniformly 

 beneath the surface of the soil. From 

 being first introduced to public notice 

 in Scotland by Captain Burns of Edin- 

 burgh, it is there also known as the 

 Burn Onion. 



Varieties. There evidently appear 

 to be two varieties of this vegetable, one 

 of which bears bulbs on the summit of 

 its stems, like the Tree-onion, and the { 

 other never throwing up flower-stems j 

 at all. One variety is much larger than | 

 the other, and this vegetates again as j 

 soon as ripe. 



Both varieties are best propagated j 

 by offsets of the root of moderate size, i 

 for if those are employed which the one j 

 variety produces on the summit of its 

 stems, they seldom do more than in- 

 crease in size the first year, but are j 

 prolific the next ; this also occurs if very j 

 small offsets of the root are employed. 



Planting. They may be planted 

 during October or November, or as 

 early iu the spring as the season will 



[ 741 ] POT 



allow, but not later than April. lii 

 the west of England, assisted by their 

 genial climate, they plant on the short- 

 est, and take up on the longest day. 

 They are either to be inserted in drills, 

 or by a blunt dibble, eight inches apart 

 each way, not buried entirely, but the 

 top of the offset just level with the 

 surface. Mr. Maher, gardener at Arun- 

 del Castle, merely places the sets on 

 the surface, covering them with leaf- 

 mould, rotten dung, or other light 

 compost. The beds they are grown in 

 are better, not more than four feet 

 wide, for the convenience of cultivation. 



The practice of earthing over them, 

 when the stems have grown up, 

 is unnatural ; and by so doing the 

 bulbs are blanched, and prevented ri- 

 pening perfectly, on which so much 

 depends their keeping. So far from 

 following this plan, Mr. Wedgewood, 

 of Betley, recommends the earth always 

 to be cleared away down to the ring 

 from whence the fibres spring, as soon 

 as the leaves have attained their full 

 size, and begin to be brown at the top ; 

 so that a kind of basin is formed round 

 the bulb. As soon as they vegetate, 

 they intimate the number of offsets 

 that will be produced, by showing a 

 shoot for each. 



They attain their full growth towards 

 the end of July, and become completely 

 ripe early in September ; for immediate 

 use, they may be taken up as they 

 ripen, but for keeping, a little before 

 they attain perfect maturity. 



POTENTI'LLA. Cinquefoil. (From 

 potens, powerful; supposed medicinal 

 quality. Nat. ord., Roseivorts [Kosacese] . 

 Linn., I2-Icosandria 3-Trif/ynia.} 



Hardy herbaceous perennials. Candicans 

 and lineariloba require protection in the winter ; 

 seeds and division of the plant, in spring ; 

 shrubs by cuttings of ripe wood in the autumn, 

 or by cuttings, in summer, under a hand-light ; 

 good deep sandy loam. All yellow-flowered, 

 except where otherwise mentioned. 

 I\ adsce'ndens (ascending). 1. June. Hungary. 

 1806. 



agrimonioi'des ( Agrimony - like). $. July. 



Caucasus. 1817. 



a'lba (white). . White. May. Wales. 



uljic'stris (mountain). . Orange. July. 



Britain. 



angustifo'lia (narrow - leaved). . June. 



Siberia. IS'24. 



Anscri'na (Goose Tansy). . July. Britain. 



