HORTICULTURE. 



283 



Smrry. 

 put. 



Aataa 



single-flowered sort is preferable for use; the useful 

 principle not residing in the floscules of the ray, which 

 are multiplied in the double flower. The flowers 

 are gathered when in their prime, dried slowly in the 

 shade, and preserved in paper bags till wanted. The 

 plant is easily propagated by slips or rooted shoot- in 

 the spring months. It delights in a poor soil: the 

 plants may be placed ten inches or a foot apart, and 

 should be watered in dry weather till they be establish- 

 ed. It is sometimes employed to form rustic green 

 seats, and it answers very well, if the seats be not very 

 much used. 



Sonry-grau. 



432. Scurty-gnut belongs to the same Linnean ge- 

 nus as the horse-radish, $ 396, although in general ha- 

 bit the plants have no resemblance. It is the CocA- 

 Utrna qfficiiialu, L. an annual or at most a biennial plant, 

 indigenous to most of our sea-shores, and, like the 

 plant called thrift or sea-pink, growing also on many 

 of our mountains, particularly in Scotland. It is figured 

 in " English Botany," t 551. A thick-leaved variety, 

 id Dutch Scurvy-grass, is suanetiinea cultivated in 

 for medicinal purposes. The smaller leaves 

 anally eaten between slices of bread and butter. 

 It is town in July, or as soon as ripe seeds can be ga- 

 thered ; it requires little attention, needing only to be 

 thinned and kept dear of weeds. If the seeds be not 

 wanted, the flower-stems may be cat over, and the 

 plants will thus continue for two or more years. Com- 

 mon scwnry-graas thrives uncommonly well on the top 

 of an old wall, where it will sow itself and remain 



y 



/Mrm, L.; 

 mlaftra. Jus.) is a'native of 

 dafirent parts of the south and west of England, and 

 figured by Sowerby in " English Botany," t. 154 

 is a perennial plant, with a thick fusiform aromatic 

 root ; it rises from three to five feet high, being one of 

 our largest herbaceous plants ; the lower leaves are a 

 foot long, and perhaps four inches broad in the middle ; 

 the yellow flowers appear in large heads in July and 

 Aagast In former days the root had many virtues 



cultivated te 



to it ; 



the plant was 



throughout Europe: now, k is much 

 leas in repute, but it .till keeps its place in the physic- 

 herb corner. A a few plants only are wanted, they are 

 generally procured by offsets in the autumn. The root 

 is fit for use the second year: and roots of this age, it 

 may be iMMiced, are better than those of old plants. 



Jsjfct, 



414. An 



4nat (PimpitcUM Aminrn, L. ; Pentandria Di- 

 gymia; nat-ord. UmitUifer*) is an annual plant, a na- 

 tive of Egypt, but cultivated in Malta and Spain, for 

 the seeds, which are medicinal, and a good deal in de- 

 mand. In this country the plant noons a warm bor- 

 der. The seed is sown in April, where the plants are 

 to remain ; and they are thinned as they come up. It 

 laonry in very favourable seasons that the seed* are 

 perfecUu, Mr Lyaons mentions it as one of the plants 

 raised by the physic gardeners near London, probably 

 by mistake : for it is certainly too Under to be culti- 

 vated in this country for profit. 



Blessed Tltistle. 



Kitchen 

 Garden. 



a well known perennial plant, 

 oocasiosMillT need as an early 

 still consider the American cress 



435. Bletted ThutU (Centatirea bfnedicta, L. ; Car- 

 duu* benetiictus of the older writers ; Syngenesia Poly- 

 gamia fruslranea ; Cinarocephalee, Juss.) is an annual 

 plant, growing naturally in the Levant. It was tor. 

 merly cultivated with care in our gardens for it* sup- 

 posed extraordinary virtues. An infusion of it is still 

 sometimes used ; and a few plants are therefore raised 

 from, the seed, which is generally sown in autumn. 



It seems unnecessary to swell the list of these sim- 

 ples, or medicinal plants ; but it may be proper slight- 

 ly to mention a few esculents or herbs, principally native, 

 the cultivation of which is either seldom attended to in 

 this country, or has fallen into disuse. 



436. Garden Rocket (Brattica Eruca, L.) is an an- Garden 

 nual plant, a native of Switzerland, which was in for- rocket, 

 raer times used as a salad herb, but is now seldom 



to be met with unless in botanic gardens. When 

 in flower it has a strong peculiar smell, which some 

 would not hesitate to call fetid ; but in a young state 

 the flavour is just perceptible, and the leaves then form 

 a very tolerable salad ingredient. It is still cultivated 

 in some parts of the continent. 



437. Wild-rocket, or Hedge-mustard, (Sitymbrium \vii<!. 

 qfficinale, Hort. Kew. ; Erytimum officinale, L. ; Eng- rocket. 

 hah Botany.-t. 7*5.) has been sometimes sown and used 



aa a spring pot-herb. When young, it has a warm and 

 not disagreeable taste. 



438. H'i*ter.Crett (Barbarra mlgaru, Hort. Kew. ; Winter 



L ; English Botany, t. 443.) is tt>v 

 which has long been 

 spring salad. Some 

 cress of gardeners as mere- 

 ly a variety of this ; but after cultivating both for seve- 

 ral years, we have found those to be right who regard 

 them as distinct (See f 382.) It may be remar 

 that a double-flowered variety of Barbarea vulgaris is 

 admitted to the flower-border, under the name of 

 low rocket. 



439. Saact alone, or Jack by the hedge, (Erytimum 

 AUtarw, L. ; English Botany, t 796.) is sometimes 

 used, either in sauce, as a salad, or boiled a* a pot- 

 herb. When gathnnl as it approaches the flowering 

 state, boiled separately, and then eaten to boiled unit- 

 ton, H certainly forms a desirable pot-herb. To any 

 kind of salted meat it will be found an excellent green. 

 Being not unfrequent by the sides of hedges, in a na- 

 tural state, it has seldom been raised in gardens. 



440. Sampkire (Crtlkmum maritimum, L. ; English 

 Botany, t 819.) is well known as formiug a very good 

 pickle, and also a piquant addition to a salad. It 

 grows among rocks on the precipitous snares of some 

 parts of England, particularly Kent and Cornwall, and 

 at" Galloway in Scotland. It is the plant alluded to 

 byjjhafceapeaie in his celebrated description of Dover 



Half way down 



Hug* on* that (ilbm Mmphin ; dnadful trade !" 



It is a perennial plant, and is propagated by parting 

 the roots, or by seed sown in the spring. It is not 

 easily cultivated. It seems to succeed best on a rich 

 light soil, having sand and gravel mixed with it. It 

 must be in a well sheltered situation, and requires to 

 be freely watered in dry weather, till the roots have 

 struck deep among the soil and grave). Mr MarsJiall 

 mentions, that it has been found to do well in pot, set 

 for the morning sun only. If a few plants can be got 



