438 Transactions of the Prussian Gardening Society. 



that a mixture of moor earth with loam is suitable for most 

 tropical trees with leather-like leaves, such as Ixbra, Gardenm, 

 Cassia, Bletm, Ardisia, Zaurus, &c. Few tropical plants with 

 ligneous stems thrive in light vegetable soil or peat earth. 

 Even some Cacalias, Crassulas, and other succulents, thrive 

 better in sandy clay than in vegetable earth and sand, which 

 is the soil suitable for most succulents. 



54. On the Culture of the Morinn persica. By M. E. Seitz, Cura- 

 tor of the Botanic Garden at Munich. 



The Morintf persica is a beautiful green-house perennial, of 

 the natural order Dipsaceae, with red and white flowers, highly 

 scented, in July and August. Tournefort was the discoverer 

 of this beautiful plant, in the Levant, near Erzerum, about 

 1701. Though Erzerum is in the same latitude as Rome, 

 yet being much higher above the level of the sea, the climate 

 is colder. A great deal of snow had fallen at Erzerum in the 

 night between the 2d and the 3d of July. Hence it is that 

 the Morina persica can bear the climate of Germany with a 

 little protection, during the severest weather of winter. The 

 general appearance of the flower of Morina is like that of a 

 thistle : its root is large, fusiform, and fleshy, very sensible of 

 external injury, and in gardens very frequently dying from 

 accidents of this kind. M. Seitz has cultivated it very suc- 

 cessfully for ten years, by the following method : — 



The seeds must be sown in the beginning of winter, where 

 they are finally to remain, it being extremely difficult to trans- 

 plant the seedlings on account of their long fusiform roots. 

 During the severe weather of winter, protection must be given 

 from the frost, by dry litter or leaves. By the end of April, 

 or beginning of May, the seeds will begin to come through, 

 when they must be kept quite clear of weeds. The usual 

 culture to plants of this kind, in such a state, must be given 

 till the following winter, when they should be covered with 

 hand-glasses or a hot-bed frame, and the glasses well covered 

 with leaves or litter. On the return of mild weather in spring, 

 expose the plants as before, remove decayed leaves and weeds, 

 stir the soil, and in the July following some of the strongest 

 plants will come into flower, and continue in that state till 

 December. Proceed in the same manner through the third 

 winter and spring, and in the third summer the whole of the 

 plants will come into flower. Seeds should be saved, and 

 fresh sowings made every year, as the plant is not easily pro- 

 pagated by division, layers, or cuttings, and is besides very apt 

 to die off in the winter. 



