BURNING BUSH 
a distance of four inches, grown on in the greenhouse where they can 
have plenty of air and water, or they may be potted in small pots (thumbs), 
and shifted on into larger pots (3-inch) before they are pot-bound; 
then into 8-inch pots, giving them rich soil and abundant moisture all 
the time, and frequently turning them to prevent one-sided growth. 
Those that are wanted for outside must be gradually hardened, and 
planted out in June, if the weather is favourable. See that the pots 
have perfect drainage, for so much water must be given that unless the 
surplus can run away freely the plants will be ruined. The stove species 
are easily propagated from cuttings. I. svZtani seeds freely, and there 
are now several distinct colour varieties of it. 
Description of hmpatiens Roylei. A portion of a flowering branch 
Plate 60. showing leaf and flowers. Fig. 1 is a sectional view of 
flower; 2, the cohering stamens. 
BURNING BUSH 
Natural Order RuTACE/E. Genus Dictamnus 
Dictamnus (Diktamnos, the classical Greek name for the plant). A 
genus consisting of a solitary species whose characters are given below. 
The Natural Order Rutaceas to which it belongs contains about eighty- 
three genera and six hundred and fifty species, including Ruta (Rue), 
Citrus (Orange, Lemon,) etc., mostly shrubs and trees that are dotted 
with glands, usually containing a fragrant essential oil. They are 
distributed over the warm and temperate regions of the earth, par¬ 
ticularly in South Africa and Australia. The flowers are in fours or 
fives, the inflorescence variable, but usually an axillary cyme. The fruit 
most frequently a capsule or berry, occasionally a drupe. Leaves simple 
or compound, usually opposite. 
Species Dictamnus albus (white). Burning Bush; Fraxinella; 
Dittany. A sub-shrubby perennial, growing to a height 
of about 2 feet, with pinnate leaves of three to five pairs of finely-toothed 
leaflets, the latter full of pellucid glands. The petals are white, four of 
them erect, the fifth distant from the others, and turned downwards; 
the ten stamens longer than the petals. Fruit consisting of five beaked 
carpels, opening by two valves. Flowering from April to June. The 
whole plant when gently rubbed emits an odour similar to that of 
lemon-peel, from the rupture of the oil glands with which the plant is 
more or less covered. This oil is inflammable, and if a lighted match is 
