CHAP. XLIX. A/YRTA CEiE. MY'RTE^E. 963 



to the tree at Beddington, which was of the Spanish broad-leaved, or orange- 

 leaved, variety, and which Miller and Bradley report, in 1724, to have been 

 above 18 ft. high, and to have spread about 45 ft. This tree, however, must 

 have been of more than the age assigned to it by Evelyn; and is supposed to 

 have been killed by the severe frost of 1739-40, when it was 160 years old. 

 Johnson, in his edition of Gerard, states that the broad-leaved and narrow- 

 leaved varieties were, in 1633, "nourished in the garden of Mistress Tuggie, 

 in Westminster." (Mart. Mill.) 



Varieties. The following forms, or varieties, of myrtle, the first of which may be considered as 

 the species, are given in Don's Miller, ii. p. 834. :— 



§ i. Mela?iocdrpa Dec, with black Fruit. 



The varieties comprised in this group are all frequent in the south of Europe, where there are 

 subvarieties belonging to this division with double flowers and variegated leaves. 



* M. c. 1 romana Dec. Prod., 3. p. 239. ; the common broad-leaved, or Roman, Myrtle, with 

 ovate leaves, and long pedicels. This kind is sometimes called the flowering myrtle, because it 

 flowers more freely in England than any other variety. 



* M. c. 2 tarentina Mill. Icon., t. 184. f. 1. ; the Tarentum, or Box-leaved Myrtle. — Leaves small 

 and ovate. Flowers small, and opening late in the autumn. Berries round. 



* M. c, 3 itdlica Mill. Dict.,^/*<? Italian, or upright, Myrtle, .has the leaves ovate-lanceolate and 

 the branches erect. 



* M. c. 4 bcB'tica Mill. Diet., Blackw., t. 114. ; the Andalusian, or Orange-leaved, Myrtle, has 

 the leaves lanceolate and acuminate. 



* M. c. blusitunica Lin. Sp. ; M. acuta Mill. Diet., Clus. Hist., 1. p. 66. fig. 1. ; the Portugal 

 Myrtle. The Nutmeg Myrtle appears to be only a subvariety of this. 



Ht M. c. 6 be/gicaMiU. Diet, the broad-leaved Dutch Myrtle, has the leaves lanceolate, acumi- 

 nated, crowded together, and of a dark green. The double-flowered Myrtle appears to be a sub 

 variety. 



* M. c. 7 mucronata L. ; M. mfnima Mill. ; the Rosemary, or Thyme-leaved, Myrtle ; has the 

 leaves linear-lanceolate, acuminated. 



§ ii. Leucocdrpa Dec. Fruit white. 



* M. c. 8 leucocdrpa Dec, the white-berried Myrtle. — This variety is a native of Greece and the 

 Balearic Islands. The fruit is rather large, and edible, with a grateful taste and smell. 



$ iii. Garden Varieties. 



The above varieties are constant ; but there are many varieties in gardens which are more va- 

 riable : the following are the names of most of these : — 



1. Gold-striped broad-leaved Myrtle. 



2. Broad-leaved Jews' Myrtle. This variety has its leaves frequently in threes, on which account 

 it is said to be in esteem among the Jews in their religious ceremonies. 



3. Gold-striped Orange-leaved Myrtle. 



4. Silver-striped Italian Myrtle. 



5. Striped-leaved Myrtle. 



6. Silver-striped Rosemary-leaved Myrtle. 



7. Silver-striped Nutmeg Myrtle. 



8. Cock's-comb, or Bird's-nest Myrtle. 



9. Spotted-leaved Myrtle. 



Propagation, Culture, Sfc. All the varieties are readily propagated by cuttings 5 and those which 

 ripen their fruit, such as the common broad-leaved myrtle, come up in abundance from seeds. Cut- 

 tings may either be made of the ripe wood, or of that which is in a growing state; the latter root 

 soonest, but they require most care, and success will be most certain when they are planted in sand, 

 and covered with a bell-glass. The finer varieties of myrtle might be grafted on the common and 

 hardier sorts ; and perhaps something might be gained in rendering the Australian Myrtacea; more 

 hardy, by grafting them on the common myrtle. Perhaps, also, something might be done in the 

 way of cross-fecundation between Myrtus, Psidium, Melaleuca, &c. 



Statistics. In the environs of London, the broad and narrow-leaved myrtles stand out, in dry 

 warm situations, as bushes ; sometimes having the extremities of the shoots killed down by frost ; but 

 more frequently by the direct influence of the sun after a frosty night, accompanied with snow and 

 sleet. After such nights, the plants should either be watered overhead with water, to thaw the 

 frost; or covered with a mat, to prevent them from thawing suddenly by the sun's rays. The safest 

 mode in such weather is, to cover the plant with mats at night ; because, though frost will not kill it, 

 yet it always injures the foliage. Both double and single varieties of the common myrtle cover large 

 spaces of a wall in the Horticultur il Society's Garden ; and there are many houses and gardens in 

 the neighbourhood of London that can exhibit trained plants from 10 ft. to 20 ft. high, and nearly as 

 wide. At Cobham Hall, in Kent, there are several trees against the house 30 ft. high. On the 

 Sussex coast, about Worthing, there are some very fine plants against houses. In the Isle of Wight, 

 and in Devonshire, the myrtle forms hedges to gardens, and, in shrubberies, grows as large as the 

 arbutus does about London. At the Willows, near Swansea, in Glamorganshire, there were, in 1828, 

 two myrtles 15 ft. high, as standards in the open ground, the branches of the largest of which covered 

 a space 90 ft. in circumference. (See Gard. Mag., xi. p. 360.) In Scotland, in East Lothian, more 

 especially at Biel, the myrtle grows against a wall with very little protection. In Ireland, in the 

 Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dublin, all the varieties, except the orange-leaved, stood out 

 against a wall with a southern aspect ; and at Youghall, near Cork, there is a plant in the open gar- 

 den 20 ft. high, which has never had any protection. The myrtle will not stand out against a wall, in 

 the neighbourhood of Paris, without a good deal more protection than it requires about London ; 

 but, about Toulon and Nice, it grows wild in abundance; and in gardens it not only forms hedges, 

 but is sometimes trained as a tree with a clear stem. This, however, is no improvement to it; for, as 

 the head is thickly crowded with small branches, which only bear leaves at their extremities, it pre- 

 sents, when the eye is beneath it, a miserable appearance, looking, as is observed in the Nouveau 

 Du Hamcl, more like a magpie's nest, or a dead bush placed on a pole, than a living tree. 



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