Auguft. 
“Rudiment, from which rifes 4 fingle Style. 
reduce from fuch a Stock, or from one al- 
where other Shrubs thrive ill; and mark it for Auegutt. 
ready raifed to Perfection in another Garden, the | the double flowering Bramble. 
Culture and Propagation is eafy. No great Care 
can be needed to make the rude Shrub of a 
' Hedge live in good Ground; nor can there be 
any Difficulty in increaffig a Plant whofe Shoots 
will take root wherefoever they touch the Surface. 
The Root lofes nothing of. its Hardinefs for 
having finer Flowers; nor is the Principle of 
Life lefs ftrong i in the Garden than the Hedge. 
a great Advantage in the proper Difpofition 
of this Plant is, that with all its Elegance it will 
live where other Shrubs would come to nothing. 
No Soil is too poor to feed the Root, no Shel- 
ter, or over-fhadowing of Trees. prevents its 
flowering. 
“Let the Gardener therefore fee for a Bine 
As to its Propagation, Naturé points the 
Way: it is to be by Layers. Thefe will take 
root where they do but touch a proper Ground, 
much more when they are regularly plac’d, cover- 
ed, fixed down, and watered. 
One Year after laying they may be taken up, 
and planted in the Places chofen for them. They 
| fhould:be water’d at firft; but after the Roots 
have once fhot their Fibres into the new Mould, 
nothing hurts them. They fhould be allowed 
Room to fpread ; and their Suckers taken off al- 
ways in Autumn. ‘They may be planted out as 
the Layers; but whether they were wanted or 
not, it would be right to take them away, for 
they would hurt the original Plants. 
5 MANDRAKE, | 
. The Stories credulous Men have told relating 
. to the Mandrake Root are all falfe and frivo- 
lous; but the Plant is fingular enough to deferve 
a Place in every good Collection. 
The Writers on Botany have known it from 
the earlieft. Time, all name it, and all under 
the fame common, Term Mandragora. ‘They add 
indeed the Terms of mas and femina, the Male- 
and Female Mandrake: the former to the Plant 
when the Fruit 1s round; the latter, when it is 
Pear-fhap’d; but the Diftinion is ill fupported. 
_ The fame Seeds produce both, and Linn avs 
is juftify’d in refering them to one common 
Kind; he ufes the Term Mandragora as the 
Name of the Genus; and as he allows no Di- 
ftinction of Species, adds no Epithet. 
The Root is long and thick, fimple, or di- 
vided, as Accidents determine, and hung with 
many Fibres. 
From this rife numerous and vait Leaves, 
long, moderately broad, waved at the Edges, 
pointed, and of a dufky green. — 
Among thefe {pring up. a Number of little 
Footftalks, flender, redifh, three Inches high ; 
each at its Summit bearing one large Flower. 
This is of a whitifh Hue, more or lefs ting’d 
with a deep purple ; ; fucceeded by a round or 
oblong large Fruit. 
The Cup in which the Flower is placed is hol- 
low’d as a Bell, form’d of one Piece cut into five 
Parts, and: rib’d. One Petal’ forms the Body of 
the Flower, but it is deeply cut into ) five Seg- 
ments. 
In the Midft ftand five arched Filaments, hairy 
at their Bottoms, and furrounding a roundifh 
The 
five Filaments place the Plant among the Pen- 
tandria, the fifth Clafs of Linnzus; and the 
fingle Style fhews it one of the Moxog ynia. 
The Fruit is divided into two Cells; and has, 
‘3 =. 
with a flefhy Receptacle convex on each Side, a 
Number of Kidney-fhaped Seeds. 
The whole Plant has an unpleafant Smell, and 
a gloomy. Afpect. 
The Root, concerning which fo many Foole- 
ries have been divulged, and however {trange, 
believed, differs in nothing material from other 
long Roots. Naturally it is fingle, and refembles 
nothing more than a Carrot, except in Colour. 
Sometimes it is divided, or forked, as we fee 
-Radifhes, and in this State it has been fuppofed 
to reprefent a Human Body and Legs. To this 
the Artifice of Vagrants has added a carved 
Fiead; and often the whole has been form’d by 
Art from a Bryony, a Marfhmallow, or an An- 
gelica Root; and the credulous Vulgar have fup- 
pofed the whole Form real. 
The Miftakes of Commentators of thofe early 
Writings in which the Plant is named, the facred 
not excepted, have been fcarce lefs ridiculous than 
thefe Follies of the Mob. 
The facred Writings name a barren D/raelitifh 
Woman, defiring eagerly the Fruit of the Man- 
drake. Dudaim the Hebrew Name, has been under- 
ftood originally to fienify this Plant; but the 
Mandrake has been accounted poifonous. 
The Commentators fhould have employ’d. their 
Attention to difcover, Whether this were a true 
or trivial Charge: inttead of this, they have filled 
Pages with learned Folly, endeavouring to fhew 
that fome other Plant, and not the Mandrake, 
was intended there. 
It is now known. that the Fruit of the Man- 
drake is efculent, and innocent. Faper, of the 
Lynnean Academy, eat a whole Fruit before his 
Pupils; and Txrrenrivs, who tells the Story, 
confirms the Truth, by affuring us that himfelf 
eat another. 
All the Antients join in declaring Mandrake 
a powerful uterine Deobftruent. 
Since 
