ROTATION OF CROPS. 



255 



RUBBISH. 



Rose Bay. — See Rhododendron 

 and Oleander. 



Rose Campion. — Agrostemrna. — 

 The very pretty flowers known by 

 this name are now included in the 

 genus Lychnis. Many of the kinds 

 are annuals ; but the common Rose 

 Campion, A. coronaria, is a peren- 

 nial. 



Rosemary. — See Rosmarinus. — 



Rose of Heaven. — Agrostemrna 

 or Lychnis Cceli Rosa, an orna- 

 mental annual from the Levant, 

 quite hardy in British gardens. 



Rose of Jericho. — Anastdtica 

 hierochuwina.- -Acruciferous annual 

 from the Levant, of no beauty, but 

 curious from the manner in which its 

 branches curl round the seeds when 

 they are ripe. The end of the shoot 

 containing the seeds thus protected, 

 falls off, and is blown by the wind 

 from place to place without discharg- 

 ing the seeds, so long as it is dry ; but 

 as soon as the ball reaches a moist 

 place, where the seeds can germinate, 

 the protecting branches relax, and the 

 seed drops out. 



Rose-root — See Rhodiola. 



Rosmarinus. — Labiatce. — The 

 Rosemary, R. officinalis, is a well- 

 known shrub, which will thrive in 

 any sheltered situation, but which is 

 liable to be injured by frost in severe 

 winters. It will grow in any com- 

 mon garden-soil ; and it is propagated 

 by cuttings, planted in spring. 



Rotation of Crops. — It has been 

 found by a series of experiments that 

 the same kind of annual plant should 

 never be grown for more than two 

 years in succession in the same ground, 

 without manuring or renewing the 

 soil ; as plants either throwout a quan- 

 tity of excrementitious matter which 

 they will not reimbibe, or exhaust the 

 soil of all those properties which are 

 nourishing for them. The ground, 

 however, which thus becomes unfit 

 for one kind of plant is found to be 



suitable for another kind quite differ- 

 ent ; and the making these plants 

 succeed each other in a proper manner 

 is called the rotation of crops. Peren- 

 nial plants, and trees and shrubs, are 

 not so liable to injury from their poi- 

 soning the soil, as they elongate their 

 roots every year, so as to have their 

 spongioles always in fresh soil ; but 

 some shrubs, such as Roses, which 

 never have long roots, should either 

 be transplanted every third or fourth 

 year, or have manure laid on the sur- 

 face of the soil, to supply them with 

 fresh food. 



Rotheap is a heap composed of 

 sand, and such fruit as haws, holly- 

 berries, ashkeys, hornbeam-nuts, and 

 similar seed-vessels, which is turned 

 over several times in the course of 

 the winter, to promote the decompo- 

 sition of the exterior covering of the 

 seed. The object is to save room in 

 the nursery, because these seeds, and 

 others, if sown before the flesh or 

 exterior covering is rotted off, will lie 

 dormant in the soil for a year ; Avhere- 

 as by rotting it off and sowing the 

 seeds in the spring of the second year 

 after which they are gathered, they 

 come up the following May or June. 

 The rotheap is kept in what is called 

 the rotting-ground, which may be in 

 any open situation fully exposed to 

 the weather. The heaps may be one 

 or two feet in thickness, and of any 

 convenient width, the object being to 

 produce decay without inducing such 

 an active fermentation as would gene- 

 rate sufficient heat to destroy the 

 vital principle in the seeds. 



Rubbish — such as broken bricks, 

 stones, remains of old walls, &c. — is of 

 great use for laying at the bottom of a 

 flower-bed or border in an open gar- 

 den in which bulbs are to be grown. 

 A similar bed has also been found 

 very useful for growing Dahlias, as 

 they are very liable to be injured by 

 stagnant moisture. 



