OF FOREST-TREES. 



S9 



soon again restored. But it has other excellent properties; in particular, CHAP, 

 it is sovereign against the spleen, which, as Camden * tells us, was there- ^'T^^J^ 

 fore brought first into England by Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

 They also made cans of this wood to drink out of. It was of old count- 

 ed infelix, and under malediction ; and therefore used for wreaths to 

 be put on the heads of malefactors. 



which spread out flat, and hang downward at their ends ; these are covered with a Chestnut* 

 coloured bark, and garnished with very narrow, finely divided leaves, which are smooth, 

 of a bright green colour, and have small leaves or indentures, which lie over each other like 

 the scales of fish. The flowers are produced in taper spikes at the end of the branches, 

 several of them growing on the same branch. The spikes are about an inch long, and 

 as thick as a large earth-worm. The flowers are set very close aU round the spike ; they 

 are very small, and have five concave petals of a pale flesh colour, with five slender stamina 

 terminated by roundish red summits. The flowers appear in July, and are succeeded by 

 oblong, acute-pointed, three-cornered capsules, filled with small downy seeds, which seldom 

 ripen in England. 



2. TAMARISK (germanica ) floribus decandris. Lin. Sp. PI. 387. Tamarisk wilh 

 decandrous jlowers. Tamariscus Germanica. Lob. Icon. 218. German tamarisk. 



This kind grows naturally in Germany, in moist land. It is rather a shrub than a tree, having 

 several ligneous stalks arising from the same root, which grow erect, sending out many side- 

 branches, which are also erect ; these have a pale green bark when young, which afterwards 

 changes to a yellowish colour. The leaves are shorter, and set closer together than those 

 of the other sort, and are of a lighter green, approaching to a gray colour ; the flowers are 

 produced in long loose spikes at the end of the branches, standing erect ; they are larger 

 than those of the former, and have ten stamina standing alternately. It flowers about the 

 same time as the former. Both these sorts cast their leaves in autumn, and it is pretty late 

 in the spring before the young leaves push out, which renders them less valuable. They are 

 now frequently planted in gardens for ornament, and when mixed with other shrubs, make 

 a pretty variety. 



This GENUS of plants is of the class and order Pentandna Trigynia, 



The culture of both sorts of Tamarisk is very easy. Every cutting will grow that 

 is set in winter, and will be a good plant by the autumn following. The increasing them 

 by layers has been recommended ; but that is bad advice, not only as being unnecessary 

 ti-ouble, but because layers of this tree very often will not strike root at all. The best time 

 for the work is October, though any time of the winter will do. The cuttings should be of 

 the last summer's shoot ; and a moist part of the garden is most eligible for them to be 

 planted in. In two years they will be good plants for the wilderness or shrubbery, and 

 may be planted out in almost any soil, though they best like a light moist earth, especially 

 the German sort ; for in countries where the Tamarisk naturally grows, it is generally found 

 in low watery grounds. 



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