786 THE HF.LIOTROPIUM. 
ARTICLE X. 
ON THF, CULTURE OF THE HELIOTROPIUM PERUVIANUM. 
F.Y F. F. ASHFORD. 
Agreeable to my jjromise, I send yon the account of a method of 
growing the Heliotrope or Turnsole to gi-eat perfection, hoping it 
may be of some service to the more inexperienced portion of your 
readers. The Heliotropium, (from Helios, the sun; tropi, turning,) 
is a native of the shores of Peru, and vi^as introduced into this country 
in 1757. It belongs to the fifth class and first Order; Pentandria, 
{pente, five; aner, a man.) Monogynia {monos, one; ffyne, a wo- 
man,) of the Linnean classification, and to the order Boragineas \m- 
der the sub-class CoroUiflorse of the Jussieuean or Natural Arrange- 
ment. Its botanical characters are a shrubby stalk, branching nu- 
merously, three or four feet high ; spear- shaped -ovate, rough, veined, 
hairy leaves ; from the ends of the branches, issue numerous clus- 
tered umbels of pale blue flowers ; Calyx monophyllus, five-cleft at 
the top. Corolla, monopetalous, divided into five unequal segments. 
Stamina five filaments and small anthera. Pistillum, four germina, 
slender style, and notched. Pericarpium none ; seminae oval, lodg- 
ed in the calyx. 
To propagate this fragrant Exotic with success, cuttings must be 
taken from the parent about the latter end of February or beginning 
of March, and planted in pots of rich garden soil, and plunged in a 
strong hot-bed or bark pit, removing all decayed leaves, &c. as they 
appear, or they will affect the whole. In two or three weeks, when 
the cuttings have grown, they must be removed to an airy part of the 
hot-house for a few days, to hai'den previous to potting. If a suc- 
cession of flowering plants, through the autumn and winter months 
are wanted, more cuttings should be put in, during May and June. 
If they are intended to be kejit in jDots, provide some good soil, 
composed of one vvheel-barrowful of good maiden loam, one wheel- 
barrowful of good rotten horse dung, half a vvheel-barrowful of sandy 
peat, half a wheel -barrow ful of prepared leaf or vegetable mould. 
The whole must be well chopped and incorporated together, but not 
sifted ; pot off the cuttings in forty-eight-sized pots, allowing as 
much soil to adhere to their roots as possible ; cover these balls of 
roots about a quarter of an inch deep, pinch off the extreme ends of 
the plants to cause them to grow bushy, and after giving them a 
wntering, place them in a shady part of the stove till they have ta- 
