MYR 
fmall coitipafs, Is the 'beft method to have them ■ 
liandfome \ but then theie fheered plants will not pro- 
duce any flowers, for which reafon that fort with 
double flowers fhould not be clipped, becaufe the 
chief beauty of that confifts in its flowers \ but it will 
be neceffary to fuffer a plant or two of each kind to 
grow rude, for the ufe of their branches in nofe- 
gays, &c. for it will greatly deface thofe which have 
been conftantly fheered to cut off their branches. 
As thefe plants advance in ftature, they fhould an- 
nually be removed into larger pots, acording to the 
fize of their roots ; but you muft be careful not to put 
them into pots too large, which will caufe them to 
moot weak, and many times prove the deftru&ion of 
them j therefore when they are taken out of the former 
pors, the earth about their roots fhould be pared off, 
and that within fide the ball muft be gently loofened, 
that the roots may not be too clofely confined ; and 
then place them into the fame pots again, provided 
they are not too fmall, filling up the Tides and bottom 
of them with frefh rich earth, and giving them 
plenty of water to fettle the earth to their roots j 
which fhould be frequently repeated, for they require 
to be often watered both in winter and fummer, but 
in hot weather they muft have it in plenty. 
The beft feafon for fhifting thefe plants is either in 
April or Auguft, for if it be done much fooner in the 
fpring, the plants are then in a flow growing ftate, and 
fo not capable to ftrike out frefh roots again very foon; 
and if it be done later in autumn, the cold weather 
coming on will prevent their taking root ; nor is it ad- 
vifeable to do it in the great heat of fummer, becaufe 
they will require to be very often watered, and alfo to 
be placed in the fhade, otherwife they will be liable to 
droop for a confiderable time •, and that being the fea- 
fon when thefe plants fhould be placed amongft other 
exotics, to adorn the feveral parts of the garden, thefe 
plants, being then removed, fhould not be expofed 
until they have taken root again, which, at that time 
(if the feafon be hot and dry) will be three weeks or 
a month. 
In October, when the nights begin to be frofty, 
you fhould remove the plants into the green-houfe *, 
but if the weather proves favourable in autumn (as it 
often happens) they may remain abroad until the be- 
ginning of November ; for if they are carried into the 
green-houfe too foon, and the autumn fhould prove 
warm, they will make frefh fhoots at that feafon, which 
will be weak, and often grow mouldy in winter, if the 
weather fhould be fo fevere as to require the windows 
to be kept clofely fhut, whereby they will be greatly 
defaced •, for which reafon they fhould always be 
kept as long abroad as the feafon will permit, and re- 
moved out again in the fpring before they fhoot out j 
and during the winter feafon that they are in the 
green-houfe, they fhould have as much free air as pof- 
fible when the weather is mild. 
The three firft-mentioned forts I have feen planted 
abroad in warm fituations, and upon a dry foil, where 
they have endured the cold of our winters for feveral 
years very well, with only being covered in very hard 
frofts with two or three mats, and the furface of the 
ground about their roots covered with a little mulch 
to prevent the froft from entering the ground ; but in 
Cornwall and Devonfhire, where the winters are more 
favourable than in moft other parts of England, there 
are large hedges of Myrtle which have been planted 
feveral years, and are very thriving and vigorous, 
fome of which are upward of fix feet high ; and I be- 
lieves if the double flowering kind were planted 
MYR 
abioad, it would endure the cold as well as any of the 
forts, it being a native of the fouthern parts 
or Prance. This, and the Orange-leaved kind, are 
the moft difficult to take root from cuttings ^ but if 
they are planted toward the latter end of June, mak- 
ing choice of only fuch fhoots as are tender, and the 
pots are plunged into an old bed of tanners bark which 
has loft moft of its heat, and the glaffes fhaded every 
day, they will take root extremely well, as I have 
more than once experienced. The Orange-leaved 
fort, and thofe with variegated leaves, are fomewhat 
tenderer than the ordinary forts, and fhould be houfed 
a little fooner in autumn, and placed farther from the 
windows of the green-houfe. 
The eighth fort is at prefent rare in Europe, fo is in 
very few gardens. This fort was by Dr. Linnaeus 
fepa rated from the Myrtles in the former editions of 
his works, and had the title of Myrfine applied to it ; 
but in his Species of Plants, he has joined it to that 
genus again, to which, according to his fyftem, it 
properly belongs ; for the number of petals, ftamina, 
and ftyle, do agree with thofe of the Myrtle, but it dif- 
fers in fru&ifkation, this having but one feed in each, 
fruit, and the Myrtle has four or five. 
This plant is with difficulty propagated, which oc- 
cafions its prefent fcarcity, for as it does not produce 
ripe feeds in Europe, it can only be increafed by lay- 
ers or cuttings. By the former method the layers 
are commonly two years before they take root, and 
the cuttings frequently fail, though the latter is pre- 
ferred, when performed at a proper feafon and in a 
right method ; the beft time to plant the cuttings is 
in May : in the choice of them, it fhould be the 
(hoots of the former year, with a fmall piece of the 
two years wood at bottom ; thefe Ihould be planted 
in fmall pots, filled with foft loamy earth, for fmall 
pots are to be preferred to large ones for this pur- 
pofe, and they fhould be plunged into a very mo- 
derate hot-bed of tanners bark ; and if the pots are 
each covered with fmall bell or hand-glafies, fuch as 
have been ufed for blowing of Carnations to exclude 
the air, it will be of great fervice to promote the cut- 
tings putting out roots, though they are covered with 
the glafles of the hot- bed above them ; the cuttings 
fhould be fhaded from the fun in the heat of the day, 
and gently refrefhed with water, as the earth in the 
pots is found to dry, but they fhould by no means 
have too much wet ; thofe cuttings which fucceed, 
will have taken root by July, when they fhould be 
gradually inured to bear the open air, into which 
it will be proper to remove them about the middle 
of that month, that they may be ftrengthened before 
w infer, but it will not be proper to tranfplant the cut- 
tings till fpring *, the pots muft be removed into a tem- 
perate ftove in autumn, and during the winter the 
cuttings muft be gently refrefhed with water. In the 
fpring they fhould be carefully taken up, and each 
planted in a fmall pot filled with light earth from a 
kitchen-garden, and plunged into a moderate hot- 
bed to forward their taking frefh root ; then they 
fhould be gradually hardened, and in July placed in 
the open air in a fheltered fituation, where they may 
remain till the end of September, and then be re- 
moved into the ftove. 
This plant will not live through the winter in Eng- 
land in a green-houfe, but if it is placed in a moderate 
degree of warmth, it will flower well in winter •, and 
in July, Auguft, and September, the plants fhould 
be placed abroad in a fheltered fituation. 
MYRT US BR ABANT I C A, See Myrica; 
NAP- 
