NER - 
dom deftitute of dowers. This has been' by feme per- 
form, who have only a fuperficial knowledge of plants, 
thought only a variety of the common fort, but thofe 
v/ho have cultivated both, know better ; for the firft 
will live through the winter in the open air, in a 
warm fituation, but this is too tender to thrive in 
England, unlefs prelerved in a warm green-houfe ; 
nor will the plants flower without the afliftance of a 
glafs-cafe in fummer. The third fort was not known 
here till the beginning of laft century, being a 
ftranger in Europe, but the former has been in the 
Englifh gardens near two centuries : nor has the feeds 
of the firft ever produced plants of the third fort, 
though this has been positively aflferted by perfons of 
no fkill. 
The leaves of this fort are fix inches long, and one 
inch broad in the middle, of a much thinner texture 
than thofe of the firft, and their ends are generally 
reflexed ; they are of a light green, and irregularly 
placed on the branches ; fometimes they are by pairs, 
at others alternate, and fometimes by threes round 
the branches. The flowers are produced in very large 
bunches at the end of the branches, Handing upon 
long foot-ftalks ; they have three or four feries of pe- 
tals within each other, fo are more or lefs double. 
The flowers are much larger than thofe of the com- 
mon fort, and fmell like the flowers of Hawthorn. 
The plain flowers are of a foft red, or Peach colour ; 
but in moft they are beautifully variegated with a 
deeper red, and make a fine appearance. Their 
ufualtimeof flowering is in July and Auguft, but 
if they are placed in a warm ftove, they will conti- 
nue in flower till Michaelmas. As the flowers of this 
are double, they are not fucceeded by feeds ; and at 
prefent we are unacquainted with the Angle flowering 
of this kind, for the fecond is undoubtedly a diftinck 
fpecies. 
All the fpecies of the Rofe Bay are fuppofed to have 
a poifohous quality ; the young branches, when cut 
or broken, have a milky fap or juice, and the larger 
branches, when burnt, emit a very difagreeable odour, 
fo there is great reafon to believe the plants have 
fome noxious quality ; but this genus of plants has 
been confounded by many of the writers on botany 
with the Chamcerhcdodendros of Tournefort, and 
many of the noxious qualities with which the latter 
abounds, have been applied to the Nerium, but par- 
ticularly that of the honey, about Trebifond, which 
is reckoned very unwhoifome* which has been fup- 
pofed to be occafioned by the bees fucking it from 
the flowers of the Nerium $ whereas it is from the 
flowers of the Chamterhododendros, as Tournefort 
has fully informed us ; but the affinity of their names 
in the Greek language has occafioned thefe two plants 
to be often confounded, 
Thefe plants are generally propagated by layers in 
this country, for although they will fometimes take 
root from cuttings, yet that being an uncertain me- 
thod, the other is generally purfued ; and as the 
plants are very apt to produce fuckers, or fhoots from 
their roots, thofe are belt adapted for laying, for the 
old branches will not put out roots •, when thefe are 
laid down, they fhould be flit at a joint, in the fame 
manner as is pra&ifed in laying of Carnations, which 
will greatly facilitate their taking root : if thefe 
branches are laid down in autumn, and are properly, 
fupplied with water, they will have taken root by that 
time twelvemonth, when they fhould be carefully 
raifed up with a trowel ; and if they have taken good 
root, they fhould be cut off from the old plant, and 
each planted in a feparate fmall pot, filled with foft 
loamy earth ; thofe of the common fort will require 
no other care, but to be placed in a fhady fituation, 
and gently watered as the feafon may require, till 
they have taken new root ; but the two other fpecies 
fhould be plunged into a very moderate hot-bed, to 
forward their taking root, dbferving to fhade them 
from the fun in the heat of the day ; after the com- 
mon fort has taken new root, the plants may be 
placed in a flickered fituation with other hardy exo- 
tics, where they may remain till the end of Octo- 
ber, when they fhould either be removed into the 
'green-houfe, or placed under a hot- bed frame, 
where they may be protected from froft in winter,- 
but enjoy the free air at all times when the weather 
is mild. 
This fort is fo hardy as to live abroad in mild winters, 
if planted in a warm fituation ; but as they are liable 
to be deftroyed in fevere froft, the belt way is to keep 
the plants in pots, or if they are very large in tubs, 
that they be flickered in winter, and in the furnmer 
removed abroad, placing them in a warm fheltered 
fituation. In the winter they may be placed with 
Myrtles, and other of the hardier kinds of exotic 
plants, in a place where they may have as much free 
air as poffible in mild Weather, but fcreened from 
fevere froft ; for if thefe are kept too warm in winter* 
they will not flower ftrong, and when the air is ex- 
cluded from them, the ends of their fhoots will be- 
come mouldy * fo that the hardier they are treated, 
provided they are not expofed to hard frofts, the bet- 
ter they will thrive. 
The other two forts require a different treatment, 
otherwife they will not make any appearance * there- 
fore the young plants when they have taken new root, 
fhould be gradually inured to bear the open air, into 
which they fhould be removed in July, where they 
may remain till October, provided the weather con- 
tinues mild; but during this time, they fhould be 
placed in a fheltered fituation ; and upon the firft 
approach of froft, they fhould be removed into fhel- 
ter, for if their leaves are injured by froft, they will 
change to a pale yellow, and will not recover their 
ufual colour till the following autumn. Thefe forts 
may be preferved in a good green-houfe through the 
winter, and the plants will be ftronger than thole 
which are more tenderly treated ; but in May, when 
the flower-buds begin to appear, the plants fhould be 
placed in an open glafs-cafe, where they may be de- 
fended Trom the inclemency of the weather ; but 
when it is warm weather, the air fhould at all times 
be admitted to them in plenty. With this manage- 
ment the flowers will expand, and continue long in 
beauty ; and during that time, there are few plants 
which are equal to them, either to the eye or nofe* 
for their fcent is very like that of the flowers of the 
White Thorn ; and the bunches of flowers will be ve- 
ry large, if the plants are ftrong* 
NERVES are long tough firings, which run either 
acrofs, or lengthways, in the leaves of plants. 
NICOTIAN A. Tourn. Inft. R. H. 117. tab. 41. 
Lin. Gen. Plant. 220. [This plant takes its name 
from James Nicotius, counfellor to Francis II. King 
of France, who in the year 1560, being ambaffador 
to the court of Portugal, bought the feeds of this 
plant of a Dutchman, who brought them from Ame- 
rica, and lent them to Queen Catharine de Medic is 
in France ; where, being fown, they produced feeds : 
the Indian inhabitants call it Tabac, becaufe it grew 
in an ifland called Tabaco, or Tobago. The lefler 
fort is by fome called Hyofcyamus, becaufe it agrees 
in fome of its characters with this plant ; it is alio 
called Priapeia.] Tobacco; in French, Nicotians on 
1 Tabac . 
The Characters are, 
*Fhe empalement of the flower is permanent, of one leaf . * 
cut into five acute fegments. The flower has one funnel- 
floaped petal, with a long tub flpread open at the brim , 
and ending in five acute points. It hath five awl- fo aped 
ftamina which ’are the length of the tubs, a little inclined , 
and terminated by oblong funimits ; and an oval ger- 
men fiupporting a fender flyle, crowned by an indented 
fiigfna. The germcn afterward turns to an oval capfuls , 
with a furrow on each fide, having two cells which open 
at the top, and are filled with rough feeds faftened to the 
partition. 
This genus of plants is ranged in the firft feckion of 
Linnaeus’s fifth clafis, which contains thofe plants,, 
whole flowers have five flam n a and pine flyle. 
The 
