FLO
the whole procers is this : place the bulbs at firft only on the furface of the water ; for thus they will ftrike out their fibres moft ftrongly. When they have flood thus fix weeks, pour in the water fo high as to cover them intirely, and keep them at this ftandard till they have done flowering. Sometimes the roots will become mouldy in feveral parts while they Hand above the water, and the cleaning them of it is to no purpofe, for it will eat and fpread the farther, and frequently cat thro' two or three of their coats. In this cafe, they muft be immediately covered with water, and the mould will be ftopp'd and they will become found, and flower as well as thofe which never had any fuch diftemperature. If the roots are fuffered to remain in water all the year, they will not decay, but will flower again at their proper feafon, and that as vi- goroufly as thofe which are taken out and dried. The old fibres of thefe roots never rot till they are ready to pufh out new ones. It is found by experience, that the hyacinth, and many other plants, grow to a greater perfection thus in water, than when in the ground. There is a peculiar fpecies of hy- acinth, called Keyfer's jewel ; this never, or however very rarely, produces feed veiTels in tiie common way of flowering in the ground, but it often will produce fome pods when blown in water.
Mr. Miller has intimated in the Philofophical Tranfafiionsj that bulbs fet in glafles, grow weaker, and fhould be renewed with frefh ones every other year, but it is found that when they are managed in this manner, and kept under water, at the time of taking them up, they are as large, and fome of them larger and ftronger than when planted, and if thefe be dried at a proper feafon, they will flower year after year as well as frefh ones.
Ranunculus and anemone roots have been found to fhoot up their ftalks very well in this way, but the flowers are ufually blafted, Which feems to arife from want of free air. Pinks will flower very well in this manner, and auriculas thrive very well, and may with care be brought to flower, but not ftrongly. Rofes, jeflamines and honey-fuckles, may alfo be made to flower, this way, and will thrive and fend out fuckers ; the beft pieces to plant are fuckers cut off about three inches under ground, without any fibres.
The fucculent plants may alfo be raifed this way, for inftance, an opuntia or Indian fig. If a fragment of a leaf of this plant be cut and laid by to dry for a month, till it is an abfolute skin, as foon as it is put in this manner into water, it begins to plump up, and foon fends out fibrous roots, and produces new leaves, at lead as quickly as it would do in the ground. Philof. Tranf. N 8 . 432. p. 274.
This is the more fingular in thefe fort of plants, becaufe in their natural ftate in the ground, they cannot bear much wa- ter. This method of growing of plants is not particular to the bulbous rooted ones, but others may even be raifed from feed by it ; a bean or pea fet in this manner, will grow up to its proper ftandard, and will flower and produce pods, which will ripen their feed.
The fmaller feeds may alfo be raifed in this manner, by the help of wool to fupport them. See the article Seeds. No plant tranfplanted out of earth into water, will thrive kindly ; but any plant, whether raifed from the root or feed in water, may be tranfplanted to the earth, and will fucceed ve- ry well. It may be poffible therefore, from this method of raifing plants in water, to come at a better way than is ufualy praftis'd of raifing fome roots in the earth which are fubjefl to rot there ; fuch as anemonies, ranunculus's and hyancinths. A bulb drop- ped by chance upon the ground, will ftrike out both ftronger and more numerous fibres, than thofe which are planted in the ufual way in the ground. On this principle it may be proper to take out the earth of the bed where the bulbs are to Hand at the time of planting them, to fuch a depth as they are to be placed under it, when fet for flowering. The bulbs are then to be fet in their places on the furface of this low ground, and to ftand there till they have (hot out their fibres and their head, then the earth is to be added over them by degrees, till they are covered as high above the head as they are in the ufual way of planting them ; thus they would be preferved from the danger of rotting, and their fibres would be much ftronger, and confequently they would draw more nourifhment, and flmer better than in the common way. The common way of planting thefe roots, renders them liable to be deftroyed by either extreme of a wet or a dry feafon ; in the firft cafe they immediately rot by the abundant moifture they receive ; and in the other, they become dry as a ftick and mouldy, fo that they are infallibly rotted the firft rain that falls afterwards.
The directions neceflary to the fuccefs of the bulbs planted in water are thefe ; when the leaden falfc bottoms are fixed down tight wnhin two or three inches of the bottom of the veflel (which is only defigned to hold the flicks fteady which are to fupport the leaves and ftalks) then lay on the lead which is to fupport the bulbs, placing the notched pait oppofiie to that in the talfe bottom, as near as the flicks when placed, will fuffei it ; then place the bulbs one in each hole, and fill up with water to the upper lead. The bottom of the bulb will then
FLU
touch the Water; and as the Water diminifhes in quantity keep it fupphed with more up to the fame height fori month or fix weeks, in which time the bulbs will have (hot ftrong fibres • then fill up water about half an inch above the furface of the lead, and by degrees as the fibres ftrengthen, and the plume flioots from the head, keep the water higher and higher till at length the whole bulb be covered. And the wafer is to be kept at this ftandard till the feafon for drying them returns At the time of planting the bulbs, they muft be carefully cleaned from any foulnefs at the bottom, by fcrapine them clean with the point of a knife, till the found part of the bulb appears; clear them likewife from any loofe skins and even take off their brown skin, till they appear white • otherw.fe this brown skin will tinge the water, and the growth will not fucceed fo well.
The notches in the fide of each lead, are intended to rive ca- fy paflage to the water, that if there fhould be any foulnefs or fediment in it, on making it a little, it may all run thro' and frefh water be put in its place ; but this Drifting the wa- ter need not be done more than once or twice in a winter as there may be occafion from the foulnefs; and when this is done, the fides Of the veffel (hould be cleaned with a paint- er sbrufh, and r.nfed out again, and the bulbs themfelves vralhed, by pouring water on them at a little diftance At any time when the outer skins of the bulbs dry, they are to be peeled off, that they may not occafion foulnefs in the wa- ter, and if any duft or foul matter be at any time obferved fwiming on the furface, the method is to fill up the pot or veflel to the rim and let it run over : this will carry off that .ght foulnefs, and the water may afterwards be poured away to the proper ftandard. * ■>
Bulbs of equal bignefs fhould be planted together in the fame pot, that they may all have the fame benefit of the water, INarc. flus s and hyancinths do well together ; as alfo tulips and jonquils, and crocus's and fnow-drops. Phil. Tranf. N° 411 p. 278, ' ^ "
The method of caufing flower roots of the bulbous kind to fend forth their flower, early, by placing them over or in veflcls of water, has been already delivered; but there IS yet another way of caufing them to blow early in pots of earth in this manner. Diflblve crude fal armoniac in wa er, ,n luch proportion, as that a piece of the bienefs of a walnut may be diflblved in every quart; then prepare fome pots of a proper fize filled with good garden mould Sow the annual flowers, and fet the roots of the perennial ones, fuch as tulips &c. ,n thefe pots at Michaelmafs; continue the enur- ing feafon to water them with this folution of the fait and keep them in a warm room ; by this means they will be in full Februar maS ' and W ' U conti «"= thro' January and
FLOWN /Lrr, atfea. The Teamen fay a fhip fails with ,W Jbuts, .when her fheets are not haled home, or clofe to the blocks • they fay alfo let fly the Jheetl when in a great guft of windi for fear the fhip fnould overfet, or fiend her top mafts, the^ would have the lheet go amain, or as far as it will run be- caufe then the fail will hold no wind; and when the flieets are thus let go, they fay her flieets are fiown
FL ?r- X, u i " l , the f :0l0Ur l"^' a ™7 wdl ckaned wool ufed to abforb the colours of cochineal, &c. It is prepared in this manner; infufe a pound of the fineft flieerings of woollen cloth ,n cold water for one day, then take them up, and prefs them well together to wafh off the unauofity the wool natu- rally has This is the Ample /„, which when impregnated with a Motion of alum, is called alumed>r; this if done in the following manner. Take four ounces of roach alum and two ounces of crude tartar, both in fine powder; out them into an earthen veflel with three quarts of water Vet it over the fire, and when it begins to boil, then put in the fbx ; le the liquor now boil half an hour over a gentle fire/then take it off, and when all is perfeffly cooled, wafh the te with fair water, le.ing them ftand in it two hours, then prefs
vr rrnir'S '"l"" 1 Iet them ^ M^Art of Glafs. p. i 72 .
FLUDER , or&aFLUDDER, in zoology, the name of a water fowl of the colymbus or diver kind, defcribed by Gefner, and fome other authors, under the name of the colymbus maxi- mus, or iargeft diver. It is nearly of the fize of a goofe and moves but very flowly on the water, and much worfe either on land, or in the air, being but little able, either to walk or fly Its beak is long, and its legs very fliort ; it makes a very fhnll noife, and is remarkable for diving to vaft deoths Its feet are webbed, its back is of a greyifh colour, and its belly white It feems much to approach to the northern co- lymbus, called the lumme, and perhaps differs only in colour which may be an accidental variety, as is common in bird.' Kay 's Ornithol. p. 260.
FLTJELLIN, elaiine, in medicine. See Elatine
FLUENT or flowing entity, in the doarine of fluxions, that quantity (whether line, furlace, folid, Sec.) which is ccnti- Ofand"^' ° rdeCrea "^ S -'"e article F.oxroK, Mr. Maclaurin, in his treatife of fluxions, has made feveral inquiries mtojW, reducible to the redification of the ellip-
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