CALYCANTHUS, in botany: A genus of the polygynia order, belonging to the icofandria class of plants; and in the natural method classed with those of which the order is doubtful. The calyx is monophyllous, urceolate, or blown up; squarrose, or frizzled with small coloured leaves, the corolla consisting of the leaves on the calyx; the styles are numerous, each with a glandular stigma; the seeds are many, each with a train, within a succulent calyx. There are two species; namely, 1. The precox, which is not quite inured to this climate; and, 2. The floridus, a flowering calycanthus, or Carolina allspice tree, a native of Carolina. It seldom grows, at least with us, to more than five feet high. It divides into many branches irregularly near the ground. They are of a brown colour, and being bruised emit a most agreeable odour. The leaves that garnish this delightful aromatic are of an oval figure, pointed: They are near four inches long, and are at least two and a half broad, and are placed opposite by pairs on the branches. At the end of these stand the flowers, of a kind of chocolate-purple colour, and which are possessed of the opposite qualities of the bark on the branches. They stand single on their short footstalks, come out in May and June, and are succeeded by ripe seeds in England. The propagation of this shrub is not very difficult; though more than common care must be taken, after small plants are obtained, to preserve them till they are of a size to be ventured abroad. The last year's shoots, if laid in the ground, the bark especially being a little bruised, will strike root within the compass of twelve months, particularly if the layers are shaded, and now and then watered in the summer's drought. In the spring they should be taken off, and planted in pots; and if these are afforded a small degree of heat in a bed, they will strike so much the sooner and stronger. After they have been in this bed a month or six weeks, they should be taken out. In the heat of the summer they should be placed in the shade; and if the pots are plunged into the natural ground, it will be so much the better. At the approach of the succeeding winter's bad weather, the pots should be removed into the green-house, or some shelter, and in the spring may resume their old stations; and this should be repeated till they are of a proper size and strength to be planted out to stand. If the pots in which they were first planted were small, they may be shifted into larger a spring or two after; and, when they have got to be pretty strong plants, they may be turned out, mould and all, into the places where they are to remain. By this care of potting them, and housing them during the severe weather in winter, the young crop will be preserved; otherwise, if they were planted immediately abroad, the first hard frost the ensuing winter would destroy them all: Taurer's bark about their roots will be the most proper security;
Calycifloræ security; as they are at best, when full grown, but tender plants, and must have the warmest situation and the driest soil.