Natural History, 497 



immersed in corn, which receives no injury from their contact. 

 If the American apples were packed among grain, they would 

 arrive here in much finer condition. In Portugal it is customary 

 to have a small ledge in every apartment, (immediately under the 

 cornice,) barely wide enough to hold an apple : in this way the 

 ceilings are fringed with fruit, which are not easily got at without a 

 ladder ; while one glance of the eye serves to shew if any depreda- 

 tions have been committed. 



21. On the Cultivation and Forcing Sea Kale. — The Crambe 

 maritima, or Sea Kale, is an indigenous plant of this and other 

 countries of Europe, and found on the sandy beach of the sea-shore. 



It has been long introduced into our gardens as a culinary 

 vegetable, but it is only within the last thirty years, that it has 

 been brought into general use, and subjected to a mode of cultiva- 

 tion, very different from that which was first bestowed upon it. 



The principal value of this plant is its property of early growth ; 

 appearing at table at a time when few such things can be had. It 

 precedes asparagus, for which it is no bad substitute ; and as it 

 makes a dish of itself, it gives a variety to the delicacies of the 

 table ; and if the opinions given of its medicinal virtues be correct, 

 it is well worth cultivation, and the notice we are about to take of 

 it, in describing an easy method of having it in great perfection 

 throughout the winter months, and up to the time it may be 

 gathered from the natural ground. 



Prepare one or more beds (with alleys two feet wide between) 

 for the reception of the seeds, in the following manner: mark out 

 the bed or beds two and a half feet wide, and of any required 

 length, as near as can be from east to west ; line off the sides and 

 ends, driving a stake at each corner to ascertain the boundaries ; 

 dig out the earth of the bed one spade deep, removing it to some 

 distance ; fill this excavation with the purest and finest sand which 

 can be procured in the neighbourhood, either from the sea-shore, 

 the bed of a river, or from a pit. It signifies nothing of what 

 colour it is, so it be pure, and as free from loam as it can be had ; 

 for in proportion as the soil of the bed is poor or rich, so will the 

 flavour of the plant be when dressed. When this precaution is not 

 taken, and when the plants are suffered to enjoy the rich and culti- 

 vated soil of a kitchen garden, or the situation made so, by rich 

 dressings or coverings of fresh manure, the plants are stimulated 

 into an unnatural luxuriance, which deteriorates the flavour, impart- 

 ing to them that strong disagreeable scent and taste, resembling 

 common cabbage, than which nothing can be a greater drawback on 

 the value of the vegetable ; but when grown entirely in pure sand, 

 the flavour is mild and pleasant, and is relished by most palates. 



When the bed is filled with sand and raised therewith about 

 six inches above the natural level of the ground, (and this should 

 be done previous to the end of March, which is the sowing season,) 

 draw a drill along the middle, from end to end, about three inches 



