ROOTS. 595 
of Justice Shallow, “‘ When a’ was naked, he was for all the world 
like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it 
with a knife.” 
The Turnip (Brassica rapa), belonging really to the cabbage 
order of plants, has become by cultivation from its wild state 
a most valuable food for cattle in the winter, and an excellent 
vegetable for our domestic uses. It exercises some aperient 
action, and the water wherein turnips are boiled will increase 
the flow of urine. The rind is acrid, but the green tops, especially 
of the Swede, when young, and tender, make a wholesome , 
vegetable dish, being a succulent source otf potash, and other 
mineral salts, in the spring-time. en properly cooked, turnips | 
serve to sweeten the blood; but the rind particularly, and the 
pulp in a less degree, contain an essential volatile oil which is 
apt to disagree by provoking flatulent distension. The turnip 
root is sometimes cut up, and partly substituted for the peel and 
pulp of oranges in marmalade ; but it is a remarkable fact that 
there is no starch in the composition of the turnip; seeing, 
therefore, that starch and sugar are absent in the root, there 
seems to be but little reason why turnips should not be allowed 
to diabetic patients. The white turnip eaten at table, though 
finer in flavour, is of less nutritive value than the coarser Swede. 
It contains scarcely any proteid elements, and_“‘ pectose ”’ bodies 
‘make up the bulk of its carbohydrates, instead of starch. If 
turnips are properly grown, in dry, lean, sandy earth, a whole- 
some agreeable bread can be contrived from them, “ of which we 
have eaten at the greatest persons’ tables, and which is hardly 
to be distinguished from the best of wheat.”’ Let the turnips be 
first peeled, and boiled in water till soft and tender, then strongly 
pressing out the juice, mix these together (after being beaten, or 
pounded finely) with their weight of wheat meal. Season it 
as you do other bread, and knead it up; then letting the 
dough remain a little to ferment, fashion the paste into loaves, 
and bake them like ordinary bread. 
A nice wholesome Piedmontese dish of turnips is prepared 
thus: ‘ Half boil your turnip, and cut it in slices like half-crowns ; 
butter a pie dish, and put in the slices; moisten them with a 
little milk, and weak broth; sprinkle over lightly with bread 
crumbs, adding pepper and salt; then bake in the oven until 
the turnips become of a light golden colour.” Horace advised 
field-grown turnips as preferable at a banquet to those of garden 
