Windozv Gardenino; 



239 



ment are capable of much variation. There 

 are always procurable many subjects, hardy 

 and durable, that can be employed to serve 

 such a purpose as this during the winter and 

 spring months. I have used Iberis coriaefolia 

 in this box, for instance, with surprising 

 effect; early-blooming Pansies, double Dai- 

 sies, Phloxes verna, Frondosa, and Nelsoni, 

 and many others, of which these are fitting 

 types, may also be employed. A few dwarf 

 evergreens can be used during winter and 



early spring, to be succeeded by flowering 

 and foliaged plants for summer and autumn. 

 Only let there be the desire to do something, 

 and means will be found close at hand to 

 effect the object in view. In the grandeur of 

 our conceptions of horticultural enterprize, 

 and in the lofty ideas of gardening prevalent 

 now-a-days, we are apt to lose sight of the 

 value of simple things, which, though unpre- 

 tentious, are often highly praiseworthy and 

 effective. — Quo in the Garden, 



SOMETHING ABOUT PICKLES. 



PICKLES, as an article of food, are to 

 the best stomachs only appetizing, and 

 to the weakest positively injurious. Still 

 people will eat pickles, and \yhatever our 

 " physiological " friends may say, we do not 

 doubt that things so generally craved have 

 some use in the animal economy. When 

 soldiers have chronic diarrhoea, our army 

 surgeons usually allow them to eat pickles 

 and other things, that, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, would be considered fatal, and to the 

 surprise of everybody the hopeless patients 

 often recover. So, without discussing the 

 dietetics of the matter, we accept pickles as 

 a fact. To look at the matter physiologically, 

 a pickle is a mere vegetable sponge to hold 

 vinegar. Any vegetable tissue that is not so 

 fibrous or tough as to be unpleasant to masti- 

 cate, and which has no disagreeable flavour 

 of its own, will answer for pickling. If the 

 article pickled has an acceptable flavour of its 

 own, all the better. It is the possession of 

 this that makes the Cucumber the most popu- 

 lar of all pickles. Vegetables which have no 

 marked taste are made flavorous by the 

 free use of spices. It is customary to salt 

 pickles before putting them into the vinegar. 

 Why do we ? — It is not for the purpose of 

 flavouring them with salt, for this can be 

 added to the vinegar. This matter of salting 

 pickles brings us to the question of osmose, 

 which we cannot find space to discuss. 



Briefly, when a fresh vegetable is placed in 

 salt and water, an interchange takes place 

 between the juices contained in the tissues of 

 the vegetable and the brine by which it is 

 surrounded. The natural juices pass out 

 and the brine passes into the vegetable ; the 

 brine being denser, it, according to a well- 

 known law, passes in more slowly than the 

 juices of the vegetable pass out, and the 

 salted things shrivel. When salted pickles 

 are placed in water the case is reversed, 

 their shrivelled tissues are full of brine, much 

 heavier than the water by which they are 

 surrounded, the brine passes out, and the 

 water goes in and restores the plumpness. 

 Soaked pickles with their tissues full of water 

 being put into vinegar readily become pene- 

 trated by that liquid. The question of 

 salting pickles has nothing to do with flavour, 

 as the finest pickles are those from which the 

 salt is most completely soaked. 



One of the most frequent questions is, 

 " How can I make pickles like those put up 

 at the makers?" This may be answered, 

 that the pickles referred to are put up in 

 colourless vinegar. Home - made pickles 

 should be prepared with regard to flavour 

 rather than appearance. As a general rule, 

 vegetables to be pickled are first put into 

 brine, then soaked to freshen them, and then 

 placed in vinegar, which may be spiced or 

 not, according to taste. One point is to be 



