Xll 



IRISH GARDENING. 



the white and tin- red, and of the red sorl there 

 are two kinds, the one having leaves and root 

 like to the White Beete ; the other bath a greal 

 thicke poote, and is a stranger anion- us. . 

 It is very well like to a Rape or Turnep, bul very 

 red within and sweeter in last.- than any of the 

 other two sorts. . . . The roote of the Romane 

 or strange red Beete is boyled and eaten with 

 oyle and vinegar before other tneates, and some- 

 times with pepper, as they vse the common 

 parsenep." 



That th<- root was not generally eaten as well 

 as the foliage appears from tin- following from 

 Gerard's " Herbal! " I 1597) : " Whai mighl be 

 made <»!' the red and beautiful] roote (which is to 

 be preferred before tin- leaves, as well in beautie 

 as in goodnesse), I referre vnto the curious and 

 cunning cooke, who no doubt when he hath had 

 tin- view thereof, and is assured that it is both 

 good and holsome, will make thereof many and 

 divers dishes both faire and good" (see Chard). 



Of modern varieties in cultivation, one is the 

 White or Sicilian Beet, B. Cicla, L. It is a native 

 of Sicily. Spain, and Portugal, and was intro- 

 duced in 1570. Tlie large White or Swiss Chard 

 Beet, a variety of the last . is peculiar for its thick 

 ribs. It is stewed like seakale or asparagus. 



Professor James, Buckman regarded both the 

 garden beel and mangold wurzel as derived from 

 the maritime Variety l>. maritima, I.. The 

 various colours intensified in cultivated, orna- 

 mental forms may he detected in the wild plants. 

 The sugar beel is also a selected form of the 

 ordinary red-root ed beel . 



Wild heel is a, perennial, hut both it and 



mangold wurzel have become biennials by cultiva- 

 tion. Mi'. I). Macdonald tells us in his "Some 

 Farm Crops " that heel " does not appear to have 

 been broughl into general use as an agricultural 

 crop in England until the end of the eighteenth 

 century," being introduced from Germany as 

 mangold, and lirst raised from seed bj Dr. 

 Lettsom in L786. .Mr. L. Phillips, an experimen- 

 talist at Vauxhall, received a gold medal from 

 the Society for the Encouragemenl of Arts " for 

 hi- successful exertions in extending the culture 

 of the variety of beel known as mangold wurzel, 

 &c " Numerous varieties appeared subsequent I \ . 

 The three principal varieties now grown as the 



garden and sugar beets and the mangold wurzel 



are all very wholes. one on account of the sugar 

 which i he\ contain. Dr. Lyon Playfair suggested 



that a good brown bread could be made by rasping 

 down heel- outs with an eipial <|uanlit\ of Hour. 

 observing that the average quafitj of Hour eon- 

 tain- about 12 per cent, of nitrogenous matter 

 and tin- average quality of beet only _ per cent. 

 Tin- garden beet ami the variety of sugar beet of 

 Prance are about equal in value in sugar, con- 

 taining lu per cent., the water in tin- root being 

 upwards of 82 pei' cent. Some sugar beets, how- 

 ever, contain a much higher percentage of su^ar. 

 The albuminoids or nitrogenous matters being 

 only 0.1 per cent., the nutrient ratio is 1.20. 



the n lit I'iellt val lie I ]>. 



Parsnip. 



turists knew nothing of the advantages of select- 

 ing, as i> don.- at the present day. by means of 

 which the best existing variety was obtained 

 from the wild plant between IMS and 1850, bj 

 Selecting the seed from the best-rooted plants of 

 each general ion raised from seed of t lie wild plant. 

 This was done by the late Professor .lames 



I tuck ma n in t he garden of t he Royal A.gricul1 oral 

 College, Cirencester. He collected the seed from 

 w ; ld plants of the neighbourhood in is IT. " In 



L848 they were sown, and in the spring of lsp.l 

 the reserved roots were dug up and the best put 



aside for transplanting. Late in the summer of 

 1840 the seed was collected, and sown in 1850. 

 The result of the second sowing was that the 

 leaves in ill indicated an advance to the culti- 

 vated form. Some specimens were much liner 

 than others, of good size and tolerably smooth 

 outline." 



Professor Buckman called the best ''The 

 Student." and sent the seed to Messrs. Sutlon & 

 Sons, of Reading. It was sent out by them, and 



greatly improved subsequently. It gained many 



prizes as one writer observes: "This is the 



twelfth \ear in succession we have 1 n awarded 



first honours for "Student.'" Another writer 

 says: " I had a line crop of parsnips from the 

 •Student.' half a yard Ion"; and four or live 

 inches round." The following are some con- 

 spicuous differences between the wild parsnip 

 and the " St udetit " : — 



The root ..I' a wild plant grown by the roadside 



in Dorset had a tough, wiry root, tapering some- 

 what from the crown. The leaves had pel idles 

 nine inches lone;, the leaflets being from one t.. 

 two inches: the larger one three-quarters of an 

 inch broad, and all pubescent or softlj hairy. 



\\ i . have seen that the parsnip has been cultivated 

 from antiquity t<> the presenl day; but Pliny 



tells us that it was " -row n. either from the pool 

 t ran- plant ed or else from Seed; but that it was 



impossible to get rid of the pungenl flavour." 



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