CHAP. X. CAPPARIDA CEA. CA’PPARIS. 315 
to effect the same object, they use sieves formed of copper wires, when sepa- 
rating the large buds from the small ones, previously to placing them in fresh 
vinegar; the consequence is, he says, that capers are always more or less poi- 
sonous. (N. Cours d@’ Agr., tom. iii. 413.) The substitutes for capers are, the 
green fruits of the nasturtium (Tropz‘olum majus), and the unripe pods of the 
HLuphérbia Lathyris. 
Soil and Situation. A very dry soil, somewhat calcareous, and a situation 
fully exposed to the mid-day sun, are essential. It should either be planted 
against a wall, or on the south side of dry elevated rockwork ; and, in either 
case, it will require some protection during winter. In the Nouveau Du Hamel 
it is stated that it will not grow at all if placed in the shade. In the neigh- 
bourhood of Paris, it is grown in light soil, on a stratum of broken limestone, 
and protected during winter with straw or leaves. There is a plant against 
the wall in the London Horticultural Society’s garden, which in 1835 had 
stood there 8 years with very little protection. There is a large and vigorous 
plant of it in the botanic garden at Cambridge, planted in the open air, but in 
front of a stove, and near the furnace, which produces strong shoots, and 
flowers abundantly every year. 
Propagation and Culture. In France, where ripe seeds can be procured, it 
is raised from them; but they require to be sown immediately after they are 
gathered. About Marseilles, where it is cultivated extensively in the fields, it 
is multiplied chiefly by cuttings ; but partly also by division of the root. (See 
Statistics.) 
Statistics. The caper is cultivated for its fruits and buds on both shores of 
the Mediterranean ; and in Greece, and even in Egypt, the buds are gathered 
for sale from wild plants. In France, the only caper plantations are in the 
neighbourhood of Marseilles and Toulon, and these have existed from the 
time that Marseilles was founded by a colony from Greece. The plants are 
there grown in open fields, planted at 10 ft. apart in quincunx. They attain 
the height of 4 ft. or 5 ft., and the bush covers a space of about the same dia- 
meter. Every autumn all the shoots are cut off within 5 in. or 6 in. of the 
root; and, over the stools so formed, a little heap of earth is thrown up, of 
from 6 in. to 8 in. in thickness. In spring this earth is spread out, and the 
ground is hoed or ploughed ; and this is the whole culture which the plant 
receives. As soon as the plants begin to flower, which, about Marseilles, is 
early in May, women and children are employed to gather the buds, and they 
continue doing so throughout the season, till the commencement of frost in 
November. Every day’s gathering is thrown into a cask in the evening, and 
every addition of capers is followed by an addition of vinegar, with a little 
salt in it, so as to keep the buds always covered with liquor to the depth of 
2in. When a new plantation is to be made, the shoots cut off in the autumn 
are formed into cuttings of about a foot in length, which are immediately 
planted in a nursery, and covered with straw, to protect them from frost. 
They remain there two years, and afterwards are transplanted to their final 
situation, where two, and sometimes three, plants are always placed together 
to provide for deficiencies from deaths. Sometimes new plantations are formed 
by dividing the roots of old plants, and this operation is always performed in 
spring. The culture of the caper has been tried, with a view to commercial 
objects, in the neighbourhood of Paris, but without much success; not so 
much on account of the severity of the frosts there, as owing to the humidity 
both of the situation and of the climate. In Spain, on the shores of the Me- 
diterranean, the caper is planted on the face of terrace walls on the sides of 
hills. Bosc observes that the gathering of the caper buds by women and 
children is a “ cruel torment” to them, on account of the numerous spines 
which cover the branches; and he adds that he has heard of a variety, which, 
however, he says, is not known in France, which is without spines, and which 
it would be very desirable to substitute for the other in general cultivation. 
In the south of France, every one who has a garden grows his own capers; 
and cottagers sometimes plant them in their garden walls, in order to sell the 
