USEFUL PROJECTS. 



S39 



gentleman informed me that he had 

 never been able to raise any plants 

 from the seed of the wild orchis ; 

 but he ascribed his want of success to 

 the wetness of the situation in which 

 he resides. I have now before me 

 a seed-pod of the orchis, the con- 

 tents of which, to the naked eye, 

 seem to be seed corrupted and 

 turned to dust; but, when viewed 

 through a microscope, appear evi- 

 dently to be organized, and would, 

 I doubt not, with proper culture, 

 germinate, and produce a thriving 

 crop of plants. The properesttime 

 for gathering the roots is when the 

 seed is formed, and the stalk is 

 ready to fall, because the new bulb, 

 of which the salep is made, is then 

 arrived to its full maturity, and may 

 be distinguished from tl;e old one, 

 by a white bud rising from the top 

 of it, which is the germ of the orchis 

 of the succeeding year. Several 

 methods of preparing salep have 

 fecen proposed and practised. Ge- 

 offroy has delivered a very judicious 

 process, for this purpose, in the 

 Jiistoirc de /' Acadumie Roi/ale des 

 Sciences, 17-40; and Retzius, in the 

 Swcedish transa6tions, 1764, has 

 improved Geuffroy's method. But 

 Mr. Moult, of Rochdale, has lately 

 favoured the public with a new 

 manner of curing the orchis root : 

 and as I have seen many specimens 

 «f his salep, at least equal, if not 

 superior, to any brought from the 

 Levant, I can recommend the fol- 

 lowing, which is his process, from 

 my. own knowledge of its success. 



The new root is to be washed in 

 water, and the fine brown skin 

 which covers it is to be separated by 

 means of a small brush, or by dipping 

 the root in hot water, and rubbing 

 it with a course linen cloth. AVhen 

 a Buflicient nutubci: of roots liuvc 



been thus cleaned, they are to be 

 spread on a tin plate, and i)laced ia 

 an oven heated to the usual degree, 

 where they are to remain six or ten 

 minutes, in which time they will 

 have lost their milky whiteness, and 

 acquired a transparency like horn, 

 without any dimunition of bulk. 

 Being arrived at this state, they are 

 to be removed, in order to dry and 

 harden in the air, which will require 

 several days to elfcft ; or, by using 

 a very gentle heat, they may be 

 finished in a few hours. Salep, 

 thus prepared, may be aftorded, ia 

 this part of England, where labour 

 bears a high value, at about eight- 

 pence or ten-pence per pound. 

 And it might be sold still cheaper, 

 if the orchis were to be cured with- 

 out separating from it the brown 

 skin which covers it ;— a troublesom* 

 part of the process, and which does 

 not contribute to render the root 

 either more palatable qr salutary s 

 whereas the foreign salep is now 

 sold at five shillings or six shillings 

 per pound. 



The culture of the orchis, there^ 

 ^ore is an object highly deserving of 

 encouragement from all the lovers of 

 agriculture. And as the root, if 

 introduced into common use, would 

 furnish a cheap, wholesome, and 

 most nutritious article of diet, th* 

 growth of it would be sufficiently 

 profitable to the farmer. Salep is 

 said to contain the greatest quantity 

 of vegetable nourij-hment in the 

 sniailest bulk. Hence a very judi- 

 cious writer, to prevent the dread- 

 ful calamity of famine at sea, haa 

 lately proposed that the ])owder of 

 it should constitute i)art of the j)ro- 

 visioiis of every siiip's company. 

 This powder and portable soup, dis- 

 solved ill boiling watir, form a rich 

 tliick jellvj capable of biipporting 



3 114 ■ m 



