678 CONDIMENTACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



and if the plant be then cut down a second crop will be produced ; 

 and if the flower-stems be cut off as fast as they appear, the plant, 

 though a biennial, will last several years. Seed is produced in abun- 

 dance, and will keep three or four years. 



The Elecampane (Inula Helenium, L.) is a carduaceous perennial, a 

 native of the south of England in moist pastures. The root is fusi- 

 form, thick, and aromatic, and is candied like the stalks of the angelica, 

 and much admired in France and Germany. The plant ought to be 

 taken up yearly, and divided and replanted, in order that the roots 

 may be obtained succulent and tender, and for the same reason the 

 plant ought never to be allowed to come into flower. 



The Samphire (Crithmum maritimum, L.) is an umbelliferous peren- 

 nial, a native of England, on rocky cliffs by the sea, and cultivated in 

 gardens for its seed-pods, which make a warm aromatic pickle, and 

 its leaves, which are used in salads. It is propagated by division, or 

 by sowing the seed in April ; but in either way it is rather difficult of 

 cultivation. It succeeds best in a gravelly soil, kept moist, and 

 sprinkled in spring with common sea- salt. During winter it requires 

 to be protected by a little dry litter. By this treatment it has pro- 

 duced an ample supply of shoots, which may be cut twice in a season. 

 Seed may be saved, or plants procured from their native habitats on 

 the sea-coast, as for example at Dover, Salcombe, and on the coast of 

 Galloway and Haddington. 



Substitutes for the samphire are to be found in some other plants 

 which grow within salt-water mark ; for example, the golden sam- 

 phire (Inula crithmifolia, L.), a perennial, not uncommon in salt 

 marshes ; and Salicornia herbacea, L., a chenopodiaceous annual, 

 found on muddy sea-shores throughout Europe ; in Echinophora 

 spinosa, L., an umbelliferous plant, a native of sandy shores in Lan- 

 cashire and Kent ; the young leaves of which make a wholesome and 

 excellent pickle. 



The Caper (Capparis spinosa, L.) is a capparidaceous trailing shrub, 

 a native of the south of Europe, on rocks and dry stony or gravelly 

 places, and cultivated about Marseilles, and other parts of France, for 

 its flower -buds, which are gathered when about half the size which they 

 attain before expanding. It might be cultivated in the south of England 

 in the open garden, and in other parts against a conservative wall ; or 

 if it were thought necessary, a few plants under glass would supply all 

 that would suffice for an ordinary family. It would thrive on the 

 rocky shores of the south of Devon, or among the old stone quarries 

 of Somersetshire. 



Excellent substitutes for the caper are found in the unripe fruit of 

 the Indian cress, and of the Euphorbia Lathyris, L. 



The Ginger (Zingiber officinale, L.), a scitamineous perennial from 

 the East Indies, is sometimes cultivated in our stoves for the roots, or 

 creeping underground stems, to be taken when succulent, and pickled 

 and preserved. The plants are divided when in a dormant state, and 

 planted in rich light soil, and in a year afterwards the roots are fit to 

 gather. Ginger, aa soon as its growth is finished and fully ripe in 



