* HORTICULTURAL MEMOIRS. 



1813 14, has enabled me to decide this question most 

 positively ; and to name the parsnip, as perhaps the only 

 cultivated root which appears to defy all cold. In the 

 garden of my friend Mr. Mathews, at Waltham Abbey, a 

 crop of parsnips was suffered to continue in the ground 

 throughout the winter. That land is well known to be 



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wet meadow-land, and was frozen in a solid mass, to the 

 depth of a foot or more. The roots remained unhurt ; and 

 while I write, in the beginning of April 1814, they are all 

 putting out their new shoots. This hardiness, which would 

 render the parsnip a desirable object of cultivation in the 

 coldest parts of Scotland, would still more recommend its 

 use to the unfortunate Greenlanders, among whom the 

 esculent vegetables have hitherto been limited to two or 



O 



three, and where the parsnip has not as yet been introduced. 

 If other circumstances (the method of culture, the deep 

 ploughing required, and the nature of the soil necessary for 

 this root) do not prevent its introduction into the Highlands, 

 it may eventually be found a valuable substitute for the 

 potato, in many situations where the early frosts often 

 destroy that plant long before the tubers have arrived at 

 maturity. It is no-small additional merit, that it is nearly 

 exempt from the attacks of insects ; and from the diseases 

 incident to all our esculent roots, as well as from the- 

 effects of cold. In wet springs only, it is remarked, that 

 the plants in Guernsey are sometimes destroyed by slugs, 

 and that extremes of dryness or moisture, protracted through 

 the season, are injurious to them. 



The superior quality and size of the root in Guernsey, 

 appears to be the result of the long continued care and 

 attention bestowed on it, since there is nothing in the soil 



