212 The Hoosung, or Oo-Simg. 



tice, although I beheve the system here recommended is but 

 little practised in this country. I might say much more on 

 the European cultivation of this delicious fruit, but I have 

 said enough for my present purpose. And notwithstanding 

 all that has been written about fruit trees, of late, there may 

 still much more be said; without exhausting the subject. In 

 fact, there is yet much to be done before the climax of attain- 

 ment can be reached. I hope these remarks will tend to draw 

 the attention of horticulturists further to the subject, and 

 induce cultivators of fruit trees, who have hitherto been un- 

 successful, to practise and study the merits of the system for 

 themselves. 



New Have?i, March lAlh, 1849. 



Art. III. The Hoo- Sung, or Oo-Sung, from Shanghai — Its 

 Cullivatio7i, cj'c. By H. Wendell, M. D., Albany, New 

 York. 



Dear Sir, — In your last, I noticed an allusion to the new 

 vegetable esculent, received from China by the London Hor- 

 ticultural Society, through their collector, Mr. Fortune, in 

 1847, and a request that I would give some account of it. 



Seeds of the Hoo-Sung, together with others, were kindly 

 sent me in the spring of 1848, by Doctor Lindley, secretary 

 of the London Horticultural Society, with directions to sow 

 them in a cool frame, either in April or May, or continuously 

 (for a succession) at intervals, during May, and to transplant 

 into the open ground, as we do lettuces. After fear of frosts 

 had subsided, I followed the directions, sowed the seeds in 

 April, and succeeded in raising the plants, which were fit for 

 use early in June. They grew from a foot and an half, to 

 about two feet in height, erect, with oblong, tapering leaves, 

 which, together with the stems, were of a light green color ; 

 the flowers were as described in your Journal, small, yellow, 

 in panicles, slightly drooping, — the seeds were ripe in 

 August. 



The succulent stem is the part used ; it is to be divested of 

 its outer rind, and either simply boiled, with a little salt in the 



