"dXALIS DEPPEI, 0. CRENlTA, TROP^OLUM TUBEROSUM 655 



be planted about the middle or latter end of April, when all danger from frost 

 is over, in drills seven inches asunder, the bulbs five inches apart in the row, 

 and covered with an inch-deep of soil. The bulbs being exceedingly small, 

 three or four of them are put down together, so as to form a group of plants. 

 Vegetation continues till October, when the plants may be taken up, and the 

 roots preserved through the winter in sand in a dry cellar, protected from 

 frost. The bulbs are previously taken off the sides of the crown of the root, 

 and preserved till the planting season, in the same manner. Prof. Morren 

 has seen a single plant produce from forty-five to fifty bulbs. (Ibid., and An- 

 naks des Sciences Physiques fyc.^ de Lyon, tome viii., 1838.) 



1446. Oxalis crendta Jacq., a tuberous-rooted oxalis from Lima, where it 

 is used as an esculent, has been cultivated in this country since 1 832, for the 

 same purposes as Oxalis De'ppei ; but it is said to be inferior to that species 

 in the flavour of the tubers. The stalks and leaves, however, are used in 

 tarts, alone or with other vegetables or fruits. The plant was much culti- 

 vated ten years ago, but is now out of repute, while O. Deppei is coming 

 into favour. There are several other bulbous or tuberous rooted species of 

 Oxalis from South America, which might in all probability be used in the 

 same manner as the species mentioned. 



1447. Tropcbolum tuberosum Maund., is a tropseolaceous tuberous-rooted 

 climbing perennial, growing five feet or six feet high, introduced from Peru 

 in 1837, which has also been added to the list of our esculent roots. The 

 tubers, when well grown, are about the size of hens' eggs, and have the flavour 

 of sea-kale or asparagus, joined to somewhat of the hot taste of garden cress. 

 The plant is propagated either by cuttings taken from tubers placed in heat 

 early in the season, and treated like cuttings of dahlias so obtained, or by 

 cuttings of the tubers, leaving one good eye in each set. These may be 

 brought forward on heat in separate pots, and when all danger from frost is 

 over, turned out into a light, rich, sandy soil, three feet or four feet apart 

 every way, and either left to cover the ground with their trailing stems, by 

 which the soil will be kept moist, or sticked like peas. The latter is the 

 best mode in a moist season or damp soil. In October, when the leaves are 

 beginning to decay, the plants may be taken up, and the tubers placed in a 

 dry cellar, or in a pit or ridge, out of the reach of frost and damp, in the 

 manner of the tubers of oxalis, or those of the potato. This tropaeolum was 

 first successfully cultivated by Mr. Cameron, of the Birmingham Botanic 

 Garden, who, from about a dozen tubers, raised twenty-five plants in April, 

 turned them out in July, and dug up half a bushel of tubers from them in 

 November. (G. M., 1838, p. 254.) T. edule, of which there are plants 

 in the Hort. Soc. Garden, and other species with tuberous roots, might 

 doubtless be used as substitutes for the TropaBolum tuberosum L. 



1448. Substitutes for esculent roots are to be found in the roots or tubers 

 of Psoralea esculenta Dec., a leguminous perennial, a native of Missouri, 

 cultivated in North America ; Lathyrus tuberbsus /,., Orobus tuberbsus L., 

 Apios tuberbsus Boer., Arachis hypogaea L., all well-known leguminous 

 perennials ; Potentilla Anserma L. ; Trapa natans L. ; the common cara- 

 way, Carum Carui Z,., a well-known umbelliferous biennial, a native of 

 Britain in meadows, the roots of which were formerly eaten as parsneps are, 

 the leaves used in garnishing, and the seeds, as they still are, in confectionery 

 and distillation ; Campanula, any of the fleshy rooted species ; Allium, any 

 species ; Lilium pompbnium ; Echinophora spinbsa L., the prickly samphire, 



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