362 THE NEW GARDENING 



hearts nestling in a hollow of dark green leaves ; orna- 

 mental Borecoles in various forms, some almost as ex- 

 quisitely curled as Parsley, others brilliantly coloured ; 

 slim young Onions that 



. . . lurk within the bowl 

 And, half suspected, animate the whole; 



Rhubarb of vivid vinous tints ; corkscrew-like Chinese 

 Artichokes ; ruddy and sleek Tomatoes ; long lissome 

 Kidney Beans these and other vegetables, whether for 

 the pot or the salad-bowl, help to uphold the importance 

 of the kitchen-garden. 



These small dainty-looking vegetables have a delicacy 

 of flavour which is not found in the great gorged specimens 

 of the prize competitions, or in stale, ill-prepared shop 

 produce. They are fit material for those people who 

 rightly refuse to accept the principle that anything 

 from the garden is good enough, whether in the material 

 itself or the cooking of it. Unhappily, these people are 

 in a minority, otherwise we should not see the sloppy, 

 greasy-looking greens, the lumpy, parboiled Potatoes, 

 the crude slabs of Carrot, which are now so common. 

 Only a person who finds the chief enjoyment of eating 

 to consist in gulping great lumps of meat could tolerate 

 such vegetables. 



People of the middle classes would shrink from eating 

 the coarse and unwholesome-looking meat which is dis- 

 played in the windows of cookshops in mean town streets, 

 and yet they will put up with a standard in vegetables, 

 alike as to quality and preparation of material, which is 

 of a similar stamp. The reply might be that it is not 

 necessary to exercise so much care with vegetables as 

 with meat, because the danger of ptomaine-poisoning is 

 absent with the one and present with the other. But 

 against this there is the obvious rejoinder that stale and 



