154 Domestic Notices. 



your correspondent have reference to the i^hotlodendron albiun Pursh 

 whicli is a native ? — Yojirs, Jin AAiateur. — Boston, March, 1836. 



Ribes Sanguineuvi. — This splendid shrub, first introduced into England 

 by tlie late Mr. Douglas, shoidd be in every garden or shrubbery. Its 

 beautiful crimson blossoms, which are produced in nuinerous large ra- 

 cemes, have a gorgeous appearance. Do induce every person to possess 

 a plant, who can find room to put one in his garden. — lb. 



Forced Peaches. — In the green-house attached to the garden of Dr. 

 Webster, Cambridge, are several trees trained on the back wall, which 

 have now fruit on of the size of walnuts. Considering the severity of 

 the season, this is remarkably early. — Conds. 



The edible rooted Oxalis, (O'xalis crenata). We hope experiments will 

 be made in the cultivation of this promising tuber, in all the different 

 sections of the Union. In England and Germany, although it does not 

 appear in all cases to realize the high expectations formed in relation to it 

 on its fii-st introduction, yet in many cases, common crops have been pro- 

 duced, fully attesting tlie prolific quality of the plant. It was, we believe, 

 introduced into England by Douglas, from S. America, and we conceive 

 that the temperature of our western hemisphere, in the same isothermal 

 parallels, will be more congenial to it, than that of the eastern. It is 

 highly probable that the desideratum in the rijiening of the tubers, is a 

 long dry autumn, which is to be found in oiu- climate, rather than the 

 North of Europe. In many districts it may become a very valuable ad- 

 dition to the list of culinary vegetables, and resembling as it does, the 

 potato in flavor, may yet rival that invaluable root in utility. In Loudon's 

 Mag., we obsei've a notice of a single tuber, scarcely an ounce in weight, 

 which yielded ninety tubers at a crop, weighing nearly 4 lbs. Still moi-e 

 extraordinary is the following account, which we extract from a French 

 periodical. " A tuber of o'xalis crenata, weighing only 28 grains, was 

 planted on the 7th of April, in a rich old cucumber-bed in a garden at 

 Plymouth. Five weeks after, two offsets were detached from the parent 

 root, and replanted separately. The parent plant acquired an astonish- 

 ing vigor spreading itself rapidly over a space more than 3 feet in 

 circumference." On gathering the crop, which was found to be of deli- 

 cious flavor, the following was the result : — 



Production of the parent plant, 407 tubers, weighing 7 lbs. 8 oz. 

 " of the two oflfsets, 198 " " 3 " 8 " 



Total, 604 " "11 lbs. 



" This," as the editor observes, " is almost without a parallel in the annals 

 of horticulture." * The only notice we have seen of the culture of tlie 

 edible rooted oxalis, in the United i^tates, is given by your Philadelphia 

 correspondent, (p. 76) where it is stated that a single root had produced, 

 during the past season, two quarts, and another a half peck of tubers of 

 good flavor. The leaves of the O'xalis crenata are, like many other spe- 

 cies of that genus, produced in threes, and the jdant is, during the summer, 

 covered with a profusion of bright yellow flowers. As the tuber can 

 now doubtless be procured at the principal seed-stores, we would rec- 

 ommend their distribution by the different Horticultural Societies in 

 various parts of the coimtiy, and commiuiication to the public, of the 

 results of their cultivation. 



Tlie Mexican Qui7ioa, (Chenopbdium Quinoa). A few seeds of this new 

 esculent plant, came into our hands, but had probably lost their vital 

 principle, as we could not induce them to vegetate. It is an annual, and 

 not only bears great crops of seeds, which are much used in Mexico, in 

 the same manner as rice, and as an ingredient in soups and broths, but 

 aftbrds a great quantity of succulent leaves, excellent when eaten as 



* Annales de Fromont, tome VI. p. 172. 



