PAET II. GARDEN PLANTS. 



CHAPTEK I. 



CULINAEY VEGETABLES. 



AMONG the vegetables, the cultivation of which I have here 

 described, will be found such of the native ones of the country 

 as are occasionally served at the tables of Europeans. It is only 

 on rare occasions that these prove acceptable, where European 

 vegetables can be obtained, though welcome as substitutes 

 where they cannot. A description of all the plants eaten as 

 vegetables by the natives would comprise nearly the whole of 

 the weeds, except those that are absolutely poisonous, that are 

 to be met with in the country. In fact, it can hardly be correct 

 to regard many of the plants eaten by the poorer classes as 

 pot-herbs at all, being employed in their cookery merely as a 

 vehicle for their curry ingredients. 



PRELIMINARY. 



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For vegetables, the seed of which is to be sown broadcast, 

 the mode of laying out the ground usually adopted by the 

 malees is perhaps the best ; which is, to part it off into plots or 

 beds four feet wide. Between each bed an embankment is 

 raised, about two inches high and a foot wide, of earth well 

 beaten down and flattened. This is for a .path to give the 

 malee access to the vegetables for weeding and watering them. 

 Care should be taken in forming the embankments to use a 

 line and measure, so as to preserve perfect symmetry, otherwise 

 the ground will look unsightly. By scrupulous neatness and 

 regularity in the work a piece of vegetable ground may be 

 made to look as agreeable as a flower parterre. 



It is stating no more than an axiom in gardening to say that 

 the earth in the beds, immediately previous to using, should 

 be well dug and thoroughly broken up and enriched with an 

 abundance of manure. Before sowing of the seed the surface 

 of the soil must be made very fine, and as free from lumps 



