684 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



acquires a degree of acidity. This milk they are extremely fond of; and once made, 

 they need not repeat the use of the leaves as above, for a spoonful or less of it will 

 coagulate another quantity of warm milk, and make it like the first, and so on, as often 

 as they please to renew their food. (Lightfoot's Flor. Scot. p. 77.) 



4321. Cow-parsnep. Heracleum Sphondylium, L. (Eng. Bot. 939.) Pent. Dig. L. and VmbeUiferce, J. 

 The inhabitants of Kamschatka, about the beginning of July, collect the foot-stalks of the radical leaves 

 of this plant, and, after peeling off the rind, dry them separately in the sun ; and then tying them in 

 bundles, they lay them up carefully in the shade. In a short time afterwards these dried stalks are 

 covered over with a yellow saccharine efflorescence, tasting like licorice, and in this state they are 

 eaten as a delicacy. The Russians, not content with eating the stalks thus prepared, contrive to get a 

 very intoxicating spirit from them, by first fermenting them in water with the greater bilberry ( Vaccinium 

 tdiginosum), and then distilling the liquor to what degree of strength they please ; which Gmelin says, is 

 more agreeable to the taste than spirits made from corn. (Lightfoot's Fl. Scot.) 



4322. Heath. Erica Vulgaris, L. (Eng. Bot. 1013.) Octan. Monog. L. and Ericeee, J. Formerly the young 

 tops are said to have been used alone to brew a kind of ale ; and even now, the inhabitants of Isla and 

 Jura continue to brew a very potable liquor, by mix'ng two thirds of the tops of the heath with one of 

 malt (Lightfoot's Fl. Scot.) 



4323. Substitutes for capers. The flower-buds of the marsh -marigold (Caltha palustris, L.) form a safe 

 substitute for capers ; and likewise the young seed-pods of the common radish ; and the unripe seeds of the 

 nasturtium, or Indian cress. A species of spurge, common in gardens, (Euphorbia Lathyris,) is vulgarly 

 called caper-bush, from the resemblance of its fruit to capers ; and though acrid and poisonous, like the 

 other plants of this genus, its seeds are sometimes substituted by the Parisian restaurateurs for the pods 

 of the true capers. For more minute details respecting the plants enumerated in this section, and 

 various others which might be used as food, or in domestic economy, see Bryant's Flora Ditetetica, 

 and Lightfoot's Flora Scotica, Hudson's Flora Anglica, and the local floras of all parts of Europe. 



SUBSECT. 7. Poisonous native Plants to be avoided in searching for edible Wild Plants. 

 4324. The principal poisonous plants, natives or growing in Britain, are the follow- 

 ing: those marked thus (*] are also the most valuable plants in the native materia 

 medica : the whole, for obvious reasons, ought to be known at sight by every gardener : 



Bitter Poisora, for which acids, astrin- 

 gents, wines, spirits, and syices are 

 Useful correctives- Chelidonium ma- 

 jus, Cicuta virosa*, Colchicum autum- 

 nale*, (Enanthe crocata, Prunus Lau- 



Acrid Ptritoru, which should be counter- 

 acted by powerful astringents, as bark, 

 and afterwards the stomach restored 

 by soft mucilaginous matters, as milk, 



fat broth, &c. Aconitum Xapellus, 

 and Ly coctonum, Acteea spicata,Khus 

 Toxicodendron. 



Stupifying Poisons t to be counteracted by 

 vegetable acids and emetics. /Kthusa 

 cynapium,Atropa Belladonna, Datura 

 Stramonium *, Hyoscyamus niger, 

 Lactuca virosa, Solanum dulcamara*, 

 and nigrum. 



Fetid Pouoni, to be attacked by ether, . 



wine, or acids. Coniummaculatum*, 

 Digitalis purpurea*, Heleborus foeti- 

 dus, Juniperus Sabina, Scrophularia, 

 aquatica. 



Drastic Pmsona, to be corrected by acids 

 alkalies, and astringents. Abclepias 

 syriaca, Bryonia dioica, Euphorbia La- 

 thyris and arnygdaloides, Mercurialis 

 perennis and annua, Periploca graeca, 

 Veratrum album. 



4325. The poisonous fungi will be found in a succeeding section. 



SECT. XIII. Foreign hardy herbaceous culinary Vegetables, little used as such in Britain. 



4326. The culinary plants of other countries are in general the same as our own ; but 

 a few may be mentioned which are more commonly cultivated in France, Germany, and 

 America, than in England, but which would thrive in the latter country. 



4327. The Claytonia perfoliata (Pentan. Monog. L. and Portulacece, J.) is a hardy annual, a native of 

 America, of the easiest possible culture in any soil. Sown in autumn, it endures the winter, and flowers 

 in April and May. Its perfoliate foliage is not very abundant, but it is exceedingly succulent, and not 

 inferior to common spinage in flavor. It has no pretensions to supersede, or even to be generally culti- 

 vated as a spinage plant ; but in very poor soils, under trees, or in other peculiar circumstances, it may be 

 found a useful resource. 



4328. The Basella alba and rubra (Pentan. Trig. L. and Chenopodece, J.) are stove-biennials, raised on 

 hot-beds near Paris, and transplanted into warm borders, where they furnish a summer spinage equal to 

 that of the orache. (Hort. Tour, 489.) They are also grown for the same purpose in China. (Living- 



4329. The Virginian poke (Phytolacca decandra, Decan. Pentag. L. and Chenopodetz, J.) is a hardy perennial 

 with" large ramose roots, shoots half an inch in diameter, and five or six feet high ; the leaves five 

 inches long and two and a half inches broad, smooth and of a deep green. It grows vigorously in a good 

 deep soil, and furnishes ample supplies of young shoots, which in America and the West Indies are 

 boiled and eaten as spinage. (Miller's Diet. art. Phytolacca ; Correa de Serra, in Hort. Trans, iv. 446.) 



4330 The White cabbage of China (Brassica, sp. ?), used both as a pot-herb and a salad (Barrow ; 

 Abel) 'and the wild cabbage of America (B. washitana, Muhl.), used as a pot-herb, might be grown for 

 similar purposes in this country. The procumbent cabbage of China is mentioned by Livingstone (Hort. 

 Trans, v. 55.), as being a hardy plant, supplying leaves the whole of winter. 



4331 The Shawanese salad (Hydrophyllum virginicum, L. Pentan. Monog. L. and Boraginete, J.) 

 is a hardy perennial, very prolific in lobed lucid green leaves which hold water (whence the name), and 

 are used by the Indians both raw and boiled. 



4332 The Amos tuberosa, Ph. (Diadelph. Decan. L. and Legummosa:, J.) is a hardy tuberous-rooted 

 perennial, a native of North America, the tubers of which are used by the Indians. 



4333 The bread-root (Psoralea esculenta, L. Diadel. Decan. L. and LeguminostE, J.) is a hardy perennial, 

 a native of Missouri, and used there as potatoes are in this country. 



4334. The Quamash (Scilla esculenta, L. Hexan. Monog. L. and Asphodelete, J.) is a native of North Ame- 

 rica, and there used as food. 



4335. Other hardy -esculents. The Indian corn (Lea mays) is grown in some parts as a garden-plant, 

 the ears being gathered green or partially ripe, and boiled or roasted. The common millet is grown on 

 the continent as a garden-plant for its seeds, to be used as a substitute for rice : the Polish millet 

 (Digitaria sanguinalis) is grown for this purpose in the cottage gardens in Poland ; as is the carnation 

 poppy (Papaver somniferum], for its seeds, which form a seasoning to buck-wheat porridge. Nigella 

 sativa and arvensis, hardy annuals, are cultivated in Flanders for their seeds, which are used as celery- 

 seeds are in this country, in soups and also in puddings. The Pekin mustard (Sinapis Pekinensis) is a hardy 

 annual, and the most extensively used herbaceous plant in China, being, as Livingstone informs us 

 (Hort Trans, v. 54.), carried about the streets of Canton and other towns in the boiled state. The amaran- 

 thus polygamus, a hardy annual, grown in China as a spinage plant, and a number of others belonging to the 

 Crucifera:, Chenopodeae, Portulaceze.&c., might be mentioned. (See Forster's Plant. Esculent. Austr. i 

 Bryant's Flora Diaete tica ; Le Bon Jardinicr ; Modern Books of Travels, Sic.) 



