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CHILDREN'S GARDENS 



pounds, and Mathiole assures us he had seen them as 

 big as one hundred pounds. 



" Very much later the French peasants roasted them 

 in the ashes, and boiled them in soups for the flavor- 

 ing. They also fed them to 

 cattle. Roman physicians 

 recommended them t o b e 

 eaten raw with salt in the 

 morning before breakfast, 

 and they were considered 

 excellent for * dropsy and 

 scurvy. 



"The Romans admired 

 radishes as a winter sauce 

 to their meat, but it was ob- 

 served that they injured the 

 teeth, and yet says Pliny, 



' They will polish ivory, which is the tooth of an 

 elephant/ 



" Radishes abound with a penetrating, nitrous juice, 

 which makes them diuretic and cleansing." 



Modern history. The survivors of the mammoth 

 radish of the ancients can be seen in the giant Japa- 

 nese radish of to-day, which weighs from five to 

 twenty pounds, and develops nearly half a bushel of 

 leaves. However, most of our varieties are small and 

 usually eaten raw. They are hardy, quick, and grow 

 best in cold weather, in a rich soil. Hot weather 

 makes them pithy. The radish is unknown in the 

 wild state, having been cultivated as far back as there 



A nine and a half pound 

 radish 



