220 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



ing, and all adornments of your house, keep the laws of color and curve 

 always before you. If you educate the eye to beauty, grace will pervade 

 all around. 



I see around me those who remember when all our crockery and china 

 ware were embellished with a pagoda, the bridge and boat, a Chinaman 

 carrying a large umbrella, but since schools of design have been establish- 

 ed, these patterns have all passed away, and their places have been sup- 

 plied with articles of great beauty. 



I remember a few years ago that every iron railing in front of city 

 houses or around parks, was all made up of straight rods and sharp angles, 

 Paulus Heddle, a smith, but a natural-born artist, introduced curved lines, 

 and made himself a fortune, while he added so much to the beauty of the 

 city. What we now need is, not only to discuss this subject here, but 

 more lectures like those of Prof. Morse, until the public taste is better 

 educated upon this important matter. 



The subject was continued. 



Adjourned. JOHN. W. CHAMBERS, Secretary. 



December 16, 1862. 

 Mr. Edward Doughty, of Newark, N. J., in the chair. 



A New Culinary Plant. 



Mr. Robinson presented a specimen of a plant known to Germans as 

 Beifuss, and used by them for flavoring poultry, roasted meats, more 

 especially for roast goose, duck and pork, and read a letter on the subject 

 from Chas. F. Erhard, of Ravenswood, L. I.: 



"I respectfully present to the Club a dried specimen of the AHemisia 

 vulgaris, which plant seems as yet scarcely known in the United States. 



" In Germany and France, and probably in other European countries, it 

 is highly valued as an aromatic to give a flavor to roasted meats, omelets, 

 etc., more especially to roast goose, duck and pork. In addition to its very 

 agreeable flavor it is considered to promote digestion to a remarkable 

 degree, and in some parts of Germany it is even thought to be a pre- 

 ventive and cure for consumption. 



" To prepare the plant for kitchen use, the flower stems are cut just 

 before the buds open, and the larger leaves plucked out from between the 

 flower buds; they are then bundled and dried in the shade. 



" When used with roast goose or duck, the hollow of these fowls is 

 stuffed with these plants tied in little bundles and a portion of them is 

 generally served out on every plate, the buds on them to be eaten off as 

 any one may best contrive to do it. 



" Finding it impossible to procure a root in New York or Philadelphia, I 

 imported a number of them from Germany in the spring of last year (1861), 

 which I propagated with great success, so that I have now a good supply 

 of them." 



Mr. John W. Chambers, the Secretary, announced that Mr. Edwin Ken- 



