102 Cultivation of'oarious Culinary Vegetables. 



flower should be designated ? My knowledge of the class to 

 which it belongs (Pentandria) does not, among itidigcnons 

 plants, enable me to mention any thing similar to it. 

 Your obedient servant, 



William Stowe, Surgeon. 

 Bucki7igham, Feb. 6. 1828. 



The seeds, for which we return our best thanks, we have 

 distributed in various quarters. The flowers are in what is 

 called a conglomerated crest-shaped panicle. — Cond. 



Art. XIV. Observations of i' the Cultivation of various Culinary 

 Vegetables. By Mr. James Housman, late Gardener to 

 . John Bolton, Esq., Storrs Hall, Westmoreland. 



Sir, 



Your readers being invited to communicate any thing 

 which they may think valuable in practice, as appertaining to 

 the art of which your Magazine is the chronicle, I venture to 

 trouble you with a few observations, which, however imper- 

 fectly written, may, notwithstanding, interest, and perhaps 

 inform, some of your readers. I am not one of those who, 

 from an overweening selfishness, think every thing known by 

 myself as too excellent for others ; nor am I so conceited as to 

 be above taking a hint or a lesson from any of my brethren, 

 however obscure. On the contrary, I fully agree with your- 

 self, and I am sure, with every other liberal-minded man, that 

 to be mutually serviceable to each other is at once our duty 

 and our interest ; and by intercommunication in your (in this 

 respect) most useful publication, we may greatly benefit one 

 another, as well as advance the art on which we are all 

 engaged. 



I have first to notice the method of growing celery recom- 

 mended by Mr. Knight, Pres. H.S.; and which T think unwoithy 

 of its author. That celery, in its wild state, is a water plant, 

 we need not be told ; and that, in its cultivation, it should 

 always have a superabundance of water, is also advice as plau- 

 sible as it is natural : but this, however feasible, should not 

 lead us away from our principal object in the cultivation of 

 this plant. In its natural state it is acrid, tough, and dis- 

 agreeable ; and, if cultivated as nearly like nature as possible, 

 especially in respect of supplying water, we may increase its 

 bulk, and, perhaps, its medicinal qualities, but we shall cer- 

 tainly fail in giving it the desirable properties of mild crisp- 



