90 Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 



p. 419.). An oil is made from beech mast in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Baden. Strasburg, situated in a fertile country 

 and favourable climate, is celebrated for the cultivation of 

 kitchen-garden stuff" and fruit trees. Grapes and figs ripen 

 there in the open air. The fruit of Cornus mascula and of 

 /Sorbus domestica are brought to market. A spirit is made 

 from plums, as well as from cherries. Currants are common, 

 but not gooseberries. Wood strawberries are abundant in 

 June, and also bilberries. Before cabbage is sliced for sauer 

 kraut, the core or central part is taken out with a conical iron 

 scoop. [In pickling red cabbages in some parts of England, 

 the lower part of the core is cut out with a knife, it being 

 found not to keep so well as the leaves, and to give a strong 

 taste to the vinegar. — J. W. L.'] [In the kitchens of the 

 colleges at Cambridge, apples are freed from their cores with 

 an instrument like a cheese-taster, and this may be called a 

 conical iron scoop ; its figure resembles that of the capital 

 letter Y, and the branches are for the handhold ; the apple is 

 held in the left hand, and bored through stalk, core, and 

 eye at once, and a cylindrical plug is brought out. — J. Z).] 

 The comiTion and Portugal laurels, the arbutus, the laurustinus, 

 and the alaternus, which require shelter at Paris, Strasburg, 

 and Vienna, during the most severe weather, require none at 

 Edinburgh. " A much greater number of exotic plants are 

 injured by the winter's cold at Edinburgh, whilst they grow 

 freely at Paris and Strasburg. These are plants which re- 

 quire a warm summer in order to ripen their shoots, and 

 bring them into a woody state. In the warm summers of 

 Paris and Strasburg, the plants accomplish this ; but they 

 cannot accomplish it in the lower temperature of Edinburgh, 

 whence the roots remain tender, and are killed by the frost. 

 The Palma Christi (i^icinus communis) is an example of the 

 effect of summer heat in ripening the wood ; for in Britain 

 this plant remains herbaceous, and in the open air lives only 

 one season ; but in Barbary it is perennial, and grows to be a 

 woody tree of 12 ft. in height. On the other hand, the trees 

 of the temperate zone, after they have perfected their shoots, 

 require a colder season, during which their growth may be 

 less active : it would seem that the heat which excited them 

 to grow must not be continued during the whole year. It 

 has been found that the European forest trees will not grow 

 in Ceylon ; they are killed by the constant action of the heat 

 which prevails without intermission in that climate. Lime 

 trees grow to a large size near Strasburg. Hornbeam is the 

 wood most esteemed at Strasburg for fuel. This wood being 

 compact, is also used for stocks of carpenters' planes. Oak 



