472 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 15, 1870. 



either side of the tray, to the infinite delight of the juvenile 

 population, who look up to these toys as the realisation of all 

 that money can purchase. Sometimes the tray graces the neck 

 of a woman, and contains a few yards of edging or insertion, 

 •wound round a blue card ; a cap or two of her own make ; a 

 kettle-holder made of patchwork ; a few yards of tape ; a card 

 of hooks and eyes ; and a strip of pins ; — the whole stock worth 

 so little — yet by this alone must the poor creature maintain 

 herself and children ! 



Nest comes a tray, supported on a pair of slight trestles, 

 usually the centre from which is distributed a composition for 

 cleaning cloth, &o. The use of this requires a basin of water, 

 and necessitates that the eloquent vendor should have the free 

 use of his hands, so as to be able to prove the efficacy of his 

 preparation by removing stains of paint, grease, &c, from the 

 jackets of all "believers." 



Now we have the costermonger's barrow, piled up with vege- 

 tables, of which an extraordinary supply may have turned up 

 in Covent Garden in the morning — Cabbages, Cauliflowers, 

 Lettuces, &c. This is essentially a locomotive stall ; the pro- 

 prietor does not find it to his advantage to remain long on one 

 spot, knowing that many of the women cannot come out to buy 

 their vegetables, having work at home — shoebindicg, machine 

 working, and above all " the children " to look after. My in- 

 formant told me that, rising at 3 a.m., he gets early to Covent 

 Garden — buys Cabbages, Turnips, Rhubarb, Cauliflowers, or 

 other vegetables, which he hawks during the morning ; nsually 

 getting rid of his stock by about 12 o'clock. He then invests 

 in Cherries, Apples, or such fruit as may be in season, which 

 he sells during the afternoon, generally taking up his position 

 {if the police allow him) somewhere near a school, just before 

 12 or 2, or from 4 to 5. In the evening he stocks his barrow 

 •with bloaters for supper, or oysters when in season. 



Thus are the man's entire faculties, mental and physical, 

 devoted to earning an honest subsistence, requiring as much 

 watchfulness as to supply and demand, and the rise and fall in 

 prices, as do the merchant and stockbroker ; for, said my 



hopeful " coster," " Mr. , and many others now in a large 



way of business, only begun as I did." He told me, too, that 

 several costermosgers not only use their own donkeys, but have 

 bought others with their savings, and let them out by the day. 



These vegetable stalls may be said to keep up a certain 

 amount of business all day and all the evening; for when the 

 whole stock has net been sold before dinner, the remainder is 

 disposed of as night e.pproaches at lower prices; little heaps are 

 made, consisting of a few Turnips, Carrots, Leeks, Onions, a 

 small Celery or part of one, a little Parsley; and these are the 

 " lots " forming the subject of the proclamation which is the 

 keynote of this paper. 



And now let us see the purpose which these "pot-herbs" 

 serve in the preparation of food ; and I hope to show that they 

 not only contain in themselves a certain amount of nourish- 

 ment, but that they increase the value of the small quantity of 

 meat which the wife of a working man may be able to place on 

 her family table. 



Everybody knows that fat and water will not mix ; but that, 

 whilst the water is hot, the globules of fat are separated and 

 h6ld in suspension in it ; and as the water cools they unite 

 again, and form a cake at the top. 



Take a glass bottle, and partially fill it with warm water ; add 

 to this some melted fat, gradually heat, and stir it. Whilst the 

 water is hot the fat will seem to mix with it, but as it cools it 

 will rise to the top and form a cake. Again apply heat, and 

 this time add a teaspoonful of brown sugar, stir it, and allow it 

 to cool ; behold, the cake of fat at the top will be just half its 

 previous thickness. But follow up the experiment : apply heat 

 a third time, add a teaspoonful of gum — allow it to cool — and 

 you will find that the cake of fat will almost entirely disappear. 

 Where has it gone to ? The answer must necessarily be, that 

 it has entirely mixed with the water. 



Here then, is the secret of the U3e of the " penn'orth o' pot- 

 herbs." 



If we analyse 1 lb. of Carrots, we shall find amongst the in- 

 gredients of which the vegetable is composed, 1 cz. 11 grains of 

 sugar, and 70 grains of gum. In 1 lb. of Turnips we shall find 

 280 grains of sugar, and 107 grains of gum. So that, we see, 

 these two vegetables perform exactly the same office as the 

 sugar and grim in the experiment, and thus utilise the fat in the 

 food by causing it to mix with the other ingredients, and so 

 enabling us to take it without the disagreeable effects previously 

 alluded to. 



Bat this is not all; these pot-herbs (and I have selected 



these two as types of the class) not only serve as mediators, but 

 bring in themselves a certain amount of capital into the con- 

 cern ; for we find in 1 lb. of Carrots 42 grains of albumen, and 

 in the same quantity of Turnips 77 grains of albumen and 

 casein. Further, in Carrots we find 1 grain, and in Turnips 

 35 grains of mineral matter ; and the comparative importance 

 of this will be recognised when we remember that in the body 

 of a man weighing 154 lbs. there are 8 lbs. of mineral matter. 

 But even this is not all ; were every particle of the substances 

 that we put into our stomach really digestible, the mass would 

 become so closely pressed together that it could not be pene- 

 trated by the gastric or intestinal juiee. Nature has guarded 

 against this by giving us in our vegetable food a substance 

 called cellulose, or woody fibre. This forms the walls of 

 the little bags in which the starch and sugar in the plant are 

 packed up ; it is this which, when the sugar has dried away or 

 rotted, causes the vegetables to become what is called " stringy " 

 or " woody." Of this woody fibre we find in Carrots 231, and 

 in Turnips 168 grains per lb. 



The limits of this paper preclude my pursuing the subject 

 any further. I can onlyju3t mention the tastiness which these 

 plants impart to food. "Who does not know the exquisite 

 flavour added by the simple sprig of Parsley, or blade of Celery ? 

 Who does not recognise the pungency of the Onion (in itself a 

 nutritious and most healthy vegetable) or of the Shallot ? And 

 one word more — who does not look with wonder and admiration 

 on the beautiful colours of the Beet and Carrot, and on the 

 exquisite form of the leaves of the Parsley and Celery ? And 

 who is there that would say that a poor man would not enjoy 

 his meal all the more, if the little piece of meat which has been 

 boiled in his soup were served up nicely garnished with the gold 

 and scarlet slices of Carrot, the silvery wedges of Turnip, and 

 the emerald foliage of the Celery and Parsley ? Thus to economy 

 may be added beauty — beauty leads to refinement — and who 

 shall say where refinement may lead? Need we, then, any 

 more ask, What is the use of " A penn'orth o' pot-herbs ?" — 

 Ellis A. Davidson. — (Food Journal.) 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY'S SHOW 



AT NOTTINGHAM. 

 The preliminaries of the great provincial meeting of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society at Nottingham, are now settled. - 

 The Show i3 fixed for the 27th of June next, and is to be held 

 in the Castle Park, quite in the centre of the best part of the 

 town. The special prizes already amount to £380 ; many 

 more are yet expected, and the guarantee fund is complete. 

 Well done Nottingham ! If this meeting is not a success, it 

 will not be for want of the will and energy of those who have 

 undertaken the initiative to make it so. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM CULTURE. 

 Your correspondent's remarks in your last issue seem calcu- 

 lated to mislead, for my experience teaches me that to produce 

 creditable specimens manure water is indispensable. My prac- 

 tice is to give weak liquid manure at every watering, from the 

 time they are placed in S-inch pots till I can discern the colour 

 of the flower buds, when I gradually withhold it. I also attach 

 great importance to plunging the pots in soma waste material 

 — such as cinder ashes or old tan. Nature has, with few ex- 

 ceptions, provided the roots of vegetation with an equable 

 temperature. Surely, then, it must be beneficial to the Chry- 

 santhemum to protect its roots from solar influences. I have 

 found the middle of July quite late enough for the last potting. 

 It i3 generally admitted by experienced plant growers, that 

 flowering plants should well fill their pots with roots previous 

 to the formation of flower buds, in order to induce a greater 

 profusion of bloom. This rule is applicable to the Chrysanthe- 

 mum, but the plant must fail to accomplish this object if pot- 

 ting be deferred till August, as recommended by your corre- 

 spondent. — H. Benhah, Upper Holloway. 



NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 



The pods of the Gbound Nut (Arachis hypogtea) are fre- 

 quently to be Eeen in the windows of small shops in the poor 

 neighbourhoods of our large towns, where they are chiefly pur- 

 chased by children, and are kq,own to them as '_' monkey nuts." 

 Their ohief use, however, remarks Nature is for the ex- 

 pression from the seeds of a light-coloured bland oil, said to 

 be extensively used for mixing with oli7e oil ; and we have 



