August 



1892. 



Garden and Forest. 



419 



The Way-side Flowers. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— I wish to make a plea for the preservation of way-side 

 flowers. In the state of Connecticut, where wild blooms are 

 in such profusion, the eye is delighted to see on every road- 

 side the beauty of shrulis and vines. Each broken bank, with 

 its adjacent rocks, makes a study for the artist, the pretty 

 green and flowering tilings oflering a picturesque foreground 

 to every landscape. The sweet white Honeysuckle perfumes 

 the air, and Wild Roses in great variety smile on the dusty 

 traveler. The yellow Daisy ojiens its brown eyes to chide the 

 tardy Golden-rod ; the red Lilies flame in the fence-corner, 

 yellow and pink and purple Heather have a home here among 

 the SpiriEa, the Cowslip and other natives of the soil. The 

 Pond-lily opens its white disk on the waters, and in wet places 

 the Marsh Mallow shows its spreading cups of delicate pink. 

 The variety is endless, and the generous abundance of nature 

 invites us to accept her gifts, though she does not intend they 

 shall be taken with selfish waste. 



But it is not only of these that I wish to speak. There are 

 way-side flowers that, wandering from the garden, are flourish- 

 ing in sunny spots outside. A group of Coreopsis, a Holly- 

 hock, a plantation of Bluebells or Nasturtium often seek to 

 root themselves or to send their winged seeds into the waste 

 places, and become denizens of the soil. There seems an in- 

 herent desire on the part of every traveler to gather these way- 

 side wanderers from the garden. Their rarity attracts the eye ; 

 the unexpected association with home-joys awakens the desire 

 of possession, and so every bright flower, which, if left to 

 ripen and scatter its seeds, might gladden the hearts of many 

 in coming years, is quickly plucked from the stem, and after a 

 moment of admiration carelessly thrown aside to make way 

 for some new claimant upon the traveler's attention. 



The beauty of the road-side is the property of all who pass, 

 and no one has a right to destroy it. Indeed, the highest sense 

 of obligation should impel each one to do everything in his 

 power for the growth of flower and fruit, for the destruction 

 of insect marauders or poisonous plants, but most of all 

 should he leave untouched the fragile wild things that know 

 so well how to take care of themselves when unmolested. 

 And a deeper chord of human fellowship is struck when one 

 reflects that for the quiet homes along the country-roads this 

 wild beauty is often the only poetry of life, and there are 

 those in humble dwellings and amid poor surroundings who 

 value it and regret its loss. 



New Pallz. N. V. -C- •->• -J- 



Recent Publications. 



Le Polager d'ltn Curieux. By Messieurs Paillieux and D. Bois 

 (second edition, Paris, 1892). 



Variety is the great characteristic of man's diet, as it is of 

 man's raiment. Still, to confine our remarks to such articles 

 of food as are derived from the vegetable kingdom only, it is 

 curious to note that the number of fruits and vegetables usually 

 found in the best-stocked market is a mere trifle in compari- 

 son with the total produce which might be used as food. Some 

 nations have a much more extensive diet than we have, and a 

 highly competent authority asserts that "one would sooner 

 make a list of vegetable produce left uneaten by Chinamen 

 than enumerate all the articles which they actually eat." 



It should not be inferred, however, that no vegetable is 

 worth growing and eating which is not as yet recognized as 

 such in the civilized world. Some plants may want only to be 

 better known or to have some time and care bestowed on 

 their improvement to assume their rightful place in our gardens. 



It is to these " unknown, or imperfectly known, vegetables " 

 that Messieurs Paillieux and D. Bois have devoted for the last 

 twenty years a good deal of time and study, collecting, in fact, 

 information sufificient to make up a volume of nearly 600 

 pages, and of very great interest to botanist, gardener and 

 amateur alike. 



The number of vegetables alluded to in this, the second 

 edition of the work, amounts to two hundred. All, of course, 

 are not equally new or equally promising. Some, in fact, may 

 be said to have been known for ages, and to be vanishing 

 away from gardens rather than deserving to be introduced 

 into cultivation. Such are among others : Skirret (Sium Sisa- 

 rum), which seems to be losing ground every year; Cuba 

 Purslane (Claytonia perfoliata), the Ice-plant (Mesembryanthe- 

 nium crystallinum), and the Algerian Valerian (Fedia Cornu- 

 copise). 



A good many, again, are plants well known and even 

 largely grown for some other purpose, either economic or or- 



namental, which maybe used as vegetables on an emergency, 

 but of which no one would think as vegetables only. In this 

 class we may include A[)onogeton distachyon, Camassia es- 

 culenta (die Quamash of the western territories of North 

 America), Amor|)hophallus Rivieri, Lilium auratum, L. spe- 

 ciosum and L. tigrinum of Japan, Momordica Charantia, Ne- 

 lumbium speciosvmi (the Lotus of Egypt and India), Oxalis 

 Dcppei, and Portulaca grandillora, which are very Ijeautiful 

 ornamental plants, l)ut all of them very poor vegetables indeed. 

 Among the most promising of the plants introduced in the 

 Potagcr d'un Curieux three are especially worthy of notice, 

 namely, Arctium Lappa, var. Japonicum, Soja hispida and 

 Stachys affinis. 



Arctium Lappa, var. Japonicum, described also as Lappa 

 major, is simply a variety of the cosmopolitan " Burrs." The 

 fleshy root of the plant grows and swells rapidly in deeply 

 trenched soil ; so much so that it can be obtained one inch 

 thick in the space of three months, and yields a vegetable re- 

 sembling salsify or scorzonera, but of quicker growth, very 

 white and tender, and easily made very palatable by proper 

 cooking. 



Soja hispida is a Chinese plant of the order LeguminosaB, 

 which is remarkable for the large proportion of fat and of ni- 

 trogenous matter contained in its seeds. It is from the Soja 

 that the Chinese and Japanese manufacture the " vegetable 

 cheese," a highly nutritious paste which can hardly be recog- 

 nized from cheese made of milk, and the "Shoyou," a condi- 

 ment of every-day use, which appears to enter largely in the 

 composition of many of the patent " sauces " made in England. 

 Soja is not very delicate as a fresh vegetable, as the seed, 

 which is the eatable part of the plant, has a very thick and 

 hard skin. But it might be removed before dishing up. The 

 plant is so prolific, so perfectly hardy and disease-resisting, 

 that it would be worth while to devote some time and care to 

 its improvement. Most varieties of the Soja ripen their seeds 

 too late to be of much use in northern Europe, but several of 

 them might be grown easily in North America. 



Stachys affinis, otherwise S.tuberif era, first introduced to notice 

 by Monsieur Paillieux, can be said to have attained in Europe 

 the position of a standing vegetable. In France it is fast becom- 

 ing popular as Stachys, or " Crosnes du Japon," and it is recog- 

 nized in England as the " Chinese Artichoke." It is a perfectly 

 hardy vegetable, consisting of the fleshy, pearl-white, under- 

 ground stems of S. affinis. The tubers, although very 

 watery to all appearance and easily crusfied between the 

 thumb and fingers, contain a rather high proportion of al- 

 buminous and gummy substances, and therefore constitute a 

 not altogether despicable food. The tubers intended for 

 propagation should be kept in sand over winter, planted out 

 in rows or on mounds early in spring and left to themselves, 

 with the exception of occasional weeding all through the sea- 

 son. The tubers are not wholly formed till the vines die off. 

 They will stand any amount of frost if left in the ground, and 

 they are all the more delicate for being pulled up just before 

 cooking. 



A good deal of attention is paid by the authors to such plants, 

 or parts of plants, as are well adapted for being pickled in 

 vinegar, so as to introduce some variety in the " pickles," too 

 commonly made exclusively of gherkins, small onions and bits 

 of cauliflower. The West India Gherkin (Cucumis Anguria), 

 the tuberous Nasturtium (Tropceolum tuberosum), the Mar- 

 tynia, the Chinese Artichoke, and last, not least, the Mioga, 

 the unexpanded flower of a sort of Ginger (Amomum Mioga), 

 are specially recommended for pickling. 



Many interesting points in this book are necessarily left un- 

 touched here, but enough has been said to show that it is a 

 very curious work, stored with quaint facts and suggestive 

 information. It contains the results of many years of careful 

 study and of protracted experiment, and all references to 

 other books or periodicals are most accurately given, by which 

 the utility of the whole is doubled. The authors, too, have 

 done their work in an evidently enthusiastic but entirely dis- 

 interested spirit, and in perfect good faith, plainly stating the 

 pro and con in every case. This in itself is no small merit. 



Notes. 



The beautiful Royal Gardens at Laeken, near Brussels, with 

 their magnificent conservatories, are frequently thrown open 

 freely to the public, and recently 26,460 persons visited them 

 during a single day. 



Seven acres of Apricot-orchard in Tulare County, bringing 

 theirowner a return of $2,100, and eightacresof Prune-orcliard 

 in San Bernardino County, yielding twenty-five tons of fruit. 



