CULTURE OF THE TUBER03E. 55 



angles, give it some appearance of the Norfolk storer, but 

 there are darker green lines on the north side which dis- 

 tinguish it from all the apples I know. It is depressed about 

 the stalk, which is long and stout enough for so large an 

 apple. The calyx is nearly obliterated by the tims the fruit 

 is ripe, which is not till Christmas, or after. It is most 

 valuable for boiling or baking till April, and even to eat 

 at the end of the season ; its flesh firm, high flavoured and 

 juicy. 



VIII. 



On the Cultivation of the PoUanthes Tuherosa or Tuberose. 

 By Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq. F.R.S. Sfc*. 



J. HE charms of Horticulture, in every civilized nation. Art of^ gardet^-* 

 have been acknowledged by mjen of all ranks, from the •"£> 

 highest prince down to the lowest cottager. While the 

 graver duty of the historian has been simply to commemo- 

 rate the calm and innocent delights which it affords, the 

 holy mythologist has exalted it as the sole employment of 

 our first parents in Paradise ; and poets have embellished 

 their most enchanting verses with its productions : so that 

 to offer a long and laboured panegyric upon any single 

 branch of it, to a Society instituted for the express purpose 

 of encouraging them all, would, in the emphatic language 

 of an old writer, be like vainly attempting to paint the lily, 

 add a perfume to the violet, or gild refined gold. The field 

 before us, moreover, is no less extensive than that of the 

 whole globe, which is in fact one immense garden, covered 

 with vegetables common to every animal that exists; but 

 Providence has in infinite wisdom allotted to man the proud 

 preeminence over all ; his wants, if he is not indolent, being 

 invariably first supplied. In those earlier stages of society, 

 fiowever, when the ground was first cultivated, it must have 



• Abridged from the Trails, of the HoUicuUural Soc. vol. I, p. 41. 



been 



