9^56 HORTICULTURAL OBSERVATIONS FROM FRENCH AUTHORS. 



Maize, Egg Plant, and Sweet Potatoes. 



All these plants are reared for use in some kitchen gardens 

 of France, though probably not in many, 



Indian corn. Maize is sown in the ground, without heat j when the spike 

 is about half an inch thick, it is eaten fried in butter, as arti- 

 chokes are, or made into pickle with vinegar. 



Egg plant. The egg plant is called in the gardens la plante qui pond. 



The seeds of this, as of the other varieties of solanura, are 

 sown on a hotbed, in March ; the plants, when ready, are 

 transplanted into pots, and plunged in a gentle heat j after the 

 plant has advanced considerably, it may be placed in the open 

 air. The fruit is much used for ragouts in Provence. 



Sweet potato. The sweet potato* is planted on a hotbed in the middle of 

 April, in about six inches of mould : when the shoots are eight 

 or ten inches long, they may be taken up, and replanted in a 

 bed of light mould, in the open air, about eighteen inches 

 deep : all the leaves, except the uppermost, are first to be taken 

 off, and the shoot then buried so deep, that the small bunch of 

 leaves only appears above ground. 



In October the tubers are ripe and ready to be dug up j in 

 doing this, the greatest care must be taken not to wound the 

 skin, as the slightest scratch disposes them to rot. 



They must be kept free from frost and damp j if exposed to 

 either of these, they exhale an odour like that of the rose, and 

 rot immediately. Both the yellow and the red variety are 

 cultivated in France j the red is preferred. 



<1 Strawberries. 



Alpine straw- The French cultivate the alpine strawberry in the mode 

 berry. recommended by Mr, A. Knight in the Horticultural Trans- 



actions!, and find the fruit so much better when produced by 



lowing accident. The Gage family, in the last century, procured from 

 • the monks of the Chartreuse^ at Paris, a collection of fruit trees : these 



arrived at their mansion of Hengrave Hall, with the tickets safely 

 affixed to them, except only the leine Claude, the ticket of which had 

 been rubbed off in the passage. The gardener being, from this circum- 

 stance, ignorant of the name, called it, when it bore fruit, the green 

 gage. 



* Convolvulus batatas, L. t Journal, vol. xxix, p. 214. 



2 seedlings 



