1 62 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



lines. The oak stood in Barking parish, and a fair, 

 Marknad, used formerly to be held under it. Some of 

 these branches were now withered.* 



Crambe maritima til mat. Seakale as food. 



Upon my travels in 174a in Bohusldn, I found Crambe 

 Maritima Brassicce folio, Tournef which there grew wild by 

 the sea shore. I then mentioned in a Memoir (Memorial) 

 of mine at Kongl. Sv. "Vetenskaps Academien (the 

 Royal Swedish Academy of Science), that this might do 

 for food. To-day I saw that opinion of mine confirmed, 

 for Mr. Warner showed me three beds in his kitchen- 

 garden where this was sown only for cooking purposes. 

 It was used in the following way. In the months of 

 April and May it begins to shoot up new shoots, nearly 

 like an Asparagus. These are cut off and prepared in the 

 same way as Spinat in Sweden, when it is one of the 

 best-flavoured green vegetables which anyone can wish 

 for. Our midday-meal to-day was mostly made up of it. 

 It is cultivated everywhere here in England by Gentlemen 

 for the above-named purpose. When it is older it is not 

 good to eat ; beause the leaf becomes as tough as leather. 

 Its seeds are sown in April, May, June, or July, so early, that 

 is, as that they may come up and acquire enough strength 

 to resist the winter cold. Next spring the bed is covered 

 over with gravel, grus, 4 inches thick, but it is most to 

 be preferred if sand can be got from the sea-shore. In 

 this [T. I. p. 355] it thrives very well. When it is two 

 or three years old, one can begin to cut it, and the 

 same root lasts a long time, year after year without re- 

 quiring to be sown. 



* Hainault Forest was disforested in 1851. Here stood the celebrated 

 Fairlop Oak on an open space still called " Fairlop plain." Its trunk 

 measured 44 feet round near the ground, and its branches covered an area of 

 300 feet in circumference. Fairlop Fair was held under it on the first Friday 

 in July. [J. T..] 



