194 KITCHEN GARDEN. 
from the size of a filbert toa walnut, go to the cook. The 
mode of dressing for table is simple. The tubers, after 
being cleaned, are boiled for about ten minutes, or till they 
be slightly softened; and they are then served up with 
white sauce. Some persons merely put them into boiling 
water for a few minutes; then, pouring off the water, 
transfer them to a covered saucepan; and place the pan 
upon hot cinders, drawing some of these to the lid; in this 
way the tubers are rendered more dry or mealy. They 
have a pleasant flavor; somewhat resembling a new potato, 
with the additional zest of a nut or kernel; but also with 
a certain degree of acidity. The oxalis comes from the 
same country that afforded us the invaluable potato, and 
has been extolled as likely to rival it; but this it will 
never do: a dish of oxalis may form an agreeable variety 
and adjunct, but no more; bearing to the potato such rela- 
tion as sea-kale does to asparagus. It may be added, how- 
ever, that the oxalis crenata is, in other respects, a useful 
vegetable. The leaves may be used as salad, and they con- 
stitute, indeed, the principal salad at Lima. The shoots 
and young branches are found to make an agreeable puree,* 
having the wood-sorrel flavor; and the larger stems have 
been used in tarts, in the manner of rhubarb stalks, and 
been found more tender. The Oxalis Deppei tubers are 
hardy, prolific, and excellent when properly cooked; being 
free of the acidity of that of O. crenata. 
The tuberous roots of a lately introduced species of In- 
pian Cress, Tropeolum tuberosuiv, wore for some time in 
vogue, being praised as having, when boiled, a “ very deli- 
cate flavor, resembling the richest asparagus.” The plant 
is readily multiplied by cuttings during the summer months; 
and the young plants thus produced furnish a crop of tu- 
* A French soup. 
