Book I. 



PLANTS USED AS PRESERVES, &c. 



679 



4255. Propagation. It is readily propagated by parting the roots, [)reserving two or 

 three buds to each piece, or by slips, either in autumn or spring. 



4256. Culture. Plant the slips or sets in any bed of common earth, by dibble or trowel, and from eight 

 inches to a foot apart, giving water, if dry weather. Those of the spring planting will soon grow freely 

 for use the same year ; and afterwards will increase by the root into large bunches of several years' continu- 

 ance, furnishing annual supplies from March to September. 



4257. Dried balm. Gather when coming into flower, and when the leaves are per- 

 fectly free from dew or moisture ; then dry rapidly in the shade, or better in an oven ; 

 and when cool press the herbage into packages, and wrap them up in white paper till 

 wanted for use. Keep the packages dry and in a close drawer. 



Sect. XI. Plants used as Preserves and Pickles. 



4258. Ofj^lants used as culinary preserves and pickles, some are tender annuals, requir- 

 ing to be reared to a certain stage of growth in hot-beds or stoves, as the capsicum and 

 love-apple ; others are marine plants, as the samphires, more generally gathered wild than 

 cultivated in the garden. The remainder are chiefly common garden-plants, used also 

 for other purposes, as the red cabbage, Indian cress, &c. The whole occupy but a few 

 square yards of the largest kitchen-garden ; and, excepting the red cabbage, few of them 

 are seen in that of the cottager for the purposes of this section. 



SuBSECT. 1. Love-ylpjde. — Solanuni Lycopersicu7n, L. ; Lycopersicum escidentum, 

 Dunal. (Rumph. Amb. 5. t. 154. f. 1.) Pentan. Monog. L. and Solanacece, J. 

 Tomato, Fr. ; Liebes Apfel, Ger. ; and Porno d' Oro, Ital. 



4259. The love-ajiple is a tender annual, a native of South America, and introduced 

 in 1596. The stem, if supported will rise to the height of six or eight feet ; the leaves 

 are pinnate, and have a rank disagreeable smell when handled; the flowers .are yellow, 

 appearing in bunches in July and August, and followed by the fruit in August and 

 September. The fruit is smooth, compressed at both ends, and furrowed over the sides ; 

 it varies in size, but seldom exceeds that of an ordinary golden pippin. 



4260. Use. When ripe, the fruit, which has an acid flavor, is put into soups and 

 sauces, and the juice is preserved for winter use like ketchup ; it is also used in confec- 

 tionary, as a preserve ; and when green, as a pickle. Though a good deal used in 

 England in soups, and as a principal ingredient in a well known sauce for mutton ; yet, 

 our estimation and uses of the fruit are nothing to those of the French and Italians, and 

 especially the latter. Near Rome and Naples, whole fields are covered with it, and 

 scarcely a dinner is served up in which it does not in some way or other form a part. 



4261. Varieties. Those in general cultivation are — 



The large, small, cherry, £ind pear-shaped red 1 The large, and small, or cherry-shaped yellow. 



4262. Estimate of sorts. " The first sort is in most estimation for domestic purposes, 

 and should be cultivated accordingly ; while a few plants of the other kinds may be 

 raised for variety of the fruit." 



4263. Propagation and culture. The plants must be raised and forwarded in a hot-bed, under glass, 

 from about the vernal equinox till May. Sow in any general hot-bed about the end of March, or begin- 

 ning or middle of April ; and as to quantity of seed, one ounce will produce sixty plants. As soon as 

 the plants are about two inches high, if they are immediately pricked into another hot-bed, or into that 

 where raised, singly into small pots placed in the hot-bed, they will grow more stocky, and can be more 

 successfully transplanted. About the middle or end of May, transplant them, each with a ball of earth, 

 into a south border, to have the full sun, that the fruit may ripen in perfection. Some may be planted 

 close to a south wall, if. vacant spaces can be had ; but as they draw the ground exceedingly, do not set 

 them near choice fruit-trees. Give water. During the first week or fortnight, if the nights be cold, de- 

 fend them with hand-glasses, or by whelming a large garden-pot over each plant ; or transplant upon 

 holes of hot dung, earthed to six inches depth, and cover with hand-glasses. When they begin to run, 

 train them to stakes, or, when planted near a wall or pales, nail up the branches. 



4264. Wilmot plants at the foot of a bed sloping steeply to the south, and trains the runners on it by 

 pegging them down. They frequently strike root at the joints ; he " tops them as soon as their branches 

 meet, clears off all the lateral shoots, and thins the leaves by which the fruit is exposed and well ripened. 

 In the fine season of 1818, each plant so treated produced, on an average, twenty pounds' weight of fruit." 

 {Hart. Trans, iii. 345.) The fruit begins to ripen in August ; gathered in October, and hung up in 

 bunches in any dry apartment, it will continue good for use in November. 



4265. To save seed. " Gather some of the best ripe fruit in autumn ; clear out the seed ; wash and 

 cleanse it from the pulp, and dry it thoroughly ; then put it up in papers or bags, for use next spring." 

 ( Abera-ombie.) 



SuBSECT. 2. Egg-Plant. — Solanum Melongena, L. {Pluk. Phyt. 226. f. 2.) Pent. 

 Monog. L. and Solanacece, B. P. Melongene, Fr. ; Tollapfel, Ger. ; and Melan- 

 zana, Ital. 



4266, The egg-plant is a tender or green-house annual, a native of Africa, introduced 

 in 1597. The plant rises about two feet high, with reclining branches ; the flowers ap- 

 pear in June and July, of a pale-violet color, followed by a very large berry, generally 

 of an oval shape, and white color, much resembling a hen's egg ; and in large speci- 

 mens, that of a swan. 



4267. Use.- In French and Italian cookery, it is used in stews and soups, and for the 

 general purposes of the love-apple. 



X X 4 



