EH U BARB. 



253 



while the flowers are opening. Let the roots be three feet 

 apart, and do not permit any others to flower near them, 

 if you wish pure seed. When the pods turn dry, gather, 

 dry, thresh out, and save in paper bags. The seed will 

 keep three years. It is best to get seed from a colder cli- 

 mate for the early crop, as the roots will come sooner into 

 use. From these, seed can be raised for the main crop the 

 ensuing year. 



Use. — The tops used to be boiled for greens. The sem- 

 inal leaves, when they first appear, are used as a salad, 

 with cress and mustard, and the seed-pods, gathered young, 

 form a good pickle, and are a substitute for capers. But 

 the roots are the parts mainly used. They are much 

 relished, while young and crisp, for the breakfast table. 

 They contain little beside water, woody fibre, and acrid 

 matter ; so they cannot be very nourishing or wholesome. 

 When young, and of good varieties, they are much more 

 digestible than when older and more fibrous. The juice 

 of radish is said to be good for hoarseness and difficulty of 

 breathing. 



Rheum Rh aponhcum — Bhub are o 



The Garden Ehubarb is a perennial, a native of Asia, 

 first cultivated in England in 1573. The leaves are very 

 large, and supported by large petioles, which are the parte 

 used in cooking, and in the finer varieties are an inch or 

 two in diameter. It has not been much cultivated in this 

 country until within a few years; but now is in large de- 

 mand in all the northern cities, where the culture is very 

 easy. The best varieties are 



Buist's Early Red, with stalks about three feet long, and 

 a week earlier than Myatt's Victoria. Being an American 

 plant, it stands the heat better than the European varie- 

 ties. Grows large. 



