WORMWOOD. 



139 



SO easily preserved from the frost, even in the severest winters. To 

 ensure a crop, you should sow in the last week of July, or the first 

 of August, in the south of England, and a week or two earlier to- 

 wards the north. It is a very good way to sow again in the last 

 week of August, especially in good and warm soil, for these will 

 be sound in the month of March, and, if the winter be mild, quite 

 large enough, while those sowed earlier will become woolly by that 

 time. But there is a way to prevent this woolliness : that is to 

 say, by taking up the turnips and taking oif their greens and roots 

 early in November, keeping them in a cellar or some other conve- 

 nient place, taking care to exclude all bruised, broken, or rotten 

 turnips or parts of turnips. A small conical heap made in the 

 garden, upon the top of the ground, covered first with straw and 

 then with earth, will keep the turnips perfectly sound until March, 

 so that, be the winter what it may, you may always have turnips 

 ready for use ; and, as they are not in a state to grow, they will 

 not become woolly. 



198. WORMWOOD is a herb purely medicinal. It may be 

 propagated from seed, from slips, or from offsets : it is perennial, 

 and a foot square in the herb-bed is enough to be allowed to it. It 

 loses its leaves in the winter ; and therefore, for winter use, it 

 must be cut and dried in the manner directed in the case of other 

 herbs, and put by and preserved in paper bags. 



199. NotaBene. — BORAGE. — I omitted the insertion of this 

 plant in due alphabetical order, and as the printer treads closely 

 upon my heels, I am obliged to mention it here. — This is a very 

 pretty flowering plant. One sort of it has blue flowers, one red, 

 and another white. The only use that I ever saw borage put to 

 was putting it into wine and water along with nutmeg, and some 

 other things, perhaps, the mixture altogether being called cool- 

 tankard y or by the shorter name cup. If once you have it grow- 

 ing upon any spot, you need not take the trouble to sow it. It 

 bears an abundance of seed, some of which is ripe while the plant 

 is still in bloom. If you wish to have it young at all times, you 

 may sow in the spring, in the summer, in autumn, or at any time. 

 The plants should not stand too thick upon the ground, and the 

 ground should be kept clean. Any awkward corner under one of 

 the hedges will do very well for borage, which, however, is by no 

 means unornamental in a flower-garden, both flower and leaf being 

 very preity. 



