VEGETABLES — DESCRIPTION AND CULTUKE. 293 



barrel without a head ; a es)ver is placed over it at night 

 and in cold days, and it is then surrounded with a pile of 

 stable manure built up in as sharp a cone as it can be made 

 to form. If the root is good;, it will soon fill the barrel with 

 shoots. The plant should be permitted to rest after this 

 crop through the season, and others be selected for the pur- 

 pose the next year. This operation, at the North, is com- 

 mon enough, but at the South it is generally death to the 

 plant. 



Use. — The leaf-stem, or petiole of this plant, when the 

 external skin is removed, is cut up in thin slices, and hav- 

 ing an agreeable acid, is used exactly like the apple for 

 pies, tarts, and sauce, at a time that fruits cannot be 

 obtained. Gather them while young, just as they attain 

 their full size, before they lose their fine flavor. They 

 should be gently slipped from the root without using a 

 knife. 



This plant is in almost universal use in England, France, 

 and the Northern States, and succeeds perfectly well in 

 Middle Georgia. We hope to see it common in Southern 

 gardens wherever it will succeed. 



ROCAMBOLE.- {Allium Scorodoprasum.) 



; This is a hardy, perennial, Liliaceous plant, of the onion 

 tribe, from Denmark, and is sometimes called Spanish 

 Garlic, and Great Shallot. It has its bulbs and cloves 

 growing in a cluster, forming a kind of compound root. 

 The stem also bears bulbs at its summit. These are often 

 sold for onion buttons. 



Culture. — It is best propagated by the root-bulbs, those 



