ii6 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



into Europe from Japan by the traveller Von Siebold, who says 

 that it succeeded well in his garden at Leyden. In order to have 

 the root tender and agreeable to the taste, it should be used when 

 it is two and a half or three months grown. If it is left until it is 

 fully grown, it branches and becomes hard and almost woody, so 

 that it is not surprising that when sent to table in that state, it has 

 often been pronounced detestably bad, whereas if eaten when 

 young, as it is by the Japanese, although it cannot be termed 



delicious, it is certainly not a bad 

 vegetable. 



Almost all hardy biennial plants 

 with fleshy roots should be experi- 

 mented on with the view of con- 

 verting them into kitchen-garden 

 vegetables, and many, perhaps, 

 might be available for this purpose 

 under the condition of their roots 

 being not too fibrous, nor possess- 

 ing any disagreeable flavour which 

 cooking would not remove. The 

 Wild Carrot and the Wild Beet 

 are not superior in quality to the 

 Burdock, and the second of these 

 plants certainly has a more dis- 

 agreeable flavour, and yet continued 

 cultivation and persevering selection 

 have converted these two plants into 

 Edible Burdock, orGobo natural size), excellent vegetables,producing roots 



which are large, tender, and well 

 tasted, at least when they are cooked, and quite difl"erent from what 

 they are in the wild state. There is no reason, then, why the Burdock 

 should not be a good table vegetable, if the plant appears to be 

 worth the trouble. It is hardy, vigorous, and of rapid growth ; its 

 roots are long and naturally fleshy, and consequently can be 

 increased in size and made tender by judicious cultivation. At the 

 present moment, in the condition in which we now have the plant, a 

 bed of it will yield as heavy a crop as a bed of Salsafy, and in half 

 or one-third of the time. As a vegetable it is deserving of serious 

 consideration. 



SALAD BURNET 



Poterium Sanguisorba, L. Rosacece. 



French, Pimprenelle petite. German, Garten-Pimpinelle. Fletnish^xi^L Dutch, Yvsxv^^xn^. 

 Italian, Pimpinella. Spanish, Pimpinela. Portuguese, Pimpinella. 



Native of Europe. — Perennial. — Radical leaves, pinnate, with an 

 odd leaflet ; leaflets oval-rounded, very much toothed; stems usually 



