400 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



A plantation will last several years without requiring to be renewed. 

 When growing, the plants are treated exactly like Angelica-plants. 



Uses. — At the present day Lovage is almost exclusively used 

 in the manufacture of confectionery ; formerly the leaf-stalks and 

 bottom of the stems were eaten, blanched like Celery. 



MAIZE, or INDIAN CORN 



Zea Mays, L. Graminece. 



French, Mais sucre. German, Mais. Flemish and Dutch, Turksche tarwe. Italian, 

 Grano turco. Spanish, Ma'iz. Portuguese, Milho. 



Native of America.— Annual. — The Maize plant, or Indian Corn, 

 was introduced in the sixteenth century from America into Europe, 



where its cultivation 

 soon became very 

 general, and where it 

 now occupies an im- 

 portant place among the 

 cereal crops which 

 furnish food for man. 

 In many places the heads 

 or " cobs " are gathered 

 while the seeds are 

 young and tender, and 

 are parched and eaten 

 as a delicacy, but it is 

 almost exclusively in 

 the United States of 

 America that the Maize 

 is regarded as a regular 

 table vegetable and 

 grown specially for that 



Maize, or Indian"co^(Tnatural size). purpOSe. AlmOSt all the 



varieties may be eaten 

 as they are in America — that is, boiled before the seeds have 

 become hard and floury, and while the pulp of the interior is 

 still in the condition of a soft paste ; but there are some kinds 

 which are superior to the rest for this purpose, their seeds being 

 sweeter and more tender, and which are known by the general 

 name of Wrinkled Sweet Maize. These are distinguished by the 

 very peculiar appearance of the seed, the skin of which is wrinkled, 

 shrunken, and almost transparent when ripe, instead of being hard, 

 swollen, and smooth, like that of other kinds. Its germinating 

 power lasts for two years. 



In the United States, where this plant is highly esteemed as a 

 table vegetable, there are at least a dozen distinct varieties grown, 



