Appendix.] selected from French Authors. g 



about half an inch thick, it is eaten fried in butter, as artichokes 

 are, or made into pickle with vinegar. 



The Egg Plant is called in the gardens, Le Plant qui pond. The 

 seeds of this, as of the other varieties of Solanum, are sown on a 

 hot-bed, in March ; the plants, when ready, are transplanted into 

 pots, and plunged in a gentle heat; after the plant has advanced 

 considerably, it may be placed in the open air. The fruit is 

 much used for ragouts in Provence. 



TheSweetPotatoe, the Convolvulus Batatas of Linna?us, is planted 

 on a hot-bed in the middle of April, in about six inches of mould : 

 when the shoots are eight or ten inches long, they may be taken 

 up, and replanted in a bed of light mould, in the open air, about 

 eighteen inches deep : all the leaves, except the uppermost, are 

 first to be taken off, and the shoot then buried so deep, that the 

 small bunch of leaves only appears above ground. In October 

 the tubers are ripe and ready to be dug up ; in doing this, the 

 greatest care must be taken not to wound the skin, as the slightest 

 scratch disposes them to rot. They must be kept free from frost 

 and damp; if exposed to either of these, they exhale an odour 

 like that of the rose, and rot immediately. Both the yellow and 

 the red variety are cultivated in France; the red is preferred. 



Strawberries. 



The French cultivate the Alpine Strawberry in the mode re- 

 commended by Mr. Knight in the Horticultural Transactions* 

 and find the fruit so much better when produced by seedlings of 

 the first year, that they seem to prefer the Alpine to all other 

 sorts, and to be supplied at market with the fruit of it in every 

 month of the year, by the use of some heat in the winter. 



The seeds, they say, may be sown either in a little heat, or in 

 the open air, but always in the shade ; they should be sown in 

 * See page 159. 



