4 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



they may not be killed. In the begin- 

 ning of the spring after, dress and weed 

 them. The third year after you have 

 sown them, burn the haulm in the begin- 

 ning of the spring. Do not weed them 

 before the plants come up, that you may 

 not hurt the stools. The third or fourth 

 year you may pluck them close by the 

 root ; if you break them off, they yield 

 side-shoots, and some will die. You may 

 take them until they run to seed. The 

 seed is ripe in autumn. When you have 

 gathered the seed, burn the haulm, and, 

 when the plants begin to shoot, weed and 

 manure. After eight or nine years, when 

 the beds are old, lay out a spot, work and 

 manure it well, then make drills where 

 you may plant some roots ; set them well 

 apart that you may dig between them. 

 Take care that they are not injured. 

 Carry as much sheep's dung as you can 

 on the beds : it is best for this purpose ; 

 other manures produce weeds." 



The globe artichoke is said by Pliny, 

 book xix. chap, viii., to have been more 

 esteemed, and to have obtained a higher 

 price, than any other garden herb. He 

 also informs us that the commoners of 

 Rome were prohibited by an arbitrary 

 law from eating this vegetable. He, at 

 the same time, censures his countrymen 

 for their vanity and prodigality as re- 

 gards the serving up such things to their 

 tables as the very asses and other beasts 

 refuse to eat, for fear of pricking their 

 lips. The same writer, book xix. chap, 

 iv., tells us that asparagus, which for- 

 merly grew wild, was, in his time, care- 

 fully cultivated in gardens, particularly 

 at Ravenna, where the heads were so 

 large that three of them would weigh a 

 pound. 



Basil, which stands now so high in the 

 gastronomic art, that a new-made alder- 

 man would spurn a basin of turtle if not 

 seasoned with it, was condemned by 

 Chrysippus, more than two hundred years 

 before Christ, as an enemy to the % sight 

 and a robber of the wits. Diodorus and 

 Hollerus entertained equally superstitious 

 notions regarding it. Philistis, Plisto- 

 nicus, and others, extolled its vitrues, 

 and recommended it as strongly as it had 

 been formerly condemned. Pliny says, 

 the Romans sowed the seeds of this plant 

 with maledictions and ill words, believing 

 that the more it was cursed the better it 



would prosper; and when they wished 

 for a crop, they trod it down with their 

 feet, and prayed to the gods that it might 

 not vegetate ! 



The bean was cultivated both by the 

 earlier Greeks and by the Athenians, 

 who offered them as oblations to the 

 gods — a practice, according to Pliny, after- 

 wards followed by the Romans ; and 

 Lempriere states that bacon was added 

 to the beans in the offerings to Carna — 

 not, as he says, so much to gratify the 

 palate of the goddess, as to represent the 

 simplicity of their ancestors. The beet 

 was highly prized by the Greeks, who 

 used to offer it on silver to Apollo at 

 Delphos. They used also to eat the leaves 

 in preference to lettuce, and, by laying a 

 small weight on the plant, they blanched 

 it, much as gardeners of the present 

 day lay a tile over endive plants for a 

 like purpose. Pliny says, beets are, of 

 all garden herbs, the lightest roots ; that 

 they are eaten, as well as the leaves, with 

 lentils and beans; and that the best way 

 to eat them is with mustard, to give a 

 •taste to their dull flatness. So highly 

 was the cabbage esteemed by the an- 

 cients, that two of their leading physi- 

 cians each wrote a book on the properties 

 of the plant. Phillips tells us that the 

 ancient Romans, having banished physi- 

 cians out of their territories, preserved 

 their health for six hundred years, and 

 soothed their infirmities, by the use of 

 this vegetable alone. Pliny goes to great 

 length on the use and culture of the cab- 

 bage, which, he says, may be cut as cole- 

 worts at all times of the year; so may 

 they be sown and set all the year through ; 

 but he adds that the most appropriate 

 season is after the autumnal equinox ; and 

 also remarks that, after the first cutting, 

 they yield abundance of excellent tops. 

 Powdered nitre, sea-weed, and asses' dung, 

 were used as a fitting manure for them. 

 " There are," Pliny remarks, " many kinds 

 of coleworts at Rome," and amongst 

 them, one received in his time " from the 

 vale of Aricia, with an exceedingly great 

 head and an infinite number of leaves, 

 which gather round and close together" — 

 probably the first type of our hearting 

 cabbage, for those previously described 

 by him appear to have been open-hearted 

 or true coleworts. He afterwards, how- 

 ever, says, "there are some coles which 



