638 



RADICACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



set aside for ripening seed early in the season, in order that tliey may be per- 

 fectly matured while the weather is fine. The seed cannot be depended on 

 above a year. 



Forcing the kidney-bean. See 1104. 



1400. The Lima bean^ Dolichos L., of which there are several species 

 and numerous varieties, is cultivated in France and the South of Europe, 

 but it is rather too tender for the open air in Britain. See the Bon Jardinier 

 for 1842, p. 257. 



1401. The common lentil^ Ervum Lens L. ; the winter lentil, E. Ervilia 

 L. ; the Spanish lentil^ Lathyrus sativus L. ; and the chick pea, Cicer arie- 

 tinum L. ; and some other lentils, are annuals cultivated on the Continent 

 as peas are in England, for their ripe seeds, which are put in soups or dressed 

 as a dish in the same manner as haricots. 



1402. The white lupin^ Lupinus albus Z/., is cultivated in some parts of 

 Spain and Italy for its ripe seeds, which are put in soups, or dressed like 

 haricots. 



1403. Substitutes for leguminaceous esculents are few, and chiefly the field 

 pea, which is a variety of the garden pea, and the sea pea, Pisum marltimum 

 //,, a perennial, a native of Britain, on the sea-shore. 



Sect. III. Radicaceous Esculents. 

 Ii04. The principal esculent roots cultivated in British gardens, are the 

 potato, Jerusalem artichoke, turnip, carrot, parsnep, red beet, skirret, scor- 

 zonera, salsify, and radish. All of these plants thrive best in deep sandy 

 loam on a dry bottom, deeply trenched, and well manured, and with an 

 atmosphere moist and moderately warm. The potato, turnip, and carrot 

 occupy a considerable space in the garden, but not the others. In a rotation 

 of crops they all answer well for succeeding leguminous or alliaceous plants, 

 and some of them for following the cabbage tribe. 



SuBSECT. 1. The Potato. 

 1405. The potato, Solanum tuberosum Z,. (Pomme de Terre, Fr.), is a 

 solanaceous herbaceous perennial with tuber-bearing subterraneous stems, a 

 native of the western coast of South America, and in cultivation in Europe, 

 for its tubers, from the beginning of the sixteenth century. Its uses as a 

 culinary vegetable and as a substitute for bread are known to every one. 

 Potato starch, independently of its use in the laundry, when mixed with a 

 small proportion of wheat flour makes a most excellent light bread ; and it 

 is also manufactured into a substitute for sago, arrow-root, and tapioca ; and 

 as starch is convertible into sugar by fermentation, both a wine and a spirit 

 can be produced from it. The tender tops are eaten as spinach in Canada 

 and Kamtschatka, in the same manner as those of the gourd ; and the unripe 

 berries have been pickled and preserved, and when ripe dressed like those of 

 the tomato. As potatoes, like bread, are required at table every day in the 

 year, if the whole supply is grown in the garden, a large breadth will be 

 required for this purpose ; but the winter supplies are chiefly obtained from 

 the field or the public market, and indeed in most gardens only the early 

 crops are grown. The crop is more exhausting than any other, except in 

 cases where seed is ripened, as when a gardener grows his own turnip or 

 onion seed. In the rotation it ought either to be accompanied with, or follow, 

 a light crop which has been grown on soil in good heart. The uses of the 



