16 
surface of the ground; and either covered with light rich mould 
as they proceed in growth, leaving only, perhaps, six inches of 
the end of each shoot out of the soil. Or, as no emission of 
tubers takes place till late in summer, the stems may remain 
spread out on the surface of the bed, in all directions, till about 
August, and then receive a covering of two inches thick of light 
compost, nearly to the ends of the stems. The propriety of 
this mode of treatment we deduce from the fact, that our tubers 
grew from the succulent ascending stems, a little beneath the 
soil which had been drawn up to them; and furthermore, a stem 
which chanced to lie on the earth, threw out a good sized tuber 
from its underside, at six inches from its connexion with the 
root. On the other hand, where a portion of the surface soil 
had been taken from about a plant, the produce was only half 
a dozen diminutive tubers. Still, we conceive that much depth 
of moulding up would be useless, for the tubers occur only near 
to the surface. Hence the rationale of laying the stems. The 
facility of increase in the Oxalis crenata is show n by an experi- 
ment which we tried. In July, we took up a strong plant, and 
divided its stems into thirty parts; some with, and some with- 
out, fibrous roots. These were planted in a trench, watered, and 
shaded, and every one grew, and produced from four to a dozen 
tubers. Had their treatment been guided by a full knowledge 
of their habits, the produce would have been great. 
A Correspondent of the Gardener’s Mag. v. 9, says that a plant 
produced four pounds of tubers; but of its culture no account is 
given which has reference to its peculiar habit. In the same 
volume. Dr. Hamilton observes, that a plant, grown on an old 
cucumber bed, produced a thousand blossoms. This was very 
unlike ours. The hardy character of the tubers appears import- 
ant. Mr. Cameron, Curator of the Birmingham Horticultural 
Society’s Garden, observed some of them exposed to frosts, not- 
withstanding which, they vegetated in the spring. 
This plant, even in its present state of perfection, is entitled to 
the best attention of the public; but doubly so, when it is recol- 
lected that some of our best vegetables have arisen out of insigni- 
ficant weeds. We invite societies to offer premiums for the best 
produce from the Oxalis crenata; and in aid of such patriotic 
object we shall be most happy to present tubers of it to those 
who aj)|)ly to us before the first of March next. 
