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THE CULTURE OF OXALIS CRENATA. 
Therefore suffice it to say, that in the autumn of 1833 I received two 
plants of the Oxalis from the nursery of Messrs. Malcolm & Co., at 
Kensington. The plants were in thirty-two sized pots, and in very 
good health. Being desirous to see what kind of produce I was likely 
to have, I immediately turned one of the plants out of its pot, and began 
a minute search for the tubers, but to my great surprise not one could 
I find; the other plant was examined with the same result. In this 
state of things I was posed as to what course to pursue, but, after con¬ 
sulting a friend on the subject, I re-potted the plants in leaf-mould and 
sand, and placed them in a cucumber frame, where they greAv with 
extraordinary vigour; I also at the same time took off two cuttings 
from each plant, and planted them in the same soil, and placed them 
in the frame. They struck root in about fourteen days; and, to my 
infinite satisfaction, when I potted them ofif I found they had formed 
tubers at each of the joints under the soil; I therefore determined to 
encourage the plants so as to procure as many cuttings as possible, and 
by the end of November I had upwards of a pint of tubers, some of 
them as large as pigeons’ eggs. I kept the tubers in a dry, cool shed, 
in dry sand, through the winter. 
Jn the following spring, about the middle of March, I examined my 
tubers and potted them in forty-eight sized pots, in loam and leaf- 
mould, putting one tuber in each pot; the pots were placed in the pine 
stove until the plants were about two inches high, when they were 
removed to a cold frame, where they grew very strong, and were gra¬ 
dually removed to the open air. About the middle of May a piece of 
light, sandy ground was digged for them, and the plants were turned 
out of their pots, and planted in rows two feet apart, and the plants 
eighteen inches apart in the row. They grew very strong through the 
summer, the quantity of herbage made was prodigious, and I very con¬ 
fidently calculated upon a large produce ; but to my great surprise, oil 
taking them up after the October frosts had destroyed the tops, not the 
smallest granulous root or tuber could be found. You will therefore 
see that they do not always “ produce tubers on light, sandy land.” 
So far is the result of my experience in the culture of this much 
belauded rival of our wholesome potato; and as I have tasted the 
tubers, and as it is found by chemical analysis that a certain weight of 
the oxalis does not contain so much farinaceous matter as an equal 
quantity of potatoes, it follows, as a matter of course, that it never can 
supersede the common potato for edible purposes. Hence I can only 
say to those who are desirous to prove the oxalis—take cuttings next 
autumn, from six inches to a foot long, and plant them in a light, sandy 
soil, in a frame; keep as many joints under the soil as possible, and 
