CALEXDARIAL MEMORANDA FOR MAY. 
197 
blitter, or dried and preserved as a sweetmeat, or converted into an 
excellent marmalade. The young shoots are eaten as a delicate 
vegetable, and the old stems when shredded or chopped up are excellent 
manger meat for cattle. 
From the foregoing remarks, it will appear that the banana is not, 
even when mature, a rich luscious fruit like the peach, or mango, or 
pine-apple, but rather resembles in quality and consistence some of our 
beurre pears. Those we have partaken of in India, we thought very 
little, if at all, superior to the Psidium pyriferum. But, as we have 
a natural antipathy to all sweet fruits, our judgment is not to be relied 
on. The fruit of the banana, however, when produced in this country, 
and whether appearing in the second course at table or in the dessert, 
will always be considered as a rare luxury. 
This number of the “ Magazine of Botany” contains also Hints on 
the Illicium floridanum; Culture of the Ixia tribe; Treatment of 
Rhododendron arhoreum ; Hints on Thunhergia, of which nine species 
are noticed; together with Remarks on Astrapcea ;—all very valuable 
information for the cultivator of exotic plants. 
Smith’s Florist’s Magazine 
Contains the Anemonefora and Rosa Mundi Camellias ; Rhodo¬ 
dendron campanulatum , a fine Nepalese species introduced by Dr. 
Wallich; the Miss Miller and the Emperor of China Picotees; and 
the Solon and Esther Tulips. The letter-press accompanying these 
beautiful figures is full of the necessary information respecting their 
cultivation and history. 
CALENDARIAL MEMORANDA FOR MAY. 
Kitchen Garden. —Continue to sow once a fortnight succession 
crops of Knight’s marrowfat peas and the most desirable sorts of common 
beans. Earth up and stick the early-sown crops of those which are 
sufficiently advanced. 
Dwarf Kidney Deans may be sown at least twice in this month, 
and, about the middle, sow a full crop of the runner kinds. If either 
dwarfs or runners have been sown in boxes or frames for transplanting, 
they may be transplanted into drills about the 15th. 
Canlif ozvers. —Those under hand-glasses may be henceforth fully 
exposed; the earth drawn to form basins round the plants, to admit of 
them being supplied with manured water, to increase the size of the 
heads. Towards the end of the month another seed-bed may be sown 
to raise plants for autumn and winter service. 
