June 8. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
186 
that even boiling could not reduce the root to a fit state for 
mastication, and it was voted into oblivion forthwith. Beet¬ 
root, of the Turnip-rooted kind, is to be found in one or two 
places ; it is boiled and eaten cold with oil and vinegar as a 
salad. I took into my head, some months ago, to make a 
bottle or two of Beet-root pickle, and applied to an old 
clergyman, a fiiend of mine, who prides himself on having 
! all foreign plants in his garden, for two roots,-for that 
purpose ; he answered me that they were yet too young, but 
that he would not forget me at the proper season, and I 
j thought nothing more about the matter. About a fortnight 
I ago lie sent his servant, bearing on bis shoulder four roots, 
. each with a seed-stalk as thick as my arm, and above four feet 
long, assuring me that he had now the immense pleasure of 
complying with my request; but I very ungratefully returned 
them to him, with a written recommendation that he should 
cut them down into gumstieks, and make his penitents chew 
I them soft, before he gave them absolution. I went down 
next day to see my friend the “ Padre,” and I found that lie 
had cut each root into four pieces, and replanted them again, 
i so that, as he said, they might not be lost! We have a 
small long-pod Bean grown here in considerable quantities, 
: but it is never topped, and this produces only a few pods in 
perfection at the upper extremity. 1 veutured one day to 
suggest this simple opperation to tho Padre, but he treated 
the very idea with contempt, scientifically illustrating his 
opposition, by asking me if it would conduce to my health 
to be made a head shorter ? The logic was unanswerable, 
the old man had made out bis “reducito ad absurdum,” 
and I had nothing more to say for myself. 
Parsley is a much esteemed plant, but seems always, I 
know not from what cause, extremely scarce. Celery is 
unknown in a cultivated state, but grows wild in the ravines 
of the neighbourhood. 
Mint, Chervil, Dill, Basil, and Marjoram, are grown and 
used, but Sage and Thyme are unknown. The leaves of 
Prince’s Feather and Love Lies Bleeding, both wild and 
indigenous plants, are boiled, and eaten as we do Spinach, 
and are tolerably good. The Tomato, or Love Apple, is 
produced in abundance, and enters, boiled and raw, into the 
composition of many dishes. Turnips have been frequently 
sown, aud at proper seasons 1 have no doubt will do well, 
but in the experiments hitherto made, were never thinned 
out, and of course came to nothing. 
I have stated above that the Potato of Tacna is not good, 
but this in a great degree is compensated for by the 
excellence of the Camote, or Sweet Batata, a Convolvulus 
producing large, nutritive, aud well-tasted roots; the 
Arracacba, something like our Parsnip ; and several 
varieties of Pompions, which are truly excellent; and all 
these valuable plants require no further care than an 
occasional watering. 
Of fruits in this valley we have hardly one species 
peculiar to the latitude or the country, but an abundant 
supply of tropical kinds is brought from the warmer places 
nearest to us ; the few we have are as follows :— 
Figs, of excellent quality and in great abundance; the 
trees grow to upwards of forty feet in height, and no care is 
taken of them whatever; tho first crop is ripe in December, 
: and the second or main one in March and April. 
Grapes, of several kinds in plenty, but not nearly so fine 
j in quality as those brought from Locumba, twenty leagues 
j to the north, where immense quantities of wine are made 
! from them ; Tacna had at one time extensive Vineyards, but 
some prejudical change took place in the quality of the 
I water, and they were given up. 
Olives are abundant, aud those who like them say they 
1 are superior; the demand for the table is so great that 
1 hardly any oil is made near Tacna: they are eaten here 
i when quite ripe, black, aud full of oil. A full crop of 
I Olives is only obtained every third or fourth year, and the 
| reason, I have no doubt, is to be found in the clumsy 
I and destructive way iu which the fruit is gathered, tho 
1 branches being beaten with canes until the Olives fall on 
j mats placed under the trees to receive them, and this rough 
| work cannot fail to destroy many of the fruit-buds on the 
long, tender, and wiry branches. 
Peaches of three or four sorts are abundant, and the j 
people are very fond of them, looking on this as the I 
healthiest of all fruits; it may be so, but those grown in 1 
Tacna have nothing else to recommend them; they, with 
the exception of one kind, are hard and flavourless, never 
ripen properly, and in fact do not agree with the locality; 
they are in season in January and February. 
Pears are of two kinds, a small one in shape and size 
resembling the “ Green Chisel,” in immense quantities, and 
another, a small Bergamot, not so plentiful; neither sort 
will keep above a few days, and it is astonishing how so 
many can be consumed during the very short time they 
remain in season; they ripen in December. 
Apples: YY e have but one kind, something like a “ Keswick 
Codlin.” The trees are stunted and cankering, and do not 
thrive; they are first raised from cuttings, and afterwards 
ingeniously grafted from the same tree ! In Lima there are 
several good sorts, and this fruit, wrought on proper stocks, 
would bo sure to do well here. 
Pomegranates : All the hedges are of this plant, and they 
bear fruit in abundance, but no use is made of this most 
beautiful Apple. 
Mulberries are plentiful and fine. Any other nation than 
the Spaniards would have introduced the silkworm in Peru. 
Strawberries are sometimes seen as a curiosity, but of an 
indifferent sort; the necessity of irrigation excludes the j 
fruit. 
Plums of one kind, like the Black Jack, are mostly 
brought from the higher valleys ou the borders of the 
Cordillera. 
Melons, both musk aud water, are grown in the greatest 
abundance, and are very large aud fine; the seed is sown in 
ridges, in October and November, gets a little guano after¬ 
wards, and the produce is reaped in thousands from January 
till May. 
Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Guavas, Pacays, Plantains, and 
Granadillas (the egg-shaped fruit of a Passion flower, with 
a pulp exactly like a gooseberry), are all grown in small 
quantities in Tacna, but the principal supply of them, and 
other tropical fruits, is derived from the warmer valleys in 
the province. 
Postscript. —In the above hasty sketch, I find no notice 
has been taken of two important productions, viz. Cotton 
and the Sugar-Cane. Cotton is grown in considerable 
quantities; it is of the perennial kind, and forms a dwarf I 
tree of eight or ten feet high. The plants are raised from i 
seed, and begin to bear when two years old ; lOOlbs of the 
Cotton, as taken from the plant, weigh only JOlbs. when : 
separated from the seed. The Sugar-cane grown in Tacna ■ 
is sold to and eaten by the lower class of people, and is 
never manufactured. 
The climate of Tacna is one of the finest in the world ; 
although 6° within the southern tropic the extremes of 
heat common to the same latitude, iu other parts of the 
world, are here unknown. The fervid rays of a vortical 
sun are tempered by the daily trade-wind sweeping over the j 
bosom of the Pacific ocean on the west; while to the east, ; 
and at the distance of only about forty miles, rise the 
mighty snow-covered turrets of tho Andes, whose pure j 
atmosphere of everlasting frost also lends its influence in | 
tempering the solar rays. But much of the moderation of 
the climate depends on the open nature of the country 
in the immediate neighbourhood; in other vallies, only a 
few leagues off, which arc shut in by high bills on either 
side, the free circulation of air is impeded, the direct rays 
of the sun are strengthened by the reflected heat from the 
inclosing hills, and the temperature at certain seasons is 
insufferably warm. Every modification of climate is to be 
met with in Peru : in open situations, at 2000 feet above the 
level of the sea, we have the genial temperature of Tacna; 
at double that height, the region where Wheat begins to be 
cultivable; at 6000 feet a region of perpetual spring; at 
8000 feet the Fig-tree becomes stunted and dwarfish, but 
Wheat is in its native climate; and at 10,000 feet we are 
on the high plains of the Cordillera, in the region of Condors 
anil Guanacors and Viccenas; where the Indians rear their 
flocks of llamas and sheep on the scanty vegetation, and 
extort from the unwilling soil a miserable half-ripened crop 
of Barley and Quinua for their own subsistence. But even 
here other climates are still observable; these immense 
plains, hundreds of miles in breadth, are but the base for 
other mountains as high above their surface as they them¬ 
selves are above the sea! and along the side of which is 
