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THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
May 
To us it is a matter of no small surprise that a 
subject so curious as The Vinegar Plant has not 
gained more attention from naturalists. Whatever 
its nature—whether plant or no plant—it is quite 
certain, from letters and samples which we have 
received, that very excellent vinegar is, and for years 
past has been, most economically made by its agency, 
in an unusually short space of time, in many places 
as widely separated as are the counties ol Durham, 
Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, and Kent. Yet no 
one has taken the trouble to examine the relative 
facts to which we now invite more attention. 
We cannot better introduce the subject than by 
printing the two following letters—the first from a 
highly respectable tradesman at Walsall, and the 
second from a gardener of no mean attainments:— 
“ I see, by two of the last Numbers of your Cot¬ 
tage Gardener, that you have inquiries made by 
correspondents concerning the vinegar plant. I have 
one in my possession, and there are several more in 
this town (Walsall). I should wish, for the infor¬ 
mation of your readers, to give you a description of 
it, hut it is almost beyond my skill—it must be seen 
to he believed. Talk of a plant! Nonsense. It has 
neither root, stem, branch, or leaf. You will say, 
‘ what is it like, then?’ Why, it is like ‘nothing in 
heaven above, in the earth beneath, or in the waters 
under the earth;’ ‘ none but itself can be its parallel.’ 
Some one says, 1 comparisons are odious;’ but we 
shall see. Figure to yourself the garbage of a cod¬ 
fish; or, what will be nearer the mark, take the 
stomach of a pig (the hodge, we Walsallonians call 
it), cut it open, empty it, but don’t wash the slime off; 
cut a piece the size of a middling-sized pancake, and 
then you will have the nearest resemblance in the 
world to a vinegar plant. It is ‘ neither fish, fowl, 
flesh, nor good red herring,’ and I hardly think it is a 
vegetable, but I should like your opinion on that 
head. It is wonderful to see a thing like this live 
and produce its kind, and live without air, too. I 
will endeavour to give some further idea of its form : 
it is about as round and as thick as you would 
expect to see a pancake. This sketch represents the 
underside of the plant. A is the parent, B B 13 are 
young ones forming. They all grow solid together 
till they are ready to work for themselves, and they 
then part very easily. Aly plant is not half an inch 
thick in the centre, where you may say there are four. 
Now for a word about cultivation. Take a jar ot 
what size you like, and to one gallon of water add 
of a pound of coarse sugar, and the same weight 
of treacle. Set your plant on this, mind, for if it 
sinks it will perish ; but, to make sure, it should 
have a small wooden raft, made of deal, in this form, 
-E-, to float on; it wants no more care. Tie a piece 
of brown paper over the jar, and set it in a warm 
room, and in a month’s time in summer, two months 
in winter, you will have the best and sharpest vine¬ 
gar, that can be had for all domestic purposes, for 
about six-pence per gallon. Farewell to cowslip, 
gooseberry, and all the rest of vinegars. There is 
none so good as this. I don’t know what may come 
to pass, but I think it is time to look out for a 
Brandy Plant.” 
The next letter is from Air. J. L. Aliddlemiss, gar¬ 
dener to A. Bole, Esq., of Bentham Hill, Tonbridge 
Wells. He says— 
“As Air. Reid has not stated how the vinegar plant 
is to be obtained, and as some of your readers may 
like to know, I here send you an account of the 
manner in which one may be made. Take jfb of 
sugar and Hb of treacle, simmer them in three quarts 
of water till dissolved, then put the mixture in a large 
bason or jar, cover it over, and set it in some warm 
corner; in about six weeks look at it, and a thick, 
tough, fleshy substance will be found floating on the 
top, which is the vinegar plant. Take it and put it 
on the mixture as recommended by Air. Reid. The first 
mixture will turn to vinegar, but it will not be so 
good as it would be with a “ plant” put on it at first. 
The young plant, wdiicli will be found adhering to the 
old one, is, as I suppose, the scum arising from the 
fermentation of the mixture, and in this way thou¬ 
sands of plants might be made, and as many hogs¬ 
heads of very good vinegar. I was rather puzzled 
about the vinegar plant, and had one sent to me 
from Northamptonshire, with strict injunctions to 
take great care of it, or it would die; but upon 
examination I thought one might be made, and the 
above is the result of my experiments. I may add 
that the vinegar is better if bottled and kept for some 
time.” 
So far, then, the question is set at rest, that the vine¬ 
gar plant is no importation from Italy, as is stated by 
the only publication (The Gardeners Journal) in 
which we could find it noticed. But the question 
still remains—is it a plant? and if a plant, of what 
kind? 
Since we last wrote, a correspondent has obligingly 
sent us one, and we can bear testimony to the accu¬ 
racy of the description of its appearance in the two 
preceding letters. It closely resembles a piece of 
tripe, without any appearance of mouldiness; when 
its substance is cut through, each surface exliibits a 
very distinctly marked epidermis, or skin, and the 
intermediate portion is pulpy, not unlike very thick 
paste, such as is made for adhesive purposes. AYe 
have submitted both the skin and the pulp to inspec¬ 
tion under a very powerful microscope, and could 
detect numerous pores throughout their substance, 
but notliing of a vascular system. The same may 
be observed in some of the lowest species of fungi, 
and to this lowest order of vegetables v r e believe it 
will be found to belong. 
Not a single product of the vegetable world capa¬ 
ble of fermentation, or putrefaction, but is the birth- 
