76 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
October 4, 1890. 
SALADINGS* 
By M. Henry L. de Vilmorin. 
The craving for fresh, crisp, uncooked vegetable matter 
is not only common to most men, it is also a healthy 
appetite, and one that is in accordance with the 
recognised laws of nutrition. Such vegetables as are 
generally known as salads are the means of supplying 
to the human frame some elements which are as 
necessary to the preservation of health as the flesh¬ 
forming or heat-producing matter which is abundant in 
richer articles of food. Salads contain a relatively 
high proportion of mineral matter, chiefly salts of 
potash, which although equally plentiful in other 
Vegetables, are mostly removed from them in thb 
process of boiling, and therefore lost to nutrition, 
while they are preserved in their entirety in the case of 
salads. 
Although the idea of a salad is at first sight specially 
connected with green or partially blanched leaves, the 
fact is that every part of plants may be used, and is in 
some places used as a salad, namely : roots, as in 
Celeriac, Radishes, and Rampion ; bulbs, or under¬ 
ground stems, as in Onion and Stachys ; leaves, as in 
Lettuces, Endives, Cresses, Corn Salad, and many 
others ; leaf stalks, as in Celery ; stems, as in 
Asparagus ; bracts, as in Artichoke ; and even flowers, 
as in Nasturtium and Yucca ; or fruits or seed pods, as 
in Cucumbers, Capsicums, and Tomatos. 
To review all the vegetables which are used for salads, 
would be to go over a ground again which has been 
gone over before by so many learned and practical 
men, that I should fear in so doing to waste your time 
and exhaust your patience to no purpose. I will 
therefore take the liberty to confine my remarks to two 
special points only. 
First, I will give a list of the principal vegetables 
used as salads in France, and generally brought to the 
Paris market. Second, I will insist on one of the 
operations often connected with the growing of salading, 
namely, blanching, and give the description of some 
vegetables which, naturally, being almost uneatable, 
become by blanching most excellent materials for 
salads. 
Our Continental conception of a salad does not 
entirely agree with the British view of the same. 
Salads proper, with us are only such vegetables as form 
a special and distinct dish by themselves, beiDg dressed 
with oil and vinegar, and, of course, salt and pepper. 
Such salads are often served along with meat, but they 
are not necessarily a complement to it, and in that 
respect they differ from some other vegetables which, 
although served uncooked and dressed in the same 
manner, are never put on the table except as a 
companion to meat. Lettuces, Endives, Corn Salad 
belong to the former ; Bitter Chicory, Red Cabbage, 
Garden Cress belong to the latter. Besides, some other 
plants are used only to flavour or decorate salads. I 
will mention them all very briefly, stating at what time 
of the year each one is obtainable in the Paris market. 
I.—Salads Proper. 
Lettuce : Cabbage or “headed” Lettuce is to be had 
all the year round. It is supplied from the open 
ground from April to November, and is forced under 
glass bells or under frames from December to May. 
Cutting Lettuce is plentiful from November to May. 
Cos Lettuce, chiefly Paris Cos, is grown from May to 
November in the open, and forced from December to 
May. 
Common or Bitter Chicory is not much used as a 
salad proper, except after blanching. It will be spoken 
of at some length hereafter. It is available as Barbe 
de Capucin from November to April. Improved 
Common Chicory, a broad-leaved variety, is in season 
from June till November. 
Curled and Batavian Endives are the most largely 
consumed salads next to the Cabbage and Cos Lettuces. 
They are on the market as open-air produce from June to 
February, and as forced produce from April to June. 
Some of the curled Endives, the Ruffec variety 
especially, can be kept sound and good till mid-winter, 
and even later, by throwing straw mats over the beds 
in dry weather, or by covering the plants with dry 
leaves. 
Curled Endives are now forced in early spring by 
sowing, pricking, and planting, all on a hot-bed, and 
giving as much light and air as the weather will 
permit. Heads 15 ins. in diameter, quite full, and 
weighing over 2 lbs., can be had early in May. 
Scarolle en cornet, which might be called in English 
‘Abstracts from a paper read at the meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, on March 25th, 1S90. 
“hooded” Endive, is comparatively hardy, and may 
assist with the new variety, Reine d’Hiver, in extend¬ 
ing the use of out-of-doors Endives till the end of 
winter. 
Dandelion can be had green all the year round, 
blanched from December to April, and half-blanched 
from March to May. Corn Salad is plentiful, in any 
weather, from October to April. Water Cresses, 
remarkable for their size and beauty, are on the market 
all the year round. Purslane, whether from the open 
border or forced, can be had at all seasons, but it is 
not much used as a salad. Rampion is mainly a 
winter salad, from October to March, Salsafy tops, 
which give a very fine and tender salad, with a pleasant 
nutty flavour, are used just as the roots from which 
they are taken, from September to May. 
To the foregoing salads people are often in the habit 
of adding, for the sake of flavouring or decorating the 
dish : Celery from August to March ; Celeriac from 
September to April ; Chervil, Chives, and Shallot all 
the year round ; Nasturtium flowers, May to November ; 
Borage flowers, all summer. Mustard and Rape 
seedlings are not used in Paris. 
II. —Salads used as an Accompaniment to Meat. 
Bitter Chicory : This is used by cutting the young 
and tender green leaves in fine long strips. It is 
mainly used with boiled beef, and is considered to be 
a very nice salad if the leaves be cut often, and the 
plant watered. Garden Cress all the year round. 
Cucumbers, ditto. Red Cabbage, from August till 
April. This is cut like the Bitter Chicory, and first 
seasoned with vinegar, when from a dull purplish red 
it turns into a blight crimson ; a little oil is added at 
the time of serving up. Tomatos, from the open 
ground from August to October ; forced from April to 
July ; kept fresh in fruit-rooms from November to 
March—in fact all the year round. 
Some more vegetables are much used in the South of 
France as salading—namely, Rocket, Eruca sativa, 
and Terra crepola, Picridium vulgare, but these never 
appearing on the Paris market must be left out of this 
paper, as well as the large sweet Tripoli Onions. 
Several vegetables are added to salads in a cooked 
state, as Blood-red Beets, Cauliflowers, Asparagus tips, 
French aud Kidney Beans, Lentils, hard-fleshed Pota- 
tos, &c. These I must also dispose of by simply 
naming them. 
Again, some other vegetables are used uncooked, as 
Radishes and Artichoke, and are, I think, included in 
the term “salading,” although not considered on the 
Continent as materials for salads. Both kinds are 
plentiful at all times on the Paris market, the Artichoke 
coming from the Riviera or from Algeria, all the time 
between November and May. 
I now come to 
III.— Blanching and Blanched Vegetables. 
It is well known that the flavouring principle is 
developed in most plants under the action of light and 
heat,' just as the colouring matter is, and this is the 
reason why the process of blanching, which makes the 
vegetable matter acted upon whiter and more tender, 
renders it at the same time milder in taste and more 
palatable, if naturally of a strong flavour. 
Although a very large number of plants can be made 
esculent by blanching, it becomes evident, upon careful 
consideration, that those only can be made use of profit¬ 
ably which, firstly, form rather long roots or crowns 
wherein a good provision of nutriment can be stored, 
and this being converted into new growth by the action 
of heat and moisture, supplies fresh vegetable matter 
during the winter months, when such salading is made 
more valuable by the scarcity of open-air vegetables ; 
secondly, such as are sufficiently, hardy for their roots 
or crowns to be handled, even in rough weather, 
without too great a danger of their being destroyed by 
cold or damp ; and, thirdly, such as are easily grown 
in the first stage of their cultivation, and so supply a 
comparatively inexpensive material for the winter 
treatment, which is always more or less costly. 
Those characters cf bulk, hardiness, and cheapness 
are all forthcoming in the two vegetables 'which it is 
my purpose to introduce as salading to the notice of 
the Royal Horticultural Society in this paper—namely, 
Dandelion and the Common or Bitter Chicory. 
Dandelion is a native wild plant, common on well- 
drained meadows and pastures, and conspicuous by its 
large bright yellow flowers and winged seeds. The 
stem is reduced to a short, conical, subterranean body, 
on which are inserted numerous leaves, deeply toothed, 
which spread in a flat rosette firmly pressed on the 
ground, and from the axils of which the flower buds 
are borne on smooth, cylindrical, hollow stalks. By 
cultivation and by selection of the best plants, the 
number and size of the leaves have been greatly 
increased, and plants are easily produced now which, 
when ready for use, weigh considerably over 1 lb. 
In France wild Dandelions are often gathered from 
grass lands, and such plants as have been accidentally 
earthed up by being buried in mole-hills are considered 
a delicacy. 
But Dandelion has been grown as a vegetable in the 
vicinity of Paris for half a century or so. At 
Montmagny, Deuil, Sareelles, and Meaux, considerable 
spaces are devoted to it every year, and large quantities 
are sent to the Paris market. 
The field culture is made by sowing in April, in 
rows about 2 ft. apart ; the soil must be pressed hard 
before sowing, and again after covering the seed. 
Plants are thinned to 3 ins. or 4 ins. in the rows. 
"Weeding in summer is very important. In September 
or later the plants are earthed up with loose soil, which 
by hoeing is made into a small ridge on the top of each 
row. The plants grow through the earth, even in 
winter, and as soon as the leaves begin to appear on 
the surface the plants are ready for use. Some leaves 
always manage to steal to the light unperceived, and 
immediately turn green. Dandelion grown on that 
system is called “half-blanched,” and the wholesale 
price it fetches is only from 8s. to 20s. per cwt. 
Dandelion is also treated in the same way as Chicory 
is for Barbe de capucin, of which more will be said 
hereafter. Crowns are pulled up in winter with all 
their roots and put on a heap of manure, in a cellar or 
other dark place, with some earth or thoroughly- 
decayed manure under the crowns. In eight or ten 
days the leaves grow to a length of from 5 ins. to 
6 ins., and they are then cut and sent to market, where 
they sell for from 10s. to 23s. per cwt. 
In gardens Dandelion is genei ally sown on a seed¬ 
bed, pricked and planted out IS ins. to 20 ins. apart 
each way, which allows cf some other quick-growing 
crop being raised between the rows. Before winter the 
plantation is cleared up of everything except the now 
strong plants of Dandelion ; all the dead or decaying 
leaves are removed, and the plants are prepared for 
blanching, which is effected either by spreading clean, 
sharp sand 4 ins. deep over the whole of the bed, or by 
covering each plant with an inverted garden-pot. 
The leaves should not be tied up, and the inside of the 
pot should be perfectly clean. By heaping stable 
manure or some fermenting material round the pots, 
the crop can be advanced several weeks. If blanching 
be not thought necessary, simply throwing a mat over 
the plants just as they begin to grow after winter 
greatly improves the tenderness and flavour. 
Chicory: everyone knows, at least by name, the 
large-rooted Chicory, the fleshy roots of which are 
extensively grown in Flanders, where they are sliced, 
dried and browned by heat, and powdered, yielding by 
that process an adjunct to, a substitute for, and some¬ 
times an adulterant of coffee. But it is less generally 
known that the same plant is largely grown as a 
vegetable, the roots being heated in winter to promote 
growth, which, according to the size of the roots and 
the variety used, develop into two very different 
market produces—namely, Barbe de capucin from small 
roots of the common variety, and Whitloof from large 
roots of the Brussels Chicory. 
Barbe de capucin has been in use for a very long 
time in Paris. It can be obtained from the common or 
wild bitter Chicory ; but the forked, misshapen roots of 
this are far more awkward to manage and to tie into 
bundles than those of the large-rooted variety, which, 
being straight and clean, are now in common use with 
the growers. 
( To be continued.) 
-=->$<-«.- 
Hardening Miscellany. 
--j-- 
Hybrid Streptocarpus. 
We received a box of flowers of hybrid Streptocarpus 
the other day from Messrs. J. Yeitch & Sons, Chelsea. 
It contained a largo number of varieties exhibiting 
many shades of blue, lilac-purple and white. Their 
origin is not stated, but judging from the size of the 
flowers, their colours, and that they were mostly borne 
in pairs upon the stalks, it seems that S. Rexii and S. 
parviflorus have been worked upon. In one case, 
however, the rosy purple flowers much resembled those 
of S. "Watsoui, itself a hybrid between S. parviflorus 
and S. Dunnii. A very pretty violet-purple variety 
