108 
AMERICAN KITCHEN GARDENER. 
“Use .—The fruit is fragrant, (whence/rag-aria,) delicious, and universally 
esteemed. It consists almost entirely of matter soluble in the stomach, and 
.neither there nor when laid in heaps, and left to rot, does it undergo the ace¬ 
tous fermentation. Hence it is very nourishing, and may be safely eaten by 
gouty and rheumatic persons. 1 In addition to its grateful flavor, the subacid 
juice has a cooling quality, particularly acceptable in summer. Eaten either 
alone, or with sugar and cream, there are few constitutions with which 
strawberries, even when taken in large quantities, are found to disagree. 
Further, they have properties which render them, in most conditions of the 
animal frame, positively salutary; and physicians concur in placing them in 
their small catalogue of pleasant remedies. They dissolve the tartareous 
incrustations of the teeth. They promote perspiration. Persons afflicted 
with the gout have found relief from using them very largely; so have pa¬ 
tients in cases of the stone; and Hoffman states, that he has known con¬ 
sumptive people cured by them. The bark of the root is astringent.’— Aber¬ 
crombie.” — Loudon. 
SUNFLOWER. 
Helianthus annuns. 
This plant is a native of South America, but naturalized and become com¬ 
mon in the United States. It is easily propagated in any common soil, either 
by sowing the seeds, or by slips or offsets from the roots. 
From a paper on the subject of sunflower-oil, in the first vol. of Trans. 
Amer. Phil. Society , it appears that one bushel of seed yields three quarts of 
oil, and that this quantity of seed is produced from one hundred plants, set 
about three feet apart, in the same manner that Indian corn is planted. The 
oil is thin, clear, and of an agreeable taste. 
The process for expressing the oil is the same as that of making linseed- 
oil. 
TANSY. 
Tanacetum Vulgare .— Tanaise, Fr„— Rheinfarn , Ger. 
Tansy is a perennial plant, which grows without cultivation in Greal 
Britain and in some parts of the United States. 
Culture .—Tansy may be propagated in spring or autumn by rooted slips, 
or by dividing the roots into several sets. Plant them in anv compartment 
