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 DESK. 
 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET. 
 
4l ISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES;, 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 THEIR BOTANICAL, MEDICINAL, EDIBLE, 
 AND CHEMICAL QUALITIES; NATURAL HISTORY; 
 
 AND RELATION TO 
 
 ART, SCIENCE, AND COMMERCE. 
 
 BY HENRY PHILLIPS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE 
 HISTORY OF FRUITS KNOWN IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HENRY COLBURN AND CO. 
 
 PUBLIC LIBRARY, CONDUIT STREET, HANOVER SQUARE. 
 
 MDCCCXXII. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is not without feelings of anxiety and 
 apprehension, that the Author commits his 
 second Work, on the vegetable gifts of Na- 
 ture, to the public. 
 
 Their indulgence to his labours in the 
 vineyard, has emboldened him to venture on 
 a more extensive field ; he therefore now 
 offers his Treatise on " Cultivated Vege- 
 tables," in a similar shape, with a hope of 
 similar reception. Considering, however, the 
 almost infinite variety of plants which are 
 cultivated for use or pleasure, the Author 
 has thought it expedient to select those 
 familiar plants which seem entitled to the 
 most general attention. He has also intro- 
 duced some species of vegetables that are 
 not strictly cultivated, but whose services 
 and singular properties render them worthy 
 of notice. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 He has avoided the technical terms of 
 Botany as much as the subject would pos- 
 sibly allow ; keeping in mind the advice of 
 an ancient poet, who says, 
 
 'A/uadiarepov <j>pdaop icai aatyiarzpov. 
 
 " Speak with less shew of learning, so it be with 
 more perspicuity." 
 
 And the extracts from medical works have, 
 on the same principle, been as much sim- 
 plified as the nature of the subject would 
 properly admit. 
 
 In giving the medicinal qualities of the 
 plants, the Author's intention is to make 
 their various properties known, in order that 
 the prescriptions of the physician may not be 
 counteracted by the effects of an improper 
 vegetable diet ; not to induce the inexperi- 
 enced to tamper with their constitutions, 
 by means of the powerful juices of physical 
 herbs, which are not more beneficial when 
 skilfully applied, than they are baneful when 
 administered unseasonably by the ignorant. 
 
TO THE KING. 
 
 SIRE, 
 
 In dedicating this " History 
 of Cultivated Vegetables" to Your 
 Majesty, the Author is sensible that the 
 condescension of the Sovereign, in accept- 
 ing so humble a tribute, will be far more 
 conspicuous than the ability of the Subject 
 by whom it is offered. 
 
 However deficient the Writer may be in 
 the graces of style, he is not without a due 
 sense of the advantages with which a high 
 state of Cultivation has blessed these king- 
 doms. Under the liberal Patronage of Your 
 Majesty, and your Illustrious Predecessor, 
 the Arts of Agriculture and Horticulture 
 have advanced towards perfection with a 
 rapidity unparalleled in the history of any 
 other nation, ancient or modern. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 The benign influence of these two arts is 
 indiscriminately enjoyed by all ranks ; for 
 while they supply the wealthy with all the 
 luxuries of more genial climes, they afford 
 to the humbler sons of industry and labour 
 a diversified banquet, which in ancient times 
 even kings could not procure. These arts 
 have banished famine from the land, blessed 
 the poor with plenty, beautified the country, 
 and 
 
 " Made Albion smile, 
 
 One ample theatre of sylvan grace. 1 ' 
 
 That Your Majesty may long enjoy 
 these blessings, with which bounteous Na- 
 ture has rewarded the skill and industry of 
 your Subjects, and enriched your dominions, 
 is the fervent prayer of, 
 
 Your Majesty's 
 Most faithful subject and servant, 
 
 Henry Phillips. 
 
 Queen s House, Baysivater, 
 Dec. 24, 1821- 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 Author could give. He has been more par- 
 ticularly desirous to introduce cheerful (but 
 at the same time, he trusts, inoffensive) anec- 
 dote, with a hope of leading by an agreeable 
 road to a knowledge of Plants, and love of 
 Natural Philosophy : and more particularly 
 to render his work attractive to the younger 
 part of his readers, whom he intreats not to 
 abandon Virgil, when they bid adieu to their 
 tutors, but to remember those lines of his 
 Georgics : 
 
 " Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 
 Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum 
 Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari ! 
 Fortunatus et ille, Deos qui novit agrestes, 
 Panaque, Silvanumque senem, Nymphasque sorores! 
 
 Thus translated by Dryden ; 
 
 " Happy the man, who, studying Nature's laws, 
 Through known effects, can trace the secret cause, 
 His mind possessing in a quiet state, 
 Fearless of fortune, and resign'd to fate. 
 And happy too is he who decks the bowers 
 Of Sylvans, and adores the rural powers." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The most experienced medical practitioner 
 will admit, that he must often rely on the 
 assistance of the nurse and the cook for 
 the perfect re-establishment of his patient. 
 Cooling medicine will afford little relief to the 
 fevered invalid who is supplied with astrin- 
 gent diet ; nor will stimulating cordials in- 
 vigorate the body, while it is relaxed by 
 attenuating aliment. 
 
 The Author is aware, that modern prac- 
 tice has long since disregarded the high 
 encomiums bestowed on certain vegetables 
 by the ancients ; but he considers the antique 
 physic-gardens an object of no less interest 
 than antique orchards; and as the modern 
 sons of Ceres and Pomona have improved 
 their art, by reviving and adopting some 
 of the ancient practices, (particularly that 
 of cutting corn before it is perfectly ripe, 
 which was so strenuously recommended by 
 Pliny nearly eighteen hundred years ago,) the 
 disciples of Esculapius may, in like manner, 
 discover some valuable matter among the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 neglected or disregarded receipts of th< 
 ancient world. Should the present work 
 contribute to such a result, the Author will 
 then have effected all the benefit he could 
 anticipate. 
 
 It is hoped that the learned Reader will 
 not deem the Author intrusive or pedantic 
 in giving a slight biographical sketch of the 
 ancient writers he has quoted; as such me- 
 moirs may not always be familiar to those 
 who may be disposed to turn over his leaves, 
 nor is it to be expected that the farmer or 
 the gardener is fully acquainted with ancient 
 physicians; or that those whose occupations 
 confine them to cities, should have acquired 
 a perfect knowledge of the lives of the agri- 
 culturists of antiquity. 
 
 Selections from those poets who seem to 
 have made this part of Nature's works their 
 peculiar province, have been interspersed, 
 from a desire to clothe information in an 
 amusing garb ; and sometimes as the only 
 confirmation of ancient customs, which the 
 
4 -.v »'• ' l v ? '• > "I 
 
 1i»U»vtxcuUuial 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " To me be Nature's volume broad display'd ; 
 And to peruse its all instructing page 
 My sole delight." 
 
 It would be a difficult question to decide, 
 whether the study of the natural history of 
 Plants be more agreeable to the mind, or 
 beneficial to the body. The importance of 
 this pursuit must be deeply felt by the re- 
 flecting mind ; indeed it has advantages over 
 every other science. The study of Natural 
 History, and particularly of Botany, calms 
 the mind, and quiets the passions; whereas 
 Historical research produces unpleasant re- 
 flections, and in tracing the fate of kingdoms 
 or individuals our feelings are often as much 
 distressed as our minds are amused. Other 
 branches of philosophy too often disgust us 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with the world, whereas the wonders of Na- 
 ture display the power of the Almighty in 
 the most agreeable and tranquil manner. 
 
 " Go, mark the matchless workings of the Power 
 That shuts within the seed the future flower ; 
 Bids these in elegance of form excel, 
 In colour these, and those delight the smell ; 
 Sends Nature forth, the daughter of the skies, 
 To dance on earth and charm all human eyes." 
 
 Cowper. 
 
 Ray says, " No knowledge can be more 
 pleasant to the soul than Natural History : 
 none so satisfying, or that doth so feed the 
 mind. The treasures of Nature are inex- 
 haustible : there is enough for the most inde- 
 fatigable industry, the happiest opportunities, 
 the most prolix and undisturbed vacancies/' 
 
 The vegetable world presents an almost 
 infinite variety of objects, calculated not only 
 to supply our numerous wants, but to gratify 
 the senses, to delight the most refined taste, 
 and to elevate the mind to the God of 
 Nature. 
 
 " Thus the men 
 
 Whom Nature's work can charm, with God himself 
 Hold converse, grow familiar day by day 
 With his conceptions ; sit upon his plan, 
 And form to his the relish of their souls." 
 
 Ak en side's Pleasures of' Imagination* 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 The charms of Nature have ever enchanted 
 the sensitive soul of the poet, and inspired 
 his verse. Courtier says, in his " Pleasures of 
 Solitude." 
 
 " Though yet no cynic, still I must prefer 
 The works of Nature to the whims of Art : 
 Those speak their God — these oft from God deter; 
 Those to the soul true health and peace impart, 
 These oft pervert the head, and oft corrupt the heart." 
 
 Blackmore also invites us to this study : 
 
 f( 
 
 Your contemplation further yet pursue ; 
 The wondrous world of vegetables view ! 
 See various trees their various fruits produce, 
 Some for delightful taste, and some for use. 
 See sprouting plants enrich the plain and wood, 
 For physic some, and some design'd for food. 
 See fragrant flowers, with different colours dyed, 
 On smiling meads unfold their gaudy pride." 
 
 And Thomson must have induced many 
 an admiring reader to a contemplation of 
 the wonders and wisdom of the Almighty 
 Maker ; — who, 
 
 — " when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems, 
 Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale 
 Into his freshen'd soul ; her genial hours 
 He fully enjoys ; and not a beauty blows, 
 And not an opening blossom breathes in vain." 
 
 b2 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Natural philosophy has never been intro- 
 duced with success into any country until its 
 inhabitants had made considerable progress 
 in other arts. The Assyrians, Chaldaeans, 
 and Egyptians, had attained great proficiency 
 in this science long before the existence of 
 either the Greeks or Romans, who did not 
 encourage it until they had learnt the art of 
 war, and had in great measure become civi- 
 lized by the very nations they had con- 
 quered. 
 
 In this kingdom, Lord Bacon was the first 
 who cultivated natural philosophy ; and it is 
 from his torch that many excellent lights 
 have since been kindled. 
 
 In the primitive times, when men were 
 driven either by war, or a wandering disposi- 
 tion, to form colonies in distant countries, 
 they lived upon such fruits as sprang out of 
 the earth without art or cultivation. At 
 Argos they fed chiefly on pears, at Athens 
 on figs, in Arcadia on acorns; but, as their 
 numbers increased, it became necessary for 
 them to cultivate vegetables for the subsist- 
 ence of themselves and their cattle ; and we 
 find that in those early days the labours of 
 the agriculturists were so duly appreciated, 
 that the persons of the husbandmen and the 
 
INTRODUCTION. O 
 
 shepherds were held sacred even by the 
 enemies of their country. 
 
 Herodotus informs us, that one of the 
 greatest princes of the East, Xerxes, when he 
 led his army into Greece, gave strict orders 
 to his soldiers not to annoy the husbandmen. 
 Among the Indians, it was held unlawful to 
 take these men in war, or to devastate their 
 plantations. 
 
 Cultivated vegetables afford the principal 
 part of our subsistence ; for without the aid 
 of cultivation our numerous flocks and herds 
 could not be supported; and it is from the 
 same source that we derive every comfort and 
 luxury that we enjoy. They furnish our 
 wine, our oil, and our ale ; as well as the 
 greater portion of our garments and furni- 
 ture; they are the natural medicine of all 
 animals, as well as the principal one for man. 
 A medical writer of eminence says, " Vege- 
 table food is not only necessary to secure 
 health, but long life. In infancy and youth 
 we should be confined to it mostly ; in man- 
 hood, and decay of life, use animal ; and 
 near the end, vegetable again." 
 
 I am persuaded, says Dr. Veitch, that it 
 will be invariably found true, that those who 
 are living on animal food, are more impetu- 
 
6 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ous in temper, than those who live on vege- 
 table aliment." The same author says, "The 
 influence of diet is of the most vital im- 
 portance in the prevention and cure of in- 
 sanity. Those living on animal food pre- 
 sent great fulness of the vessels on the sur- 
 face of the body, which is not confined to 
 the visible and external frame, but will be 
 felt in the brain and membranes of those 
 who are afflicted with, or who have a ten- 
 dency to this disease. 
 
 It is to vegetable productions, that com- 
 merce owes its support. They form our 
 ships, cordage, and sails ; and it is for vegeta- 
 ble rarities, principally, that we cross the 
 seas, and explore every clime from the equa- 
 tor to the poles. 
 
 The unlettered countryman examines ve- 
 getation with delight and instruction, The 
 peasant, who is an attentive observer of Na- 
 ture, substitutes the pimpernel and the chick- 
 weed, for a weather-glass ; finding, when 
 these flowers fully expand, that no rain 
 will fall for some hours. The husbandman 
 finds also a barometer in the trefoil, which 
 always contracts its leaves at the approach 
 of a storm. The shepherd, when he sees 
 the thistle-down agitated without an ap- 
 
INTRODUCTION. ( 
 
 pearance of wind, 
 
 " And shakes the forest-leaf without a breath," 
 
 drives his flock to shelter, and cries, Heaven 
 protect yon vessel from the approaching 
 tempest ! Then 
 
 " chaffwith eddy winds is whirl'd around, 
 
 And dancing leaves are lifted from the ground ; 
 And floating feathers on the waters play." 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 The philosophical student of Nature not 
 only accounts for these phenomena, but 
 sees as far as man can ken into the wonders 
 of vegetation. 
 
 " But the hidden ways 
 
 Of Nature wouldst thou know? how first she frames 
 All things in miniature ? thy specular orb 
 Apply to well-dissected kernels ; lo ! 
 Strange forms arise, in each a little plant 
 Unfolds its boughs : observe the slender threads 
 Of first-beginning trees, their roots, their leaves, 
 In narrow seeds described ; thou 'It wondering say, 
 An inmate orchard every apple boasts !" 
 
 Philips's Cider. 
 
 We shall often have to remark in this 
 work, how much the atmosphere of this 
 country has been improved by the attention 
 paid to agricultural pursuits ; and that the 
 high state of cultivation now attained, has in 
 a great measure banished the ague, and 
 other pests of life, from our shores ; while 
 
' 9 
 8 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 we learn with regret, that the once purer air 
 of Italy is become almost pestilential in the 
 vicinity of Rome, from the want of proper 
 attention to the draining and cultivation 
 of the fields. 
 
 Gardens have ever been esteemed as afford- 
 ing the purest of human pleasures, and the 
 greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; 
 and as these rural delights greatly promote 
 sedateness and quietness of mind, while they 
 afford the advantages of air and exercise, they 
 must tend to the establishment of health 
 and the prolongation of life. We notice 
 with great satisfaction, that the lives of the 
 ancient as well as of the more modern herb- 
 alists, have generally extended to an ad- 
 vanced age ; and that some of them have 
 even pursued their tranquil course without 
 indisposition through life. 
 
 A knowledge of plants will prevent many 
 of those ills, for the relief of which, mineral 
 aid is often sought in vain. We have found 
 the perfume of flowers and shrubs in the 
 garden, not only refresh the sense, but in- 
 spire cheerfulness and good humour in those 
 who walk, and create appetite in those who 
 join in the labour, whether to turn the earth, 
 or to prop the drooping flower. For where is 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 the man who can forbear to join 
 
 " the general smile 
 
 Of Nature ? Can fierce passions vex his soul, 
 
 While every gale is peace, and every grove 
 
 Is melody?" 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 " Where every breeze shall medicine every wound." 
 
 Shenstone. 
 
 Rapin says, 
 
 " Thrice happy they who these delights pursue ; 
 For whether they their plants in order view, 
 Or overladen boughs with props relieve, 
 Or if to foreign fruits new names they give, 
 If they the taste of every plum explore, 
 To eat at second course, what would they more? 
 What greater happiness can be desired, 
 Than what by these diversions is acquired ?" 
 
 The Chinese have no school for the study 
 of physic ; but they make use of simples 
 and roots, and are generally well experi- 
 enced in the knowledge of the several vir- 
 tues of all the herbs growing in their coun- 
 try ; and which every master of a family 
 teaches his servant. Lewis and Clark, and 
 other travellers up the Mississipi, observe, 
 that the native Americans always carried 
 with them roots and herbs, of which they 
 had discovered the use. 
 
 The predilection of the ancient Syrians 
 for gardening gave rise to the proverb of the 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Greeks, " Many worts and pot-herbs in 
 byria. 
 
 The Greeks had physic-gardens in the 
 time of Theophrastus ; and Pliny often men- 
 tions the medicinal herb-gardens of the Ro- 
 mans. 
 
 We meet with no English work on plants 
 prior to the sixteenth- century. In 1552, 
 all books on geography and astronomy in 
 England were ordered to be destroyed, as 
 being, it was supposed, infected with magic. 
 It is very probable, that works on the virtues 
 of herbs underwent the same fate ; as witch- 
 craft was thought to be assisted by various 
 plants. The Babylonians had their magical 
 observations in gathering certain herbs; and 
 the Latin poets inform us, how superstitious 
 the Romans were on this head. 
 
 " These poisonous plants, for magic use design'd, 
 (The noblest and the best of all the baneful kind) 
 Old Mceris brought me from the Pontic strand, 
 And cull'd the mischief of a bounteous land. 
 Smear'd with these powerful juices, on the plain 
 He howls a wolf among the hungry train : 
 And oft the mighty necromancer boasts, 
 With these, to call from tombs the stalking ghost, 
 And from the roots to tear the standing corn, 
 Which, whirl'd aloft, to distant fields is borne : 
 
 Such is the strength of spells/' 
 
 Virgil. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 » 
 
 " In a large caldron now the medicine boils, 
 Compounded of her late collected spoils, 
 Blending into the mash the various powers 
 Of wonder-working juices, roots, and flowers." 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 Our immortal bard, availing himself of the 
 credulity of the age, makes the weird sisters, 
 in their incantations, employ 
 
 " Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark ; 
 
 Liver of blaspheming Jew : 
 
 Gall of goat, and slips of yew." 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 * 
 
 The English surgeons and apothecaries 
 began to attend to the cultivation of medi- 
 cinal herbs in the time of Henry the Eighth. 
 Gerard, the father of English herbalists, had 
 the principal garden of those days, attached 
 to his house in Holborn, and which we think 
 was in existence as late as 1659 ; for on the 
 7th of June in that year, Evelyn mentions in 
 his Diary, that he " went to see the founda- 
 tion laying for a street and buildings in 
 Hatton Garden, designed for a little towne, 
 lately an ample garden." 
 
 Gerard mentions several private herb-gar- 
 dens in 1597, but does not notice any public 
 establishment for the encouragement of his 
 art. We therefore presume, that Oxford 
 has to boast of the earliest public physic- 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 garden in this country, which appears to 
 have been planted about the year 1640, 
 when Parkinson first published his work on 
 plants; as in a letter written to that author 
 by Thomas Clayton, his Majesty's professor 
 of physic at Oxford, to compliment him on 
 his " Herculean botanical labours" he says, 
 " Oxford and England are happy in the 
 formation of a specious illustrious physicke- 
 garden, compleatly beautifully walled and 
 gated, now in levelling, and planting, with 
 the charges and expences of thousands, by 
 the many ways Honourable Earl of Danby, 
 the furnishing and enriching whereof, and of 
 many a glorious Tempe, with all useful de- 
 lightfull plants, will be the better expedited 
 by your painfull, happy, satisfying worke." 
 
 We may infer how little the art of garden- 
 ing was understood in this country at that 
 period, when we find the garden at Oxford 
 was put under the direction of a German, 
 who continued to hold that situation in the 
 time of Evelyn, as appears by his Diary : 
 " 24 Oct. 1664, I went to the Physic-garden 
 at Oxford, vvhere were two large locust-trees, 
 as many platana*, and some rare plants, under 
 
 # We presume this was the Plantain tree, Musa. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 the culture of old Bobart." — " Jacob Bobart 
 was a German, and was appointed the first 
 keeper of the Physic-garden at Oxford." 
 
 A botanic garden was planted at Padua 
 in 1533, and one at Presburg in 1564. At 
 the present time there are twenty-three bo- 
 tanic gardens in the Austrian monarchy. 
 France has two noble establishments for the 
 encouragement of this art ; and Amsterdam 
 may boast, not only of having enriched Eu- 
 rope, but the West Indies also, with plants 
 from her public garden ; while Sweden may 
 justly pride herself on giving the world a 
 Linnaeus. 
 
 Evelyn, whose Sylva has immortalized his 
 name, notices in his Diary, June 10, 1658, 
 " I went to see the medical garden at West- 
 minster, well stored with plants, under Mor- 
 gan, a skilful botanist." This remark has 
 given rise to a supposition, that it was the 
 garden belonging to the Apothecaries of Lon- 
 don, prior to its being removed to Chelsea ; 
 but this was not the case, as Coles mentions 
 it as a private garden, in his Paradise of 
 Plants, published in 1657, where (in chapter 
 8) he says, " some plants grow only in the 
 gardens of herbarists, as in Mr. Morgan's 
 garden at Westminster." 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 • 
 
 We find no authentic account of a public 
 physic-garden in the vicinity of London, 
 before the year 1673, although it appears in 
 the minute-books of the Society of London, 
 (June 21, 1674) that several members pro- 
 posed to build a wall round Chelsea Garden, 
 at their own expense, with the assistance of 
 such subscriptions as they might be able to 
 procure ; provided the Court of Assistants 
 would agree to pay two pounds every year 
 for ever, to each of the six Herborizings : 
 which proposal was accepted. The pro- 
 prietors of the Laboratory Stock gave fifty 
 pounds towards the building of this wall, on 
 the condition that they were to be allowed a 
 piece of ground in the garden for Herbs. 
 
 Evelyn observes, in his Diary, 7th August, 
 168.5, " I went to see Mr. Wats, keeper of 
 the Apothecaries Garden of Simples at 
 Chelsea, where there is a collection of innu- 
 merable rarities of that sort, particularly, be- 
 sides rare annuals, the tree bearing Jesuits 
 bark, which had done such wonders in quar- 
 tan agues. What was very ingenious, was 
 the subterranean heate, conveyed by a stove 
 under the conservatory, all vaulted with brick, 
 so as he has the doores and windowes open 
 in the hardest frost, secluding only the snow." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 We conclude, that this was the first green- 
 house heated by artificial means, in this 
 country ; as Mr. Evelyn had visited most 
 gardens in England, as well as in France and 
 Italy, without noticing green-houses before. 
 
 Sir Hans Sloane was a great friend to the 
 Chelsea Garden establishment, and by the 
 deed of conveyance of the land from this great 
 man, it will be seen how anxious he was for 
 its prosperity ; a clause is inserted which runs 
 thus: " That the Master, Warden, and So- 
 ciety of Apothecaries shall render yearly to 
 the President, Council, and Fellows of the 
 Royal Society of London, fifty specimens of 
 distinct plants, well dried and preserved, which 
 grew in their garden the same year, with 
 their names or reputed names ; and those 
 presented in each year to be specifically diffe- 
 rent from every former year, until the num- 
 ber of two thousand shall have been deli- 
 vered." This part of the covenant has long 
 since been much more than fulfilled. 
 
 In the same year that this conveyance was 
 signed (1722), Mr. Philip Miller was appoint- 
 ed gardener to the establishment, which of- 
 fice he filled with great honour to himself 
 and benefit to his country for the long space 
 of forty-eight years. He had not been in 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that situation more than two years when he 
 published his Gardener's Dictionary, in two 
 volumes octavo, but which is not generally 
 noticed by his biographers, although we deem 
 it the germ and embryo from whence, in 
 1781, sprang his folio volume, which has since 
 swelled into four large folios, and has been 
 translated into the Dutch, German, and 
 French languages. 
 
 Sir Joseph Banks, who was a liberal bene- 
 factor to this garden, commenced his botani- 
 cal studies, it is said, under the tuition of the 
 venerable compiler of the Gardener's Dic- 
 tionary. Sir Joseph presented to the Chel- 
 sea Botanic Garden more than five hundred 
 different kinds of seeds, which he had col- 
 lected in his voyage round the globe. Th 
 
 Ok 
 
 services w T hich this great naturalist has ren- 
 dered his country are unparalleled, and will 
 be remembered by posterity with gratitude, 
 as long as these kingdoms are blessed with 
 civilization. 
 
 It is said that the finest and most interest- 
 ing collection of hardy herbaceous plants that 
 this country could ever boast of, has been 
 formed by the care and knowledge of Mr. 
 William Anderson, the present gardener of 
 the Apothecaries' Botanic Garden at Chelsea, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 who was recommended to that situation by 
 the late Sir Joseph Banks in the year 1814. 
 Aiton and Forsyth were transplanted from 
 Chelsea Garden to Royal grounds. The 
 former is succeeded by his son in the care of 
 the King's gardens, particularly that of the 
 exotic garden of Kew, which perhaps con- 
 tains the finest collection of plants ever con- 
 gregated in any one spot on the globe. 
 
 This exotic garden, although now so su- 
 perbly furnished with vegetable rarities, is of 
 no great antiquity, having, we are told, been 
 first established in the year 1760, by the 
 Princess Dowager of Wales ; but from an old 
 verse in the Gentleman's Magazine for the 
 year 1732, dated June 2, we find the garden 
 was of some celebrity at that time. 
 
 " The King and the Queen, the weather being fine, 
 On Saturday last went to Richmond to dine ; 
 His Royal Highness that day was to view 
 His gardens and house, repairing at Kew." 
 
 Evelyn writes in his Diary, Aug. 27, 1678, 
 " I went to my worthy friend Sir Henry Ca- 
 pel (at Kew), brother to the Earle of Essex: 
 it is an old timber-house ; but his garden has 
 the choicest fruit of any plantation in Eng- 
 land, as he is the most industrious and under- 
 standing in it." 
 
 vol. i. e 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The present Royal Family being greatly 
 attached to the study of Botany, his late Ma- 
 jesty bestowed much attention on the garden 
 at Kew, and had the satisfaction of seeing the 
 example which he set, followed with such ar- 
 dour by his subjects, that not less than 6756 
 rare exotic plants were introduced into these 
 kingdoms during his reign, and exotic beau- 
 ties are now seen blended with our natural 
 verdure in every corner of the island. The 
 bad taste in laying out our gardens, which 
 was originally brought from France, no longer 
 exists ; and we are happy to observe, that 
 the disguising of Nature and the frivolous 
 formality in gardening is fast declining where 
 it first took birth, as English gardeners are 
 now in great demand in the vicinity of Paris. 
 History furnishes no instance where a coun- 
 try has so rapidly improved in the arts of 
 agriculture and horticulture as Great Britain, 
 under the protection of George the Third, of 
 whom justice and gratitude compel us to say, 
 " He made the land to flow with milk and 
 honey." 
 
 It is within the memory of the author, that 
 Mr. Scrace first sowed wheat on the Downs 
 near the Race-stand at Brighton, for which, 
 and the building of barns on these supposed 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 sterile hills, he was thought to have lost his 
 reason ; but the following harvest turned the 
 ridicule of his neighbours into admiration and 
 imitation, and these uncultivated tracts soon 
 became a waving ocean of corn, which has 
 made the Southdown farmer the pride and 
 envy of the people. 
 
 The example given by one of the best of 
 Kings, and the attention shewn to agricul- 
 tural pursuits by an enlightened Nation, will, 
 we trust, never be forgotten, as no treasure 
 can be so valuable as that which protects us 
 from famine and pestilence. 
 
 Sterne says, " I am convinced there would 
 be more attentive observers of Nature, if, for 
 example, the spider spun threads of gold, if 
 the lobster contained pearls, or if the flowers 
 of the field made old people young." 
 
 Reason tells us, that a well-tilled garden 
 produces us more real luxuries, than mines 
 of gold or oceans of pearls could afford us ; 
 and experience teaches us, that although we 
 are not made young by the virtue of plants, 
 we may prevent premature old age by a 
 knowledge of herbs. 
 
 We now offer our Literary Herbage, with 
 a hope that most readers will gather some 
 little store for the table, although the famili- 
 es 2 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 arity of the plants here presented, may, in 
 some degree, detract from the novelty ex- 
 pected in every new garden that is laid open 
 to the public. The Author has endeavoured 
 to plant his beds amusingly, as an induce- 
 ment to lead those into the study of plants, 
 who have not yet entered on that delightful 
 pursuit ; and although his parterres may not 
 present that science which the learning of the 
 present day demands, he flatters himself that 
 no weed will be found so obnoxious as to 
 offend the most refined delicacy. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES 
 
 ARTICHOKE.— CINARA. 
 
 Natural order ', Flosculosce. A genus of the 
 Syngenesia Polygamia JEqualis class. 
 
 The generic name is said to be derived from 
 the word cinis, because, according to Colu- 
 mella, land for artichokes should be manured 
 with ashes. Parkinson says, it is so called 
 from the ash colour of its leaves. 
 
 This vegetable now bears the same name 
 in all the European languages, with very 
 little variation. It is nearly allied to the 
 curduus or common thistle, and is said by 
 Pliny* to have been more esteemed, and to 
 have obtained a higher price, than any other 
 garden herb. He was ashamed to rank this 
 
 * Book 19, chap. 8. 
 
22 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 vegetable amongst the choice plants of the 
 garden, being in fact no other than the this- 
 tle. He states, that the thistles about Car- 
 thage the Great, and Corduba especially, 
 cost the Romans, annually, six thousand 
 thousand sesterces ; and concludes by cen- 
 suring the vanity and prodigality of his coun- 
 trymen, in serving up such things at table as 
 the very asses and other beasts refuse, for 
 fear of pricking their lips. We find in the 
 fourth chapter of the same book, that the 
 commoners of Rome were prohibited, by an 
 arbitrary law, from eating artichokes. The 
 same author says, artichokes are preserved 
 in vinegar, and in honey, and seasoned also 
 with the costly root of the lazerwort plant, 
 and cumin ; by which means they were to 
 be had every day in the year. 
 
 The juice of the artichoke, pressed out 
 before it blossoms, was used by the ancients 
 to restore the hair of the head, even when it 
 was quite bald. They also ate the root of 
 this plant (as well as that of the thistle) sod- 
 dened in water, to enable them to drink to 
 excess, as it excited a desire for liquor. It 
 was supposed to strengthen the stomach, 
 and was reported by Chaereas the Athenian, 
 and Glaucias, to cause mothers to be blessed 
 
ARTICHOKE. 23 
 
 with male children, as well as to sweeten the 
 breath of those who chewed it. Columella 
 notices the same quality in the artichoke, 
 but intimates that it injures the voice. 
 
 " Let the prickly artichoke 
 
 Be planted, which to Bacchus, when he drinks, 
 Is grateful ; not to Phoebus, when he sings." 
 
 Both the Greeks and Romans appear to 
 have procured /this plant from the coast of 
 Africa about Carthage, as also from Sicily. 
 
 From Italy it was brought to this country, 
 during the reign of Henry the Eighth, about 
 the year 1548 ; and, by reason of the great 
 moisture of our climate, and the attention 
 which was paid to its cultivation, it soon be- 
 came so much improved in size and flavour, 
 that the Italians sent for plants from Eng- 
 land, deeming them to be of another kind, 
 but they soon returned to their natural size, 
 when restored to that country. 
 
 Gerard has left us correct representations 
 of both the French and the Globe varieties, 
 but makes no mention of their country or 
 their introduction ; we may therefore con- 
 clude, that they were become common in 
 1596. 
 
 The Globe kind, being a plant infinitely 
 more tender than the French artichoke, was 
 
24 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 nearly lost in the severe winter of 1739-40, 
 previously to which time it was almost the 
 only kind cultivated, on account of its great 
 superiority ; but our gardeners supplying 
 themselves on that occasion with plants 
 from Guernsey, where the French kind is cul- 
 tivated, this variety again found its way into 
 our gardens; but was only retained until the 
 Globe artichoke could again be reared, when 
 the French species was no longer cultivated. 
 
 The artichoke affords a pleasant, whole- 
 some, and nourishing food ; Arbuthnot says, 
 " it contains a rich, nutritious, stimulating 
 juice." The Italians and French eat the 
 heads raw, with vinegar, salt, oil, and pep- 
 per ; but they are considered to be hard of 
 digestion in a raw state, and are, therefore, 
 generally preferred after having been boiled. 
 In this state they are sold in the streets of 
 Paris, and form a standing dish at a French 
 breakfast. 
 
 The Germans and French eat not only the 
 heads, but also the young stalks boiled, sea- 
 soned with butter and vinegar. 
 
 Artichokes are usually sent to our tables, 
 when whole, boiled in water ; but they are 
 much preferable when boiled in oil or butter. 
 The artichoke bottoms are generally admired 
 
ARTICHOKE. 25 
 
 when served up either plain, ragou'd, fricas- 
 seed, fried, or pickled. Coles recommends 
 artichoke bottoms baked in a pie after being 
 boiled, as a restorative and strengthener of 
 the stomach. Artichoke bottoms are dried 
 in the sun for winter use ; but the whole ar- 
 tichoke may be preserved for a considerable 
 time, if covered with fresh sand. Young 
 artichokes are pickled whole. 
 
 The stalks blanched like celery, and pre- 
 served in honey, are said to be an excellent 
 pectoral : the roots are considered aperient, 
 cleansing, and diuretic ; and are recommended 
 in the jaundice, for which disorder the com- 
 mon leaves, boiled in white- wine whey, or 
 the juice of the leaves, are also considered 
 salutary. We have known many persons 
 greatly relieved from the bile, by drinking 
 sherry wine, in which the common leaves and 
 cut stalks of this plant had been steeped. 
 
 Lord Bacon observes, that no other herb 
 has double leaves ; one belonging to the 
 stalk, the other to the fruit or seed. 
 
 The field-mouse is a great destroyer of the 
 roots of these plants ; and it is a good pre- 
 servative of them to plant beets round the 
 beds of artichokes ; as the roots of the beet, 
 being still more agreeable to the taste of 
 
26 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 these little animals than those of the arti- 
 choke, preserve the latter from these de- 
 predators. 
 
 The French artichoke, Cinara scolymus, 
 grows wild in the fields of Italy, where it 
 often attains the height of a man. 
 
 The bottoms of the Cotton-thistle, Onopor- 
 dum acanthium, are often eaten as artichokes. 
 
27 
 
 ASPARAGUS.— ASPARAGUS. 
 
 Natural order, Sarmentacece. The genus of 
 Asparagus is allied to Convallaria. In 
 botany it stands in the Hexandria Mono- 
 gynia class. 
 
 This plant takes its name from the Greek 
 word AffTrapa-yoc, signifying a young shoot 
 before it unfolds its leaves. Gerard says, 
 " it is called in English Sperage, and likewise 
 Asparagus, after the Latin name, because 
 asparagi, or the springes heereof, are pre- 
 pared before all other plants ; for the word 
 asparagus doth properly signify the first 
 spring or sprout of euery plant, especially 
 when it be tender." 
 
 It is evidently a native of this country, 
 for the same author observes, that " the 
 manured or garden asparagus comes up of 
 the size of the largest swan's quill ;" he 
 adds, "it is the same as the wild, but, like 
 other vegetables, was made larger by culti- 
 vation." — " Our garden asparagus groweth 
 
28 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 wild in Essex, in a meadowe adioining to 
 a myll beyond a village called Thorp, and 
 also at Singleton, not farre from Carbie, and in 
 the meadowes neereMoulton in Lincolnshire: 
 likewise it groweth in great plenty neere 
 vnto Harwich, at a place called Landam- 
 erlading." Miller was of opinion, that the 
 common asparagus which is cultivated for 
 the use of the table, might probably have 
 been brought by culture to its present per- 
 fection, from the wild sort, which grows na- 
 turally in Lincolnshire, where the shoots are 
 no larger than straws. It is well known how 
 much the asparagus is improved in size since 
 Gerard's time (1597) ; and it might be still 
 farther improved, if our gardeners were to 
 import roots of this plant from the borders 
 of the Euphrates, where it grows to an extra- 
 ordinary thickness. 
 
 The colony of the Joxides in Caria had a 
 singular custom respecting asparagus, which, 
 according to ancient tradition, owed its ori- 
 gin to the following story : — Perigone, hav- 
 ing been pursued by Theseus, threw herself 
 into a place thickly filled with asparagus and 
 reeds ; and prostrating herself, made a vow, 
 that if these plants would hide her from 
 Theseus, she would never pull or burn them. 
 
ASPARAGUS. 29 
 
 The lover's voice, however, succeeding in 
 drawing his fair-one from her hiding-place, 
 she surrendered to the intreaties of Theseus, 
 and her descendants ever afterwards forbade 
 the burning of asparagus. 
 
 This vegetable first came into use as a 
 food, about two hundred years before Christ, 
 in the time of the elder Cato ; and its quali- 
 ties were probably discovered by this distin- 
 guished agriculturist, as it was the last vege- 
 table written upon by him. He mentions no 
 other method of raising this plant than by 
 seed ; and recommends sheep's dung for the 
 beds, in preference to any other manure. 
 This author was of opinion, that asparagus 
 beds would only continue productive for 
 nine years. 
 
 Suetonius informs us, in his Life of Augus- 
 tus, that that Emperor was very partial to 
 asparagus ; and Erasmus tells us the same in 
 his Adagia. 
 
 Pliny states*, that asparagus, which for- 
 merly grew 7 wild, so that every man might 
 gather it, was in his time carefully cherished 
 in gardens, particularly at Ravenna, where 
 the cultivated asparagus was so fair and 
 
 * Book 19, chap. 4. 
 
30 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 large, that three heads would weigh a pound, 
 and were sold for an As, (about three-far- 
 things.) He afterwards says, "of all garden 
 herbs asparagus is (by report) the best to be 
 eaten, and agrees well with the stomach."* 
 The wild asparagus was called Corruda and 
 Lybicum, and by the Athenians, Horminium. 
 
 It was said by the ancients, that, if a per- 
 son anointed himself with a liniment made 
 of asparagus and oil, the bees would not ap- 
 proach or sting him. 
 
 Asparagus is said to promote appetite, but 
 affords little nourishment. Dr. James recom- 
 mends it to be eaten at the beginning of dinner, 
 when, he tells us, it is grateful to the stomach. 
 If eaten before dinner, it refreshes and opens 
 the liver, spleen, and kidneys, and puts the 
 body in an agreeable state. Asparagus is 
 considered to be of admirable service to those 
 afflicted with the gravel, or who are scorbutic 
 or dropsical. It is also of singular efficacy in 
 disorders of the eyes ; but is hurtful to such 
 as labour under the gout, or have weak sto- 
 machs. 
 
 The roots are more diuretic than the 
 sprouts, because they have more of the salt, 
 
 * Book 20, chap. 10. 
 
ASPARAGUS. 31 
 
 from whence they derive that quality, than 
 any of the parts growing above ground, which 
 cannot imbibe it so copiously as the root 
 itself receives it from the earth. And this 
 may pass for a reason why most roots are 
 more endowed with this property than their 
 plants. The root of asparagus is one of 
 those called the five opening roots : it is also 
 of some use as a pectoral; and makes a chief 
 ingredient in the syrup of marsh-mallows, 
 given as a remedy for the stone. It is good 
 in all compositions intended to cleanse the 
 viscera, especially where obstructions threaten 
 the jaundice and dropsy. This vegetable is 
 also salutary in many disorders of the breast, as 
 operating by urine, which is generally of ser- 
 vice in such cases.* 
 
 If the root is put upon a tooth that aches 
 violently, it causes it to come out without 
 pain, according to Ant. Mizald, and others. -f- 
 
 M. Roliquet has, it is said, discovered a 
 new vegetable principle in asparagus : it is a 
 triple salt of lime and ammonia, of which the 
 acid is unknown. This chemist and M. 
 Vauquelin have found a substance in the juice 
 of this vegetable, analogous to manna. 
 
 # Galen, Hoffman, James, 8cc. 
 
 t Mizald, cent. 7. Memorab. A ph. 34. Schenck, Obs. 
 Med. L. 1 . 
 
32 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 In Queen Elizabeth's time asparagus was 
 eaten, says Gerard, " sodden in flesh-broth, 
 or boiled in faire water, and seasoned with 
 oile, vinegar, salt, and pepper, then serued at 
 mens tables for a sallade." 
 
 At the present time it is principally served 
 to table on a toast, or ragou'd. It makes an 
 excellent soup, and the small sprue-grass 
 forms a part of most of our spring pottages. 
 It is often cut small and sent to table as a 
 substitute for green peas. 
 
 The flowers of asparagus are found, on a 
 strict examination, to be dioecious, although 
 arranged by Linnaeus, and other botanists, as 
 hermaphrodite. Those which bear berries 
 have abortive stamina, and those which have 
 perfect stamina are destitute of pistils, or 
 have only such as are abortive. The male 
 plants throw up a far greater quantity of 
 shoots than the female, although not quite 
 equal to them in size. 
 
 In making new beds, the males only should 
 be selected, which may be easily done by not 
 planting them from the seed-beds until they 
 have flowered. When the plants are one 
 year old, transplant them into other beds, at 
 six inches distance ; let them remain there 
 until they flower, which will be, with respect 
 
ASPARAGUS. 33 
 
 to most of them, in the second year ; put a 
 small stick to each male plant to mark them, 
 and pull up the females, unless it is preferred 
 to make a separate plantation of them, to 
 prove the truth of the experiment. 
 
 Asparagus is now obtained by the attentive 
 gardener at all seasons of the year, and the 
 same plants are made to give two crops in 
 the year by the following method : towards 
 the end of July, especially if it be rainy 
 weather, cut down the stalks of the plants, 
 fork up the beds, and rake them. If it be 
 dry, water them with the drainings of a 
 dunghill, or with water wherein horse or cow- 
 dung has been steeped; leave the beds rather 
 flat instead of the usual round shape, in order 
 that they may retain all the moisture. In 
 ten or fourteen days the asparagus will begin 
 to appear : if the weather is dry, continue to 
 water the beds two or three times a week. 
 By this method you may cut asparagus till 
 about the end of September, at which time 
 the produce of the hot-beds will be ready ; 
 so that, with five or six hot-beds during the 
 winter, you may have a regular succession of 
 this agreeable vegetable for every month of 
 the year. 
 
 It may be observed that by cutting the 
 
 VOL. J. D 
 
34 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 beds twice a year, you exhaust them ; to 
 obviate this, succeeding beds should be 
 prepared. We are, however, of opinion 
 that asparagus beds do not become worn out, 
 or unproductive, so soon as is generally 
 imagined ; as some of the finest asparagus 
 we have met with in this country, the author 
 recollects to have been cut from a bed at 
 Westburton, in Sussex, which he was then 
 told had abundantly supplied Mr. Upperton's 
 family for more than seventy years. 
 
 In Jamaica, and other West India islands, 
 they cut asparagus in twelve months after the 
 seeds are sown. 
 
3.5 
 
 ASPHODEL— ASPHGDELUS. 
 
 Natural order, Coronarice. A genus of the 
 Hexandria Monogi/nia class. 
 
 Asphodelus, is derived from a, and cr^aAAw, 
 subplanto, (nro&Xov, from airoSoq ashes : aspho- 
 dels being anciently planted with mallows on 
 graves.* 
 
 The asphodel root was to the ancient 
 Greeks and Romans, what the potatoe now 
 is to us, a bread plant, the value of which 
 cannot be too highly estimated. It has long 
 since given way to its successors in favour ; 
 and if now permitted to blossom, it is seen 
 only in obscure corners of gardens, in which it 
 perhaps was formerly the principal plant. 
 
 So universally has the Virginian plant su- 
 perseded that of Troas, that we no longer 
 consider the asphodel as an article of food ; 
 and were it not for the occasional appearance 
 of the Hastula regia, King's spear, in our par- 
 
 * Ray. 
 d 2 
 
36 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 terres, this plant which nourished the an- 
 cients, and the verses in which it is cele- 
 brated by the poets, would have been equally 
 forgotten. 
 
 The origin of this vegetable is traced in 
 fabulous history to that memorable apple, 
 which Discord threw into the assembly of the 
 gods who attended the nuptials of Peleus 
 and Thetis, as a prize for the fairest of the 
 goddesses. The decision of Paris in favour 
 of Venus is said to have offended Juno and 
 Minerva so highly, that they endeavoured to 
 break the beavitiful crook which Pan had given 
 to the shepherd of Ida, but which was saved 
 by its turning into the blossom of a yellow as- 
 phodel, so much resembling a royal sceptre. 
 
 From this fable we conclude, that the 
 ancients considered the asphodel a native of 
 Mount Ida; and as modern botanists agree 
 that the plant is indigenous to that neigh- 
 bourhood, we will not dispute whether it 
 first sprang up in the valley or on the hill, 
 but will turn to the instructive pages of 
 Pliny, who calls it one of the most sovereign 
 and renowned herbs that the world pro- 
 duces ; and says, that the roots boiled with 
 husked barley are certainly the most restora- 
 tive diet that can be taken by consumptive 
 
ASPHODEL. 37 
 
 persons, or those whose lungs are affected. 
 He adds, that no bread is so wholesome as 
 that which is made of these roots and the 
 flour of grain mixed together. The same 
 author tells us, that the roots of the asphodel 
 were generally roasted under the embers, 
 and then eaten with salt and oil ; but when 
 mashed with figs, they were thought a most 
 excellent dish. Hesiod, the first poet who 
 wrote on agriculture, mentions the latter 
 method as the only way to dress asphodels. 
 Homer has also noticed this plant. The as- 
 phodel appears to have been highly esteemed 
 by Pythagoras, who has been styled by an- 
 cient authors the prince of philosophers. 
 He lived upon the purest and most innocent 
 food, and was so averse to the shedding of 
 blood, that it is said, when he made offerings 
 at the temples of the gods, it was of animals 
 made of wax : he forbade his disciples to 
 eat flesh. Theophrastus particularly de- 
 scribes the asphodel and its virtues ; and 
 Mago, the celebrated Carthaginian writer on 
 husbandry, gave minute directions for its cul- 
 tivation. Dionysius also wrote on this vege- 
 table, one species of which he considered the 
 male, and the other the female plant. Pliny 
 tells us that these plants were so productive, 
 
38 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 that it was not uncommon to see eighty bulbs 
 or roots clustered together. The seed of this 
 vegetable was also eaten when parched or 
 fried, and it was generally planted by the 
 Roman husbandmen before the gates of their 
 farms, with the superstitious idea that it 
 would preserve the place from charms and 
 sorceries. According to the fiction of Lucian, 
 asphodels are eaten by the ghosts of the 
 condemned in the infernal regions. Among 
 the physicians of ancient celebrity who wrote 
 on this plant, Nicander recommends it as an 
 antidote against the poison of serpents and 
 scorpions, if either the seeds or roots be 
 drunk in wine ; and asserts, that by laying 
 the plant under the pillow, these and other 
 reptiles will be kept from the bed : this was 
 a most important discovery for the armies, 
 who were obliged to sleep in fields abounding 
 with creatures whose bite or sting was deadly. 
 Dioscorides and iEtius prescribed the wine 
 in which asphodel roots were boiled as an 
 excellent diuretic. Galen says, the roots 
 burnt to ashes and mixed with the fat of 
 ducks, are the best remedy for alopecy, and 
 that it will recover the hair that has fallen 
 off by that disease. Xenocrates affirmed, 
 that a decoction of the root in vinegar was 
 
ASPHODEL. 39 
 
 a cure for the ring-worm, &c. We are 
 informed, that Chrysermus the physician 
 boiled the root in wine, and by it cured the 
 swellings of the kernels behind the ears ; 
 and that Sophocles used it, both boiled and 
 raw, with good success against the gout. 
 Simnus esteemed it the best diuretic drink 
 for the gravel, when boiled in wine. Hippo- 
 crates prescribed the seeds of the asphodel 
 against the hardness of the spleen, and the 
 flux which proceeds from that cause. He 
 also applied the root, pounded, as a liniment 
 for horses, or dogs, &c. afflicted with the 
 mange ; which, it is said, would both effect 
 a cure, and restore the hair. 
 
 The ancients used a liniment made of the 
 leaves, for wounds occasioned by serpents, 
 and other venomous creatures ; and the juice 
 of the root, mixed with oil, was applied to 
 burns and scalds, &c. Immense tracts of 
 land in Apulia are covered with asphodel, 
 and it is said to afford good nourishment to 
 sheep.* The onion-leaved asphodel grows 
 also in the natural state, both in Spain and 
 the South of France. 
 
 Dodoens, who nourished at the coin- 
 
 # Symonds in Young's Annals. 
 
40 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES, 
 
 mencement of the sixteenth century, highly 
 extols the virtues of the asphodel for most 
 of the before-mentioned maladies ; and adds, 
 that a dram weight of the root, when boiled 
 and taken in wine, relieves the pains of the 
 side, the cough, the shrinkings of the sinews, 
 the cramp, &c. 
 
 Gerard has given us a description of six 
 species of asphodel, which he cultivated in 
 his garden, prior to 1597 ; one of which he 
 states to be a native of England ; but as 
 more modern botanists do not acknowledge 
 it to be indigenous to this country, we shall 
 give his own words : " The Lancashire as- 
 phodill groweth in moist and marishy places 
 neere vnto the towne of Lancaster in the 
 moorish grounds there, as also neere vnto 
 Maudsley and Martone, two villages not far 
 from thence ; where it was found by a wor- 
 shipfull and learned gentleman, a diligent 
 searcher of simples, and feruent louer of 
 plants, Master Thomas Hesket, who brought 
 the plants vnto me for the increase of my 
 garden. I received some plants thereof like- 
 wise from Master Thomas Edwards, apothe- 
 carie in Excester, learned and skilfull in his 
 profession, as also in the knowledge of plants, 
 unto whom I rest bounden for this plant, 
 
ASPHODEL. 41 
 
 which he found at the foote of a hill in the 
 west part of England, called Bagshot hill, 
 neere vnto a village of the same name." 
 
 This species of asphodel has a yellow blos- 
 som, and was thence called the King's spear. 
 Gerard tells us, that the juice of the aspho- 
 del root cleanses and takes away the white 
 morphew, if the face be first rubbed with a 
 coarse linen cloth, and then anointed with it. 
 He adds, that " it is not yet found out if the 
 Lancaster asphodil is of use either in nourish- 
 ment or medicine." Ray says, this species is 
 a native of Sicily, where he found it growing. 
 
 The asphodel is said to be useful in driving 
 away rats and mice, which have so great an 
 antipathy to this plant, that, if their holes be 
 stopped up with it, they will die rather than 
 pass it ; and it is said, that if a house be 
 smoked with this root, it also banishes mice, 
 or proves a poison to them. 
 
 If the root is put into the water which 
 swine drink, it prevents their being affected 
 with a pestilential leprosy, or if they have 
 taken the disorder, it restores them to health. 
 It also produces the same effect, if they are 
 frequently washed with such a water.* 
 
 # Florentinus. 
 
42 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The vinegar in which the root has been 
 boiled, if used for washing the body, cures 
 scorbutic eruptions. Some roast the roots 
 in hot ashes, and rub their faces and hands 
 with them, in order to remove all blotches, 
 and purify the skin. 
 
 This plant will thrive in any soil, if planted 
 about three inches deep ; it is principally 
 raised by dividing the roots, as the cultiva- 
 tion by seed is more tedious. It blossoms 
 best in a damp soil, or when it is well 
 watered. 
 
 
43 
 
 BALM, or BAUM.— MELISSA. 
 
 Natural order, Verticillata. A genus of the 
 Didynamia Gymnospermia class. 
 
 The Greeks called this plant nAiaaotyvWov 
 r) fieX'KpvXXovy melissophyllum, or melipayllum, id 
 est, apum folium, that is bee's leaf, from the 
 fondness these insects shew for this herb. 
 It is called melissa, from r^Xi, honey, because 
 bees gather much honey from its flowers. 
 It has also been called apiastrum, from apes, 
 a bee, on the same account ; and it is still 
 the custom to rub the hives with balm and 
 sugar, or honey, previously to taking a swarm ; 
 a practice which certainly appears to have 
 the effect of attaching the colony to its new 
 settlement. Pliny notices this method of 
 securing the bees in his time, and says, that 
 where there is plenty of balm in the garden, 
 there is no fear of the swarms straying ; he 
 tells us also, that it is a good remedy for the 
 sting of bees and wasps, &c. and enumerates 
 
44 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 a long list of complaints for which it was 
 then considered an effectual medicine. 
 
 Virgil says, that bees which have strayed 
 may be brought back by the juice of this 
 herb. 
 
 " When you the swarms 'scaped from the hives descry, 
 Like a dark cloud blown through the summer sky, 
 Swimming the boundless ocean of the air, 
 They still to pools and leafy bowers repair : 
 There juice of balm and woodbine sprinkle round, 
 Strike jingling brass and tinkling cymbals sound ; 
 The loved perfume will sudden rest inspire, 
 And they, as usual, to their hives retire. 
 
 Lauderdale. 
 
 Gerard says, " Bawme is much sowen in 
 gardens, and oftentimes it groweth of itself 
 in woods and mountaines, and other wilde 
 places." From this we should have been 
 inclined to consider it a native plant ; but 
 that we have never met with it growing 
 wild. Regnault, and after him Aiton, tell 
 us, that it is a native of the South of Europe, 
 and was first cultivated in this country 
 about the year 1573. We have now eight 
 species of balm, two of which are indige- 
 nous to England, viz. the common Calamint, 
 Melissa calamintha, and the lesser Calamint, 
 Nepeta. 
 
 The old English herbals, as well as those 
 
BALM. 45 
 
 of the ancients, are copious on the supposed 
 virtues of this plant, but of which modern 
 practice takes little notice. It is, however, 
 much esteemed by the common people of 
 this country, who take it in the manner of 
 tea, and it is thought to be good in disorders 
 of the head and stomach, as also in hypo- 
 chondriac and hysteric complaints. 
 
 The infusion of this plant is better when 
 made from the green herb, than when dried, 
 which is contrary to the general rule in re- 
 gard to other plants. 
 
 Without being misled by the high en- 
 comiums which our herbalists have bestowed 
 on balm, we think it is not duly appreciated 
 at present. 
 
 Hoffman contrived a process for obtaining 
 the virtues of this plant, which affords its 
 principles better than any other, and gives 
 two medicines to the physician, unknown 
 before, but of great value. He took a large 
 quantity of the leaves of balm, fresh picked 
 from the stalks, and filling a glass vessel more 
 than half full with them, fixing the stopple 
 carefully in, he put the vessel into a dunghill, 
 where he let it remain three months. At the 
 end of this time he took it out, and found the 
 whole reduced to a kind of poultice. This 
 
46 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 being distilled in a retort, yielded first an 
 empyreumatic liquor, but afterwards, when 
 the fire was increased, a black and stinking 
 oil came over, in form of thin lamina, spread- 
 ing itself over the surface of the liquor. 
 There remained at the bottom of the retort, 
 a black and burnt mass, resembling a coal, 
 which, being thrown on burning charcoal, 
 had very much the smell of the common 
 tobacco. 
 
 In this first distillation, no volatile salt ap- 
 peared; but the empyreumatic liquor being 
 examined, was found very sharp and acrid 
 on the tongue, and of a sharp and pungent 
 smell. Spirit of vitriol being mixed with it, 
 it afforded no effervescence ; but on the mix- 
 ing it with spirit of hartshorn, spirit of urine, 
 or the like, a small ebullition was always pro- 
 duced, though it lasted but a few moments. 
 
 This liquor, rectified by a second distilla- 
 tion, affords the volatile salt of balm, which is 
 a fine white and pellucid substance, adhering 
 to the neck of the glass in form of fine 
 white and striated crystal ; and a yellow 
 aethereal oil, of a very penetrating smell, 
 and sharp taste, becomes separated by the 
 same rectification. These are both found to 
 be very powerful medicines, the salt as a 
 
BALM. 47 
 
 sudorific, and the oil as a high cordial, a 
 carminative, and a deobstruent. 
 
 In France, the women bruise the young 
 shoots of balm, and make them into cakes 
 with sugar, eggs, and rose-water, which 
 they give to the mother in child-birth, as 
 a strengthener. It has also been thought 
 beneficial to those who are troubled with 
 the palpitation of the heart. 
 
48 
 
 BARLEY.— HORDEUM. 
 
 Natural order > Gramma. A genus of the 
 Triandria Digynia class. 
 
 The generic name seems either horridum, 
 from horres, on account of its long awns or 
 beards ; or, as it was anciently written for- 
 deum, rather from 4>epj3w, to feed or nourish, 
 whence ^opj3^ and forbea, and changing the 
 b into d, for deum* The name is, however, 
 derived by Junius from the Hebrew *n. 
 
 Barley is evidently a native of a warmer 
 climate than Britain, for in this moist atmo- 
 sphere it is observed to degenerate, when 
 either neglected or left to a poor soil. Dr. 
 Plott speaks of barley and rye growing in the 
 same ear alternately. 
 
 We have the best authority for its having 
 been cultivated in Syria so long back as 3132 
 years ; therefore that part of the world may 
 be fairly fixed as its native soil. 
 
 # Vossius. 
 
BARLEY. 4J) 
 
 " Ruth gleaned in the field until even, and 
 beat out that she had gleaned ; and it was 
 about an ephah of barley." 
 
 — " So she kept fast by the maidens of 
 Boaz, to glean unto the end of barley harvest, 
 and of wheat harvest." 
 
 — " Behold he winnoweth barley to-night 
 in the threshing-floor." * 
 
 In the seventh chapter of the second book 
 of Kings, we learn what proportion barley 
 bore in price to wheaten flour in Samaria, 
 about 892 years b. c. 
 
 " To-morrow, about this time, shall a mea- 
 sure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two 
 measures of barley for a shekel." 
 
 We have also very early accounts of this 
 corn having been cultivated in Egypt; and it 
 is supposed to have been used before any 
 other sort of grain. 
 
 Artemidorus says, it was the first food which 
 the gods imparted to mankind -f . Pliny says, 
 " In Chalica (an island belonging to the 
 Rhodians) there is one place so fruitful, that 
 the barley, which was sown in proper time, 
 is mowed and committed to the ground a se- 
 cond time, which is ready to cut again with 
 the other corn." 
 
 * Ruth, 1312 r. c. f Plut. Marcello, Livius, lib. 27. 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 " The russet field rose high with waving grain ; 
 With bended sickles stand the reaper train. 
 Here stretch'd in ranks the levell'd swarths are found, 
 Sheaves heap'd on sheaves here thicken up the ground. 
 With sweeping stroke the mowers strew the lands ; 
 The gatherers follow, and collect in bands ; 
 And last the children, in whose arms are borne 
 (Too short to gripe them) the brown sheaves of corn. 
 The rustic monarch of the field descries, 
 With silent glee, the heaps around him rise. 
 A ready banquet on the turf is laid ; 
 Beneath an ample oak's extended shade 
 The victim ox the sturdy youth prepare ; 
 The reapers' due repast, the women's care." 
 
 Pope's Homer. 
 
 Barley (husked), says Pliny, was the most 
 ancient food in old times, as will appear by 
 the ordinary custom of the Athenians, accord- 
 ing to the testimony of Menander, as also 
 by the sirname given to sword-fencers, who 
 from their allowance or pension of barley 
 were called H or dear it, barleymen.* This 
 naturalist farther observes, that of all grains 
 barley is the softest, and least subject to ca- 
 sualties, and produces fruit speedily and pro- 
 fitably. 
 
 The meal so highly commended by the 
 Greeks, was prepared from barley in the fol- 
 
 « 
 
 lowing manner. It was steeped in water, 
 
 # Book xviii. chap. 7. 
 
BARLEY. 51 
 
 and then dried for one night; the succeeding 
 day it was parched or fried, and afterwards 
 ground in a mill, or pounded in a mortar ; 
 the meal was then mixed with coriander and 
 other seeds, with a small portion of salt : 
 when intended to keep, it was put into new 
 earthen vessels. 
 
 It was not until after the Romans had 
 learnt to cultivate wheat, and to make bread, 
 that they gave barley to their cattle. They 
 made barley-meal into balls, which they put 
 down the throats of their horses and asses, 
 after the manner of fattening fowls ; which 
 was said to make them strong and lusty. 
 
 Barley continued to be the food of the 
 poor, who were not able to procure better 
 provision ; and in the Roman camp, as Ve- 
 getius has informed us, soldiers who had 
 been guilty of any offence, were fed with bar- 
 ley, instead of bread corn.* 
 
 An example may also be found in the second 
 Punic war, when the cohorts who lost their 
 standards had an allowance of barley assigned 
 by Marcellus. And Augustus Caesar com- 
 monly punished the cohorts which gave 
 ground to the enemy, by a decimation, and 
 by allowing them no provision but barley, f 
 
 * De Re Militari, lib. i. cap. 13. + Sueton. chap. 24. 
 
 e 2 
 
52 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 We find that the Romans obtained barley 
 from Egypt and other parts of Africa, and 
 Spain. It was also grown in France, as Colu- 
 mella calls one variety of barley Galaticum. 
 There are no means of ascertaining whether 
 barley was cultivated in Britain, when the 
 Romans first discovered this country ; but as 
 Caesar found corn growing on the coast of 
 Kent, it is probable that this species of grain 
 had been obtained from Gaul. It might 
 have been introduced by the Phoenicians in 
 exchange for British tin. The Romans 
 knew perfectly well that corn was as easily 
 obtained in cold as in warm climes ; and it 
 is remarked by Pliny, as a phenomenon, that 
 extreme heat and cold have the same effect 
 in producing corn. Thracia is, he says, ex- 
 ceedingly cold, and thereby plentiful in corn : 
 Egypt and other parts of Africa are hot, 
 and yet abound in corn, although not so 
 copiously. 
 
 We know from good authorities, that the 
 Romans soon procured corn in England, and 
 were even enabled to send it thence to 
 Italy. 
 
 It is not within the limits of this work to 
 go into the detail of the cultivation of corn, 
 which has been so properly attended to by 
 
BARLEY. 53 
 
 the Agricultural Society, and so ably dilated 
 on by various writers; but we must not omit 
 an important observation that was made by 
 Pliny, and which seems worthy of being 
 attended to : That barley yields the better 
 groats if it be taken whilst it is somewhat 
 green, rather than when it has arrived at its 
 full ripeness. 
 
 " Lo, how the arable with bailey grain 
 
 Stands thick, o'er-shadow'd, to the thirsty hind 
 Transporting prospect ! Philips's Cider. 
 
 The invention of malt-liquor appears to 
 have originated from the attention which an 
 eastern monarch paid to the health of his 
 army, as both Hippocrates and Xenophon 
 inform us, that Cyrus, having called his sol- 
 diers together, exhorted them to drink water 
 wherein parched barley had been steeped, 
 which they called Maza. In all probability 
 this was to counteract the bad effects of im- 
 pure water in warm climates, as Pliny* states, 
 that if water be nitrous, brackish, and bitter, 
 by putting fried barley-meal into it, it will in 
 less than two hours be purified and sweet, 
 and that it may then be drunk with safety ; 
 and this, says he, is the reason that barley- 
 meal is generally put in bags and strainers 
 
 i 
 
 * Book xx iv. c. 1. 
 
54 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 through which we pass our wines, that they 
 may be refined and drawn the sooner. This 
 information may be serviceable to nautical 
 men, and to those who travel in tropical 
 climes. 
 
 In the retreat of the ten thousand, Xeno- 
 phon thus describes the beer which he found 
 in some Armenian villages : " Beer (literally 
 barley-wine) in jars, in which the malt or bar- 
 ley itself was in them up to the brim, and with 
 it reeds, some large and others small, without 
 joints. These, when any one w r as dry, he 
 was to take into his mouth and suck. The 
 liquor was very strong, when unmixed with 
 water, and exceeding pleasant to those who 
 were accustomed to it." 
 
 Diodorus Siculus tells us, that Osiris, that 
 is, the Egyptian Bacchus, was the inventor of 
 malt-liquor, as a relief to those countries 
 where vines did not succeed, which is the 
 reason assigned by Herodotus for the Egyp- 
 tians using it. This was also the liquor 
 used in France, till the time of the Emperor 
 Probus, when vines were first planted there. 
 Pliny says, they called it Cervisia, a word 
 probably derived from Cervoise, which among 
 the ancient Gauls signified beer *. 
 
 # Spelman. 
 
BARLEY. 55 
 
 Tacitus mentions a sort of beer in use 
 among the ancient Germans, made of barley 
 or of wheat. 
 
 The fertility of the Egyptian soil in grain, 
 and its unfitness for the vine, induced the 
 people of that country to make a sort of 
 wine or ale from barley, which was drunk 
 by those who could not afford to purchase 
 the juice of grapes.* 
 
 The principal use of barley in this country, 
 is for making beer; a beverage too well known, 
 from the peasant to the monarch, to require 
 any eulogium on its agreeable and salutary 
 qualities : we shall, therefore, only observe, 
 that it is an European beverage of greater 
 antiquity than wine. It was drunk in Italy, 
 Spain, and in France, before they had learnt 
 the cultivation of the vine, or the making of 
 wine. 
 
 Ovid notices a sweet drink used by pea- 
 sants, which was made by boiling roasted 
 barley-meal in water. 
 
 " The Goddess knocking at the little door, 
 'Twas open'd by a woman, old and poor, 
 \fy ho, when she bes^d for water, oave her ale 
 Brew'd long, but well preserved from being stale." 
 
 The word ale is from the Saxon eale ; 
 
 * Conf. Athenocus, sub finem lib. 1 . Arbuthnot. 
 
56 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 and beer is a word derived from the Welsh 
 bir. 
 
 Pope says of beer, as a satire on Welsted : 
 
 " Flow, Welsted ! flow, like thine inspirer beer, 
 Though stale, not ripe ; though thin, yet never clear; 
 So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull ; 
 Heady, not strong; and flowing, though not full. " 
 
 For some years past the brewing of porter 
 has nearly superseded that of ale in the me- 
 tropolis; but from whence this modern word 
 is derived, we are unable to conclude ; unless 
 it is so called after that useful body of men 
 who are its principal consumers. 
 
 The extent to which porter-brewing is 
 carried, in London, may be conceived by 
 the dreadful accident which happened at the 
 brewhouses of Mr. Henry Meux, in the parish 
 of St. Giles. In the month of October 1814, 
 one of the large porter-vats by some accident 
 burst, when, from its enormous bulk, the por- 
 ter rushed with such an impetuous current, 
 that the adjoining streets resembled rivers 
 that had burst their banks, and the surround- 
 ing houses were so instantly filled with this 
 liquor, that the inhabitants, who had no means 
 of escape, were drowned as they sat at break- 
 fast. The vat was nearlv 100 feet in circum- 
 
BARLEY. * 57 
 
 ferjnce, 36 feet over, 22£ feet in height, and 
 contained 3556 barrels, or 128,016 gallons, 
 and caused the death of eight persons by its 
 bursting. 
 
 It is generally a custom with brewers 
 to give entertainments in these immense vats 
 when first built, and before being used ; large 
 parties are often entertained in them with a 
 dinner or a ball ; and it has a curious effect to 
 look down on the party thus situated, which 
 gives the idea of the Lilliputians having pos- 
 sessed themselves of the casks of the people 
 of Brobdignag. 
 
 Wine made from malt, when kept to a pro- 
 per age, has as good a body, and a flavour 
 nearly as agreeable, as the generality of 
 Madeira wines. 
 
 The wort of malt is an excellent antiscor- 
 butic. Barley was used by the ancients for 
 many medicinal purposes. Galen, in his book 
 of the Faculties of Simples, says barley is not 
 so heating as wheat, and that it has a little abs- 
 tersive, or cleansing quality. The ladies, in 
 old times, mixed the meal of this corn with 
 honey and vinegar, to take away freckles and 
 other spots on the flesh. 
 
 Dr. James says, barley, however prepared, 
 
58 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 never heats the body, but moistens or dries, 
 according to its various ways of preparation. 
 Thus, when it is boiled, as in a ptisan, it mois- 
 tens ; when it is torrified, as in polenta, it 
 dries. Barley differs from wheat, as it ge- 
 nerates a mild and detergent juice, whereas 
 that of wheat is thick and viscid, and some- 
 what of an obstruent quality. 
 
 There are various ways of preparing bar- 
 ley, either as simple or medicinal aliment. A 
 cataplasm made of barley-flour and butter, is 
 an anodyne remedy against all kinds of pain. 
 The polenta of barley, says Sim.Paulli, boiled 
 in vinegar, and strained through a linen cloth, 
 frequently mitigates the intolerable pain of 
 the teeth, being used as a collution, or, rather, 
 held for some time in the mouth. 
 
 Pearl barley and French barley are only 
 barley freed from the husk by a mill ; the 
 distinction between the two being, that the 
 pearl barley is reduced to the size of small- 
 shot, all but the very heart of the grain being 
 ground away. 
 
 Barley-water is a decoction of either of 
 these, and is reputed soft and lubricating ; a 
 very useful drink in many disorders, and is 
 recommended to be taken with nitre in low 
 
BARLEY. 59 
 
 fevers. Its use is of great antiquity, as Hip- 
 pocrates wrote a whole book on the merits of 
 gruel made of barley. 
 
 The French or Scotch barley is principally 
 used to thicken broth and soup. 
 
60 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 BASIL.— OCIMUM. 
 
 Natural order, Verticillata, A genus of the 
 Didynamia Gymnospermia class. 
 
 Fabulous history informs us that this plant 
 originated from the death of Ocimus, who 
 first ordained the combats in honour of Pallas, 
 and being killed by Cyclodemas, a famous 
 gladiator, was immediately metamorphosed 
 into the plant which bears his name. 
 
 The Greeks, who seldom gave names to 
 plants without an appropriate meaning, called 
 it axifjLQV ab wkvs, quia cito crescit, from the 
 speedy springing of the seed, which is usually 
 within three or four days, if the weather be 
 hot and dry. It was also called Basilicum, 
 from Bac-itevs, rex, a king, from which the 
 English name is derived, and whence also it 
 is styled a royal plant. 
 
 The difficulty of overcoming superstitious 
 prejudices is fully exemplified in this fra- 
 grant herb. It was an opinion among the 
 ancients, that if basil was pounded and put 
 
BASIL. 61 
 
 under a stone, it would breed serpents ; from 
 this notion its use was decried ; — and when it 
 was transplanted into our climate, which was 
 found too cold for serpents, these reptiles 
 degenerated into worms and maggots, which, 
 we are told, this vegetable will engender, if 
 it be only chewed, and put into the sun. 
 
 Basil was condemned by Chrysippus, more 
 than two hundred years b. c. as being hurtful 
 to the stomach, a suppressor of urine, an 
 enemy to the sight, and a robber of the wits. 
 Diodorus added, that the eating of this plant 
 caused cutaneous insects ; and the Africans 
 were persuaded that no person could survive 
 if he were stung by a scorpion on the same 
 day that he had eaten basil. 
 
 We notice the story told by Hollerus of 
 this plant, to shew how far superstition and 
 credulity carried the ill effects of basil. He 
 relates, that an Italian by frequent smelling 
 this herb, bred a scorpion in his brain. 
 
 Notwithstanding these impressions were 
 so much against reason, and the decided 
 opinion of the Roman physicians as to the 
 beneficial qualities of the plant, it never be- 
 came a favourite in medicine, and has been 
 but little used for culinary purposes, although 
 Philistis, Plistonicus, and others, extolled its 
 
62 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 virtues, and recommended its use, as strongly 
 as it had been formerly condemned.* 
 
 Galen says, basil was eaten by many per- 
 sons in his time, being corrected with oil 
 and vinegar, and that it was esteemed ser- 
 viceable to women, to dry up their milk. 
 
 The Romans sowed the seeds of this plant 
 with maledictions and ill words, believing 
 that the more it was cursed, the better it 
 would prosper ; and when they wished for a 
 crop, they trod it down with their feet, and 
 prayed to the gods that it might not vege- 
 tate.-f* 
 
 Lord Bacon says, in his Natural History, 
 " It is strange which is reported, that basil 
 too much exposed to the sun, doth turn into 
 wild thyme : although these two herbs seem 
 to have small affinity ; but basil is almost 
 the only pot-herb, that hath fat and succulent 
 leaves ; which oiliness if it be drawn forth 
 by the sun, it is likely it will make a very 
 great change. "j 
 
 Gerard describes six species of basil in his 
 Herbal, that were cultivated in England 
 prior to 1597 ; and he agrees with Simeon 
 
 * Plin. book xx. chap. 12 and 13. 
 
 t Pliny. % Century 6. 
 
BASIL. 63 
 
 Zethy, that " the smell of this plant is good 
 for the heart and for the head : that the 
 seede cureth the infirmities of the heart, 
 taketh away sorrowfulnesse which commeth 
 of melancholie, and maketh a man merrie 
 and glad." 
 
 Basil leaves a grateful smell when stroked 
 with the hand ; and it was said that the hand 
 of a fair lady made it thrive. Farmers who 
 had learnt to compliment in the reigns of 
 Queen Mary and Elizabeth, planted it in 
 pots to offer to their landladies, or others 
 who visited the farm. It is thus noticed by 
 Tusser : 
 
 " Fine Basil desireth it may be hir lot 
 
 to grow as a gilleflower, trim in a pot : 
 That ladies and gentils, for whom you do serve, 
 may help her as needeth, poore life to preserue." 
 
 Schroder, and other medical writers of 
 latter days, give it the virtue of cleansing the 
 lungs of phlegm. 
 
 It is used as an ingredient in the aqua 
 bryonies composita, or hysteric water. 
 
 Aiton mentions thirteen species of basil, 
 now cultivated in this country, the earliest 
 of which was in 1548. It is a native of the 
 South of Europe, as well as the East Indies, 
 
64 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES 
 
 and some parts of Africa ; and is found also, 
 growing naturally, in Persia. 
 
 The French are now so partial to the 
 flavour and qualities of this plant, that its 
 leaves enter into the composition of almost 
 all their soups and sauces. 
 
65 
 
 BEAN.— FABA. 
 
 Natural order, Papilionacece. A genus of the 
 Diadelphia Decandria class. 
 
 The Bean was called in Greek Kvapos, 
 by the Falisci, a people of Hetruria (now 
 Tuscany), Haba ; whence the name Faba 
 seems to be taken. Martinius derives the 
 word from Ww, to feed; as if it were Paba; 
 Isidorus from pdyta, to eat. 
 
 The flowers of this pulse, which are of the 
 butterfly kind, emit a most agreeable per- 
 fume. 
 
 " Long let us walk 
 
 Where the breeze blows from yon extended field 
 Of blossom'd beans. Arabia cannot boast 
 A fuller gale of joy than liberal thence 
 Breathes through the sense, and takes the ravish'd soul." 
 
 Thomson. 
 
 Of all the pulse kind, this held the first 
 rank in ancient times. We find the Athe- 
 nians used beans sodden, in their feasts de- 
 dicated to Apollo; and the Romans presented 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
66 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 beans as an oblation in their solemn sacrifice 
 called Fabaria, a festival held in honour of 
 Carna, wife of Janus. Pliny informs us, that 
 they offered cakes made of bean meal unto 
 certain gods and goddesses, in these ancient 
 rites and ceremonies. Lempriere states, 
 that bacon was added to the beans in the 
 offerings to Carna, not so much to gratify 
 the palate of the goddess, as to represent the 
 simplicity of their ancestors. 
 
 One of the most noble and powerful fa- 
 milies of Rome derived the name of Fabii 
 from some of their ancestors having culti- 
 vated the bean called Faba. 
 
 The meal of beans is the heaviest made 
 from pulse, and was called in Latin lomentum. 
 This was mingled with frumentic corn, whole, 
 and so eaten by the ancients; but they 
 sometimes, by way of having a dainty, bruised 
 it first : it was considered a strong food, and 
 was generally eaten with gruel or pottage. 
 It was thought to dull the senses and under- 
 standing, and to cause troublesome dreams. 
 Pythagoras expressly forbade beans to be 
 eaten by his disciples, because he supposed 
 them to have been produced from the same 
 putrid matter from which, at the creation of 
 the world, man was formed. The Romans at 
 
BEAN. 67 
 
 one time believed, that the souls of such 
 as were departed, resided in beans ; there- 
 fore they were eaten at funerals and obse- 
 quies of the dead. 
 
 Varro relates, that the great priests or 
 sacrificers, called Flamines, abstained from 
 beans on this account, as also from a suppo- 
 sition that certain letters or characters were 
 to be seen in the flowers, that indicated 
 heaviness and signs of death. Clemens 
 Alexandrinus attributes the abstinence from 
 beans to the opinion that they occasioned 
 sterility ; which is confirmed by Theophras- 
 tus, who extends the effects even to the 
 plants. Cicero suggests another reason for 
 this abstinence, viz. that beans are great 
 enemies to tranquillity of mind ; for which 
 reason Amphiaraus is said to have abstained 
 from them, even before Pythagoras, that he 
 might enjoy a clearer divination by his 
 dreams. 
 
 The Egyptian priests held it a crime to 
 look at beans, judging the very sight un- 
 clean. The Flamen Dialis was not per- 
 mitted even to mention the name. Lucian 
 introduces a philosopher in hell saying, that 
 to eat beans, and to eat our father's head, 
 
 were equal crimes. 
 
 f2 
 
68 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The ancients made use of beans in gather- 
 ing the votes of the people, and for electing 
 the magistrates. A white bean signified ab- 
 solution, and a black one condemnation. 
 From this practice, we imagine, was derived 
 the plan of black-balling obnoxious persons. 
 
 The Roman husbandmen had a religious 
 ceremony respecting this pulse, somewhat 
 remarkable ; when they sowed corn of any 
 kind, they took care to bring some beans 
 from the field, for good luck's sake, super- 
 stitiously thinking that by such means their 
 corn would return home again to them ; 
 these beans were then called Refrince or 
 Re/erina. The Romans carried their super- 
 stition even farther, for they thought that 
 beans mixed with goods offered for sale at 
 the ports, would infallibly bring good luck 
 to the seller. 
 
 Columella notices them in his time as 
 food for the peasants only : — 
 
 " And herbs they mix with beans for vulgar fare." 
 
 Pliny states that the sowing of beans 
 is equal to manure for land, and enriches 
 it exceedingly ; and that in the vicinity of 
 Macedonia and Thessaly, the custom was 
 to plough them into the ground just as 
 they began to bloom. This author adds, 
 
BEAN. 69 
 
 that beans grew spontaneously in most places 
 without sowing ; particularly in certain 
 islands lying within the northern ocean ; 
 from whence they have derived the name 
 of FabaricB. They grew wild also throughout 
 Mauritania (now Morocco) in Africa ; but 
 these Pliny characterizes as so hard and 
 tough, that they could not be boiled tender. 
 From Mazagan (a settlement of the Por- 
 tuguese, on the coast of Morocco), we have 
 obtained the bean so called, and it is by far 
 the best sort for an early crop. It may 
 be observed of seeds in general, that those 
 brought from warm climates will fruit 
 earlier than those of cold countries. It 
 must therefore be desirable to have the 
 seeds constantly renewed at intervals of a 
 few years, since the bean will naturally be- 
 come a later variety, as it grows accustomed 
 to the soil and climate of this kingdom. 
 
 Gerard states, that the garden bean is 
 the same in all respects as the field bean, 
 the one having been improved only by the 
 fertility of the soil : — we perfectly coincide 
 in this opinion, as the ancient authors men- 
 tion but one kind of the bean called Faba. 
 Virgil says, that if beans are soaked in lees, 
 or dregs of oil and nitre, before they are 
 
70 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 planted, they will produce seeds of a far 
 greater size. Other ancient authors state, 
 that if they are steeped for three days in 
 water mixed with urine, they grow more ra- 
 pidly, and the seed will be larger. 
 
 Beans were used medicinally by the an- 
 cients : when bruised and boiled with garlic 
 they were said to cure coughs that were 
 thought past other remedy. 
 
 The meal or flour of beans, called lomentwn 
 by the Romans, was a celebrated cosmetic 
 with the ladies, in former times, as it was 
 thought to possess the virtue of smoothing 
 the skin and taking away wrinkles. 
 
 Beans are now T seldom, if ever, used as food, 
 in this improved country, in their dried state ; 
 but when sent to table young, they are gene- 
 rally admired and esteemed a proper vegeta- 
 ble with bacon. 
 
 The ancients, with Dodonseus, Casp. Hoff- 
 man, and others of the moderns, tell us that 
 beans are flatulent, and the greener they are, 
 the more flatulent, and consequently the 
 more difficult of concoction : " However we," 
 says Ray, "do not find this to be true, though 
 we frequently feed upon beans in the sum- 
 mer : nor do we approve of the opinion of 
 Dodonaeus, who prefers the old and dry 
 
BEAN. 71 
 
 beans before the green ones, because he 
 thinks them less flatulent ; but with Tragus, 
 leave them to our horses : nor do I see why 
 they should not fatten men as well as swine, 
 and other animals." 
 
 Dr. Mundy, in his Treatise on Foods, says, 
 that he knew a peasant, who in a great dearth 
 of provisions fed his children with nothing 
 but boiled beans ; and yet you would hardly 
 see boys of a better colour or habit of body ; 
 which proves, that dry beans afford a copious 
 nutriment, when the stomach is once accus- 
 tomed to bear them. 
 
 Dodonaeus says, that beans, with their 
 skins, or husks, are neither slow, nor very 
 quick, in passing through the body ; but 
 that without their husks they are binding. 
 We agree in this opinion, knowing that in 
 wheat, the flour, separated from the bran, 
 binds the more powerfully, and that the 
 bran is detersive, and promotes the passage 
 of the flour : hence brown bread is the 
 most wholesome, particularly to persons 
 of feverish habits. Dr. James says, " we are of 
 opinion, with Tragus, that the young beans are 
 wholesome aliment, and generate good juice." 
 
 The prevailing opinion is, that beans are 
 a flatulent and coarse food, better suited to 
 
72 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 the laborious, than the sedentary class of 
 society. Mr. Boyle has several experiments 
 of beans, treated pneumatically, to shew the 
 great plenty of air they afford, on which 
 their flatulency depends. The expansion of 
 a bean, says this author, is found so consider- 
 able in growing, that it is capable of raising a 
 plug clogged with an hundred pounds 
 weight. 
 
 The green pods boiled, after the beans are 
 taken out, is a dish that many people prefer 
 to the beans ; they should be served with 
 parsley and butter. The young leaves of 
 beans, boiled in broth, are esteemed highly 
 emollient. 
 
 The varieties of beans recommended are, 
 the early Aldridge, early Mazagan, dwarf fan > 
 green Genoa, sword, long-podded, and the 
 white-blossomed Windsor. 
 
 We have found it an excellent plan, in 
 procuring late beans, to cut down the stalks 
 after the crop is gathered for the kitchen ; 
 they then soon sprout up again, and, if 
 showery weather succeeds, yield a better 
 supply than is obtained by late planting. In 
 the summer of 1820, the author had some 
 Windsor beans so much blighted, that they 
 produced but little more than the original 
 
BEAN. 73 
 
 seed; but when cut down, they yielded an 
 excellent crop in the month of November. 
 
 This species of pulse is extremely prolific 
 when planted in suitable soil. A single He- 
 ligoland horse-bean, planted in the garden 
 of Beaulieu poor-house, in the year 1821, 
 produced 126 pods, which contained 399 
 good beans fit for seed ; and had the plant 
 not been blown down by the wind in the 
 midst of its bloom, there is reason to sup- 
 pose it would have produced nearly double 
 the quantity. 
 
 Field beans are cultivated exclusively for 
 horses. 
 
 Beans make one of the finest of all baits 
 for fish, if prepared in the following manner : 
 Steep them in warm water for about six hours; 
 then boil them in river-water in a new earthen 
 pot, glazed in the inside ; when about half 
 boiled, to a quart of beans add two ounces 
 of honey, and about a grain of musk ; after 
 which let them boil for a short time. Select 
 a clear part of the water, and throw in a few 
 of these beans early in the morning, and 
 again at evening, for two or three days, 
 which will draw the fish together, and they 
 may be taken in a casting net in great 
 numbers. 
 
74 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The ashes of bean-stalks make good and 
 clear glass. 
 
 KIDNEY BEAN.— PHASEOLUS. 
 
 A leguminous plant. In Botany it is ar- 
 ranged in the same class and order as the 
 bean Faba. 
 
 This pulse is generally, but improperly 
 called French bean, for the old French name 
 of this pulse, Fives de Home, evidently 
 proves it not to have been a native of France. 
 We also find, that it was called the Roman 
 bean in our language, about the time of 
 Queen Elizabeth. Gerard gives it also the 
 name of Sperage bean, and says it is called 
 Faselles, or long peason. The Dutch at that 
 time (1596) called them Turcks-boonen, viz. 
 Turk's bean. From thence, but more parti- 
 cularly from the account of the great Roman 
 naturalist, we may conclude this excellent 
 and wholesome vegetable is a native of the 
 eastern extremity of Europe, or that part of 
 Asia now belonging to the Turks ; for Pliny 
 in the 7th chapter of his 18th book, men- 
 tions these beans, and says, those of Sesama 
 
 
BEAN. 75 
 
 and Iris are red, resembling blood. He 
 also in his 12th chapter of the same book 
 calls them Phaseoli, and says the pod is to be 
 eaten with the seed : from this laconic notice 
 we may assume that they were but little 
 esteemed at that time in Italy, where lupines 
 were then so much admired as food. 
 
 The French name of Haricot for this pulse 
 originated from their being much used by 
 their cooks in the composition of a dish so 
 called. 
 
 The English name of Kidney-bean was 
 given on account of the seed being somewhat 
 of a kidney shape. 
 
 We conceive it probable, that these beans 
 were first introduced to this country from 
 the Netherlands about the year 1509, when 
 gardening first began to be attended to in 
 England ; the white Dutch kidney-bean 
 having been the earliest sort known in this 
 kingdom. 
 
 Gerard mentions a considerable variety that 
 was cultivated in England in his time, and says, 
 " The fruit and pods of kidney-beans boyled 
 togither before they be ripe, and buttered, 
 and so eaten with their pods, are exceeding 
 delicate meate, and do not ingender winde as 
 the other pulse doe." This medical herba- 
 
76 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 list adds, " they are gently laxative, and in- 
 gender good bloode." 
 
 The dwarf-beans are the most generally 
 cultivated at present, as the running varieties 
 require tall sticks, which add considerably to 
 the expense , of cultivation. But of all the 
 varieties none exceed the scarlet runners in 
 point of agreeable flavour and tenderness ; 
 they are also the most productive, and afford 
 a succession of pods until checked by the 
 frost. It is rather remarkable, that although 
 this variety has been cultivated in England 
 since 1633, yet there still exists a prejudice 
 against these beans ; some, on account of 
 their size, consider them old. The author re- 
 members their being planted in many parts 
 of the country, merely as an ornament to 
 cover walls and to form arbours, without an 
 idea of cooking the pods for the table. 
 
 The French carried this prejudice to an 
 extent equal to the superstition of the an- 
 cients respecting the bean, Faba. Some years 
 back a lady of our acquaintance took some 
 seeds of the scarlet runners to Jamaica, and 
 by planting them in her garden on the moun- 
 tains, they were brought to tolerable perfec- 
 tion ; but her gardener, who was an old 
 
BEAN. 77 
 
 Frenchman, would not by any persuasion 
 allow them to be eaten, on account of the 
 scarlet or blood colour of the blossom. The 
 family thought it more prudent to deprive 
 themselves of the promised delicacy than to 
 lose a valuable servant, whose superstition 
 prohibited him from serving a master who 
 could eat a vegetable producing (as he styled 
 it) a bloody flower. 
 
 The dwarf kidney-bean being easily forced 
 in a hot-bed, and growing freely in the house, 
 now forms an important and profitable article 
 to the market-gardener, and enables the ve- 
 getable epicurean to indulge his appetite 
 with these beans nearly throughout the whole 
 year. It is one of the least hurtful luxuries 
 of the table ; and nothing adds more to the 
 elegant arrangement of a dinner than early 
 and rare vegetables. 
 
 Kidney-beans are preserved in salt for 
 winter-use, and the young pods of the scarlet 
 runners make an excellent pickle. 
 
 The white kind are used in the ripe and 
 dry state by foreign cooks in their haricots, 
 particularly in the neighbourhood of Rome, 
 where its cultivation forms an important ar- 
 ticle, the seed affording great part of their 
 
78 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Lent food, in the shape of haricot, fageoli, 
 and caravansas. 
 
 The seed of the large kidney-bean, five 
 haricot, sliced and stewed in milk, is a fre- 
 quent dish at the farm-houses in Flanders. 
 
19 
 
 BEET.— BETA. 
 
 Natural order, Holorai. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Digynia class. 
 
 It takes its name from the shape of its 
 seed vessel, which, when it swells with seed, 
 has the form of the letter so called in the 
 Greek alphabet. 
 
 It appears to be a native of Sicily, as the 
 Greeks, according to Pliny, had as well as 
 the black, a white beet, which also they 
 called Sicilian beet. 
 
 The Grecians held this root in great esteem, 
 as it was their custom to offer it, on silver, to 
 Apollo in his temple at Delphos. They used 
 also to cut the leaves in preference to lettuce, 
 and observed the method of laying a small 
 weight on the plant, to make it cabbage. 
 
 Pliny says, of all garden herbs, beets are 
 the lightest roots; that they are eaten (as 
 well as the leaves) with lentils and beans, 
 and the best way to eat them is with mustard, 
 
80 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 &c, to give a taste to their dull flatness. 
 The seed, says this author, has a strange and 
 wonderful quality above the rest, for it will 
 not all come up in one year, but some in the 
 first, others in the second, and the rest in 
 the third year. 
 
 The Roman physicians held the roots more 
 hurtful than the leaves. 
 
 The beet was first cultivated in this 
 country in the year 1548, a period when 
 many valuable plants were introduced, to 
 gratify a luxurious monarch. Cicla, the white 
 variety, was brought to England from Portu- 
 gal, in 1570. It is observed, that the larger 
 the roots grow, the more tender they will be; 
 and the deeper their colour, the more they 
 are esteemed. The roots of the beet are 
 either baked or boiled, and eaten with salad; 
 they also make an agreeable pickle. They 
 are said, however, to be prejudicial to the 
 stomach, and to afford little nourishment. 
 The juice both of the roots and leaves is 
 said to be a powerful errhine, occasioning a 
 copious discharge of mucus, and thereby 
 greatly relieving the head-ache. 
 
 From the roots of this plant, sugar has 
 been extracted; by boiling them when taken j 
 out of the earth, slicing them when cold, 
 
BEET. 81 
 
 and afterwards pressing out the juice, which 
 is filtered, evaporated, and the sugar procured 
 by crystallization. The process at length, 
 may be found in the New Annual Register 
 for 1800, and in the 18th volume of the 
 Transactions of the Society for the Encou- 
 ragement of Arts, &c. in London. 
 
 The most successful manufacturer of sugar 
 from the beet-root was M. Achard of Berlin, 
 who pursued the process altogether in a large 
 way, and so satisfactorily, that a reward was 
 bestowed upon him by the Prussian govern- 
 ment for his elaborate experiments. It was 
 expected that this process would enable 
 Europe to supply itself with sugar from its 
 own soil, and to be no longer dependent on 
 the West Indies ; but this project was for 
 many years relinquished, until necessity com- 
 pelled the French to renew it, when Napo- 
 leon adopted the policy of prohibiting the 
 importation of all colonial produce. The 
 French government then gave large premiums 
 to the greatest growers of beet, and encou- 
 raged the making sugar from this root, and 
 in which they succeeded so far as to obtain a 
 good sugar; but it was done at an expense 
 that could only insure its duration so long as 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 his power could prevent the introduction of 
 foreign sugar, which could be sold at more 
 moderate prices. 
 
 The beet is one of the five emollient herbs, 
 but the root is more frequently used to gar- 
 nish dishes, than for any medicinal purpose. 
 
83 
 
 BORAGE.— BORAGO. 
 
 Natural order, Asperifolice. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Monogynia class. 
 
 The name is derived from cor and ago, on 
 account of its supposed cordial qualities. 
 
 According to Pliny, the ancient Romans 
 called it Buglossus, from the Greek EuyAwo-aos, 
 because the leaf is like an ox-tongue. It 
 was also called Euphrosynon ; for when put 
 into a cup of wine, it made those who 
 drank of it merry. 
 
 It is said to have been originally brought 
 from Aleppo ; but it grows so freely in this 
 country, that many authors deem it an indi- 
 genous plant. Parkinson states, that it 
 grew in Kent. 
 
 The whole herb is succulent and very 
 mucilaginous, having a peculiarly faint smell 
 when bruised. Its flowers are of the number 
 of the four cordial ones of the shops, and it 
 has been recommended as a medicine of great 
 efficacy in malignant and pestilential fevers, 
 
 G Z 
 
84 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 and against the bite of poisonous animals. 
 It has always been esteemed as an excellent 
 cooling cordial in all febrile cases ; and may 
 be justly regarded as a proper simple to be 
 used in an over-heated state of the blood : it 
 is generally administered in decoctions and 
 infusions with other cooling medicines. 
 
 Coles, and M. Valmont Bomare, say, these 
 flowers have no virtue when dry, therefore it 
 is better, in the winter, to use the roots, 
 which, being fresh, possess all the qualities 
 of the blossoms. 
 
 Water distilled from both the leaves and 
 flowers of this plant, has been formerly kept 
 in the shops, as well as a conserve of the 
 blossoms ; but these are very little regarded in 
 modern practice, especially in England, where 
 most diseases (says Brown) proceed rather 
 from inaction and the viscidity of the juices. 
 
 By the experiments of M. Margraaf, in 
 1747, it appears, that the juice of this plant 
 affords a true nitre. The clarified juice of 
 borage evaporated by a water-bath, in a con- 
 sistency of thick honey, becomes saponaceous, 
 and will dissolve in part in spirit of wine. 
 The juice of the borage, distilled at a naked 
 fire, bloats itself out considerably, and yields 
 an insipid phlegm, which is soon followed by 
 
BORAGE. 85 
 
 an alkaline volatile spirit, very penetrating, and 
 then an empyreumatic, fetid, and heavy oil ; 
 there remains a very light coal, which is re- 
 duced with some difficulty into ashes. These 
 give an alkali, such as the most part of vege- 
 tables furnish : the coal itself, before the 
 incineration, furnishes a great deal of nitre, 
 some little marine salt, and an alkaline salt 
 of a deliquescent nature. M. Bucquet says, 
 it is clear, that of all these principles, the 
 juice of the borage contains only the phlegm, 
 the oily part, the nitre, the marine salt, the 
 fixed alkali, and the earthy part. As to the 
 volatile alkali, it is the produce of the fire, 
 which has formed it at the expense of the 
 fixed alkali, and of the oil ; because this pro- 
 duce, though very volatile, only passes after 
 the phlegm, and when the decomposition is 
 already advanced ; for, operate how you may 
 to separate the salts contained in the borage, 
 you will never find volatile alkali. 
 ' This plant divides thick and vulgar hu- 
 mours, attenuates the blood, re-establishes 
 secretions, and excretions, and is useful in all 
 illnesses where it is essential to avoid hot 
 remedies ; as in pleurisy, peripneumony, &c. 
 It is esteemed diuretic, emollient, and ex- 
 pectorant. 
 
86 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Lord Bacon observes, that "the leaf of 
 the borage hath an excellent spirit, to re- 
 press the fuliginous vapour of dusky melan- 
 choly, and so to cure madness : But never- 
 theless, if the leaf be infused long, it yieldeth 
 forth but a raw substance, of no virtue ; but 
 if the borage stay a small time, and be often 
 changed with fresh, it will make a sovereign 
 drink for melancholy passions." 
 
 There is an old verse on this plant, which 
 says, 
 
 " Ego Borago gaudia semper ago/' 
 
 which has been thus paraphrased : 
 
 " I Borage bring courage." 
 
 Gerard informs us, that in Queen Eliza- 
 beth's time, both the leaves and flowers of 
 this plant were eaten in salad, " to exhila- 
 rate and make the mind glad." There is, says 
 he, also many things made of them ; " vsed 
 euerywhere for the comfort of the heart, for 
 the driuing away of sorrowe, and increasing 
 the joie of the mind. Sirrupe made of 
 the flowers of borage, comforteth the heart, 
 purgeth melancholie, quieteth the phrenticke 
 or lunaticke person. The leaves eaten raw 
 do ingender good bloode, and when boiled 
 in honey and water, they cure hoarseness." 
 
BORAGE. 87 
 
 With all the advantages which this herb 
 is said to possess, it is now nearly neglected, 
 and but seldom used in England either in 
 salads or as a pot-herb ; it is principally cul- 
 tivated in our gardens to make cool tankards, 
 which are a pleasant and wholesome summer 
 drink. 
 
88 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 BURNET.— POTERIUM. 
 
 Natural order, Miscellanece. A genus of the 
 Monozcia Polyandria class. 
 
 The ancient name of this plant cannot 
 be fixed with any degree of certainty ; but 
 it is thought by the best etymological 
 herbalists, that we have been able to consult, 
 that it is the plant which the Greeks 
 called UifjoriveM, and that it is likewise 
 the Sideritis Secunda of Dioscorides. It has 
 been called in Latin, Pimpinella, Pempinula, 
 and Peponella, from the likeness of the 
 scent to that of melons or pompions ; while 
 others give the same name to some species 
 of saxifrage. Old medical writers called it 
 Sorbastrella and Sanguinaria, but mostly 
 Sanguisorba, quod sanguineos fluxus sistat, 
 as it was supposed to stop fluxes of blood. 
 Some of the ancient botanists called it 
 Bipinella or Bipenida, from the leaves being 
 placed opposite each other like wings. 
 
 The origin of the English name must be 
 
BURNET. 89 
 
 left to conjecture ; the oblong spike of 
 its flowers forms, in some degree, a miniature 
 resemblance of the bur of the dock ; and from 
 thence it may probably have been derived. 
 
 The common burnet, Poteriwn Sanguisorba, 
 is an indigenous perennial plant of England, 
 and is found growing on chalky lands and 
 heathy commons. We find it was cultivated 
 in our gardens as long back as we can trace 
 any other herb or vegetable with certainty. 
 Gerard says, " it is pleasant to be eaten in 
 sallads, in which it is thought to make the 
 heart merry and glad, as also being put into 
 wine, to which it yeeldeth a certaine grace in 
 the drinking." 
 
 Our forefathers seem to have been as 
 anxious to have herbs added to their wine, 
 as the present generation are desirous to 
 obtain it pure. 
 
 Coles says, (in 1657,) " Burnet is a friend 
 to the heart, liver, and other principall parts 
 of a man's body : two or three of the stalks 
 with leaves put into a cup of wine, espe- 
 cially French wine, as all know, give a won- 
 derful fine relish to it, and besides is a great 
 means to quicken the spirits, refresh the 
 heart, and make it merry, driving away 
 melancholy.' ' 
 
90 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 It is still accounted cordial and sudorific, 
 and on that account is often put into cool 
 tankards. 
 
 We have now several species and many 
 varieties of burnet in our botanical gardens; 
 but it is seldom used for culinary purposes. 
 
 
91 
 
 CABBAGE.— BRASSICA. 
 
 Natural order, Cruciferce. A genus of the 
 Tetr adynamia Siliquosa class. 
 
 Theophrastus and the earlier Greek au- 
 thors called this vegetable 'Pctqxzvo?, Raphanus, 
 from the seed bearing a resemblance to that of 
 the radish. It was named by later writers 
 Kfa//tCtf, and attice, Kopx^n, or Koja//,£A>?, as 
 it was thought to injure the eye-sight, which 
 is signified by Columella in these words, oculis 
 inimica Coramble ; but he afterwards contra- 
 dicts himself, and states that it is good for 
 dim eyes. 
 
 The Roman name, Brassica, came, as is 
 supposed, from prceseco, because it was cut off 
 from the stalk : it was also called Caulis in 
 Latin, on account of the goodness of its stalks, 
 and from which the English name Cole, Col- 
 wort, or Colewort, is derived. The word Cab- 
 bage, by which all the varieties of this plant 
 are now improperly called, means the firm 
 head or ball that is formed by the leaves turn- 
 
92 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 ing close over each other; from that circum- 
 stance we say the cole has cabbaged, the lettuce 
 has cabbaged, or the tailor has cabbaged. 
 
 " Your tailor, instead of shreds, cabbages 
 whole yards of cloth*." 
 
 From thence arose the cant word applied 
 to tailors, who formerly worked at the private 
 houses of their customers, where they were 
 often accused of cabbaging; which means the 
 rolling up pieces of cloth, instead of the list 
 and shreds, which they claim as their due. 
 
 The Greeks held the cabbage in great 
 esteem, and their fables deduce its origin 
 from the father of their gods; for they inform 
 us, that Jupiter labouring to explain two ora- 
 cles which contradicted each other, perspired, 
 and from this divine perspiration the cole- 
 wort sprang. 
 
 The inference to be drawn from this fable 
 is, that they considered it a plant which had 
 been brought to its state of perfection by 
 cultivation and the sweat of the brow. 
 
 The most ancient Greek authors mention 
 three kinds of cole, the crisped or ruffed, 
 which they called Selinas or Selinoides, from its 
 
 # Arbuthnot's History of John Bull. 
 
CABBAGE. 93 
 
 resemblance to parsley; the second was called 
 Lea, and the third Corambe *. 
 
 This vegetable was so highly regarded by 
 the ancients, that Chrysippus and Dieuches, 
 two physicians, each wrote books on the pro- 
 perties of this plant, as well as Pythagoras 
 and Cato, the latter of whom in later times 
 amply set forth the praises of this pot-herb. 
 
 It is related, that the ancient Romans, 
 having expelled physicians out of their terri- 
 tories, preserved their health for six hundred 
 years, and soothed their infirmities by using 
 and applying this vegetable as their only me- 
 dicine in every disease. 
 
 The verse of Columella informs us that he 
 considered it a universal pot-herb. 
 
 u That herb, which o'er the whole terrestrial globe 
 Doth flourish, and in great abundance yields 
 To low plebeian, and the haughty king, 
 In winter, cabbage ; and green sprouts in spring/' 
 
 Pliny, in speaking of the spring sprouts of 
 cole, says, " Pleasant and sweet as these crops 
 were thought by other men, yet Apicius (that 
 notable glutton) loathed them, and by his 
 example Drusus Caesar held them in no 
 
 # Plin. book xx. c. 19. 
 
94 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 esteem, but thought them a base and homely 
 food; for which nice and dainty tooth of his," 
 says this author, " he was well checked and 
 stented by his father, Tiberius the emperor. 
 I dwell long on this vegetable," says Pliny, 
 " because it is in so great request in the 
 kitchen and among our riotous gluttons." 
 
 We find that the Greeks as well as the 
 Romans esteemed it good to be eaten raw, to 
 prevent the effects of excessive indulgence 
 in wine : it was also thought to clear the 
 brains of the intoxicated, and make them 
 sober. 
 
 It is observed by Pliny, that as coleworts 
 may be cut at all times of the year for our 
 use, so may they be sown and set all the year 
 through ; and yet, says this author, the most 
 appropriate season is after the autumnal equi- 
 nox. He adds, after the first cutting, they 
 yield abundance of delicate tops ; so there is 
 no herb in that regard so productive, until, 
 in the end, its own fertility produces its death. 
 We learn from this naturalist their manner of 
 cultivating them, as well as from whence the 
 Romans obtained these useful plants. Many 
 of the ancients, when they transplanted coles, 
 put sea-weeds under the roots, or else nitre 
 powdered, as much as they could take up 
 
CABBAGE. Q5 
 
 with three fingers, imagining that they would 
 the sooner come to maturity ; others threw 
 trefoil and nitre mixed upon the leaves for 
 the same purpose \ it was also thought to 
 make them boil green. 
 
 Cabbage will not, at the present day, 
 bring a price to enable the grow T er to use 
 nitre; but we have often been surprised that 
 sea- weed should not have been more used on 
 the coast as a garden manure, when the ad- 
 vantage of the saline particles is so generally 
 acknowledged. 
 
 The ancients manured their land with 
 asses dung, where they intended to plant coles. 
 " If you would have very fine coleworts, 
 both for sweet taste and for great cabbage," 
 observes Pliny, " first let the seed be sown in 
 ground thoroughly digged more than once 
 or twice, and well manured ; secondly, you 
 must cut off the tender spring and young 
 stalks that seem to put out far from the 
 ground, and such as run too high ; thirdly, you 
 must raise mould or manure up to them, so 
 that there may be no more above the ground 
 than the very top :" these kinds of coles, he 
 says, are justly called Tritiana, for the three- 
 fold care about them. "There are," continues 
 he, " many kinds of coleworts in Rome, such 
 
96 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 as that of Cumes, which bears leaves spread- 
 ing flat along the ground, and opening in 
 the head ; those of Aricia are tall, and send 
 forth numerous buds. The colewort Pompe- 
 ianum, so called from the town Pompeii, 
 also grows high, and sends out many tender 
 sprouts." The coles of Bruzze, or Calabria, 
 like the winter best, and are nourished by 
 the hard season ; their leaves are described 
 as being very large, their stalks small, and 
 their taste acrid. The Sabellian coles, with 
 curled and ruffed leaves, are mentioned as 
 having a small stem, which supports heads 
 of a wonderful size: these were reputed the 
 sweetest. 
 
 " It is not long," says the same author, 
 " since we have procured a kind of cabbage- 
 cole from the vale of Aricia with an exceed- 
 ingly great head and an infinite number of 
 leaves, which gather round and close toge- 
 ther." These he calls Lacuturres, from the 
 place whence they came ; he adds, there are 
 some coles, which stretch out into a round 
 shape, others extend in breadth, and are 
 very full of fleshy brawns ; some are described 
 as bearing a head twelve inches thick, and 
 yet it was observed, that none put forth more 
 tender buds than these. It was noticed that 
 
CABBAGE. 97 
 
 all the varieties eat sweeter for being touched 
 with the frost. With all the veneration 
 we have for the great naturalist of Rome, 
 we cannot agree with him when he states, 
 that the seeds of a very old cabbage will 
 produce turnips, and that the seeds also of 
 an old turnip will produce coleworts.* The 
 Romans were not aware that plants so 
 nearly affined would mix their species by 
 impregnation, and produce mongrel plants. 
 This was unfortunately not known in England 
 until it had ruined and broke the heart of 
 poor Ball, the Brentford gardener ; for which 
 see Pomarium Britannicum.-jf 
 
 We find that the Romans planted the 
 sprouts as well as the young plants. Colu- 
 mella tells us that the latter should be re- 
 moved when they have attained six leaves. 
 The ancients often steeped them in oil and 
 salt before they put them over the fire to 
 boil; and it was observed by them, that if 
 any brass pot or kettle was ever so much 
 furred, and however hard to get off, if a 
 cabbage was boiled in it, the fur would peel 
 from the sides without difficulty. 
 
 It is also related that a physician, having 
 
 # Book xix. chap. 10. t P. 373. 
 
 VOL. I. II 
 
98 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 a mess of coleworts upon his table before 
 him, and being suddenly sent for to visit a 
 patient, he covered, at his departure, his 
 dish with another, and found it at his return 
 bedewed with moisture : observing from this 
 circumstance, that the extraction of humidi- 
 ty was very easy, he bent his study so far 
 that way, as to give being to the art of dis- 
 tillation. 
 
 The ancients were firmly persuaded that 
 there was a sympathy in plants, as well as in 
 animals. "The vine, says one of their authors, 
 by a secret antipathy in nature, especially 
 avoids the cabbage, if it has room to decline 
 from it ; but in case it cannot shift away, it 
 dies for very grief." Pliny* says, the cole- 
 worts and the vine have so mortal a hatred 
 to each other, that if a vine stand near a 
 colewort, it will be sensibly perceived that 
 the vine shrinks away from it ; and yet this 
 wort, which causes the vine thus to retire 
 and die, if it chance to grow near origan, 
 margiram, or cyclamen sowbread, will soon 
 wither and die in its turn. The cause is 
 evident, for where two plants are neighboured 
 that require the same juices to support them, 
 
 # Book xxiv. chap. 1. 
 
CABBAGE. 99 
 
 the weaker must give way to the one that 
 has the greater power to suck up the nutri- 
 tious moisture. 
 
 Ancient authors have handed down to us 
 the various uses, which they made of this 
 plant in medicine, some of which we notice 
 as a matter of curiosity, more than with a view 
 of recommending these experiments. 
 
 The Greeks, as well as the Romans, used 
 the juice of coleworts with honey as an eye- 
 salve; they also made a liniment of this 
 plant, which was used to assuage the swellings 
 of the glands, as also for the hard swellings of 
 women's breasts. A liniment was also made 
 of cabbage and brimstone, which was used 
 to bring bruises to their natural colour, or 
 prevent their turning black. 
 
 Philistian recommended the juice with 
 goats' milk, salt, and honey, for the cramp, 
 or stiff necks. 
 
 Apollodorus says, that either the seed or 
 the juice of this plant, taken in drink, is a 
 good remedy for those who have eaten 
 poisonous mushrooms. 
 
 Hippocrates recommended this vegetable 
 to mothers who were nurses. 
 
 Cato advises coleworts to be stamped 
 raw with vinegar, honey, rue, mint, and the 
 
 H 2 
 
100 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 roots of laser, as a cure for the head-ache, 
 and many other complaints, not even omit- 
 ting the gout. 
 
 Erasistratus, and all his school, resounded 
 again (says Pliny) with the praises of cole- 
 wort, and averred, that there was nothing in 
 the world better for the stomach, and nothing 
 more wholesome for the sinews ; they, there- 
 fore, prescribed it for the palsy, and all 
 tremblings of the limbs, and those that retch 
 up blood. 
 
 It was observed by the ancients, that this 
 vegetable was light of digestion, and that it 
 clarified all the senses, when ordinarily eaten. 
 
 Gerard is the oldest English author who 
 has written fully on this useful vegetable ; 
 he mentions the white cabbage cole, the red 
 cabbage cole, the curled garden cole: the 
 Savoie cole is, he says, numbered among the 
 headed coleworts or cabbages : he notices the 
 curdled Savoy, but says the " Swolen cole- 
 wort of all others is the strangest, and which 
 I received from a worshipfull marchant of 
 London, Master Nicholas Lete, who brought 
 the seed out of France ; who is greatly in 
 love with rare and faire flowers and plants; 
 for which he doth carefully send into Syria, 
 having a servant there at Alepo, and in many 
 
CABBAGE. 101 
 
 other countries ; for the which myself and 
 likewise the whole lande are much bound 
 vnto." The same author says, " Rape cole 
 is another variety ; they were called in Latin 
 Caulo-rapum and Rapo-caulis, participating of 
 two plants, the coleworts and turnips, from 
 whence they derive their name. They grow 
 in Italy, Spain, and some places in Germanie, 
 from whence I have received seeds for my 
 garden." " They must," says he, " be care- 
 fully set and sowen as musk melons and 
 cucumbers." 
 
 This variety has now become one of our 
 hardiest field plants. 
 
 The principal cabbages now cultivated in 
 this country are, the early Battersea, early 
 Dwarf, early York, imperial Penton, Sugar- 
 loaf, Drum-head, red Dutch, purple Turnip, 
 Savoy, green Savoy, and yellow Savoy. The 
 German cabbage is grown to so great a size 
 in Holland, that a single head often weighs 
 forty pounds, and remains perfectly sweet 
 and tender. 
 
 CAULIFLOWER.— BRASSICA FLORIDA. 
 
 This plant was first called Cole florie and 
 Colieflorie, and is said to have been derived 
 
102 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 from caulis a stalk, and fero to bear. Gerard 
 says, " The white cabbage is best next to 
 the cole flourey ; yet Cato doth chiefly com- 
 mend the russed cole, but he knew neither 
 the whites, nor the cole flourey, for if he 
 had, his censure had been otherwise." But 
 we find it noticed by the Roman herbalist of 
 later days, who observes, that of all kinds of 
 coleworts, the sweetest and pleasantest to 
 the taste is the cole florie, although of no 
 value in medicine, and unwholesome, as 
 being hard of digestion, and an enemy to 
 the kidneys. 
 
 Pierre Pompes says, cauliflower " comes to 
 us in Paris, by way of Marseilles, from the 
 Isle of Cyprus, which is the only place I know 
 of where it seeds." From this account it 
 would appear, that cauliflowers were not 
 much cultivated in France in 1694, when his 
 work was published ; and the French have 
 at present no distinct name for this vegetable, 
 but call it Choufleur, viz. cabbage flower. 
 
 Cauliflowers are now cultivated in this 
 country with such care and success, that they 
 exceed, in goodness and magnitude, all in 
 Europe. Our gardeners furnish us with an 
 early and a late variety, both of which are 
 much esteemed at table, either plain boiled 
 
CABUAGE. 1()3 
 
 and served with meat, or when dressed with 
 sauce after the French fashion. It also makes 
 a favourite pickle. 
 
 BROCOLI.-BRASS1CA BOTRYTIS C YiVIOSA. 
 
 This plant appears to \)e an accidental 
 mixture of the common cabbage and the 
 cauliflower ; and it is said, that it grows in no 
 part of the world to such perfection, as in 
 the neighbourhood of Portsmouth. Our va- 
 rieties of this vegetable are, the Cape, early 
 purple, late purple, early white, late white, 
 and the Siberian. Brocoli occupies a large 
 space in the garden, where it requires near a 
 year to perfect its heads ; but repays us for 
 the time and space by its early arrival in the 
 spring. 
 
 SEA-KALE.— CORAMBLE MARITIMA. 
 
 " Now let sea cabbage also come, 
 
 Though, to the eyes a foe, it blunts the sight." 
 
 Columella. 
 
 Kale, or agreeably to our oldest writers, 
 Sea Colewort, is an excellent vegetable, indi- 
 genous to our southern shores. 
 
104 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Valmount Bomare, calls it Chou Marin 
 sauvage d'Angleterre. 
 
 Gerard observes, in his Herbal, that 
 " The sea colewort groweth naturally vpon 
 the bayche and brimmes of the sea, where 
 there is no earth to be seene, but sand and 
 rowling pebble stones. I found it growing 
 between Whystable and the Isle of Thanet, 
 neere the brincke of the sea ; and in many 
 places neare to Colchester, and elsewhere by 
 the sea-side/' 
 
 It is often found, at the present time, 
 growing out of the crevices of our highest 
 cliffs, and this is observed to be the most 
 delicate ; but it is only procured with the 
 greatest danger, by boys who let themselves 
 down by means of a rope, which is lowered 
 or shifted by others standing on the top, the 
 very sight of which makes the most indif- 
 ferent observer tremble, while it excites the 
 wonder of others, that so great a risk should 
 be ventured for so small a reward as a dish 
 of this marine vegetable. 
 
 Sea kale is now cultivated in all good 
 gardens, and forms a profitable article with 
 market-gardeners ; as, when forced, it meets 
 a ready sale, and bears a high price in the 
 metropolis. 
 
CABBAGE. 105 
 
 It appears, that the Romans had not at- 
 tempted to raise this vegetable in their gar- 
 dens in the time of Pliny, who calls it Hal- 
 myridia, and says it grows only on the sea- 
 coast. He observes, provision is made of them 
 to serve in long voyages at sea, for as soon as 
 they are cut up, they are put into barrels 
 where oil has lately been kept, and then 
 stopped up close, that no air come to them. 
 
 The different opinions as to the qualities 
 of cabbage in general, are as various as the 
 authors are numerous ; we notice these con- 
 tradictory opinions without falling into the 
 enthusiasm of one party, or the prejudice of 
 others, as experience teaches us, that the 
 same vegetable diet which affords medicine 
 to one constitution, may be venomous to an- 
 other, and that to preserve our health, we 
 should change our diet with our habits, as 
 we change our garments with the seasons. 
 
 All the species of cabbage are now gene- 
 rally supposed to be hard of digestion, to 
 afford little nourishment, and to produce 
 flatulencies. They tend strongly to putre- 
 faction, and run into this state sooner than 
 almost any other vegetable ; when putrefied, 
 their smell is likewise the most offensive, 
 
106 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 greatly resembling that of putrid animal sub- 
 stance. They are now out of use as medi- 
 cine, although so much recommended by 
 ancient writers. Etmuller says, they have 
 much nitre in their composition, which makes 
 them diuretic. The authors of the Schola 
 Salernitana make them of very different qua- 
 lities ; and will have them both to astringe 
 and relax the bowels ; and say also, they 
 prevent the intoxication occasioned by spi- 
 ritous liquors. 
 
 Bartholine extols cabbage in these words : 
 " The common cabbage of the country peo- 
 ple is justly preferable to other pot-herbs, 
 since, both raw and boiled, it is possessed of 
 such salutary qualities, as to prevent occasion 
 for the medicines used in the shops. For 
 this reason, when a certain foreign physician 
 came into Denmark with a design to settle, 
 and saw the gardens of the country people 
 so well stocked with cabbage, he, with good 
 reason, prognosticated small encouragement 
 for himself in that part of the world. It 
 keeps the stomach in an easy and soluble 
 state ; and a decoction of the tops of its ten- 
 der shoots discharges such an incredible 
 quantity of bile and phlegm, that no medi- 
 cine proves a quicker, a safer, or a more effi- 
 
CABBAGE. 10/ 
 
 cacious purge, hellebore and scammony not 
 excepted."* 
 
 Hoffman says, the common red cabbage is 
 evidently possessed of a medical quality ; 
 and abounds with a juice, which, by its ni- 
 trous, sweet, emollient, laxative, aperitive, 
 attenuating, and stimulating qualities, pro- 
 motes those excretions which are absolutely 
 necessary to the preservation of health. For 
 this, it is not only a preservative against 
 diseases, especially of the chronical kind, but 
 also contributes very considerably to their 
 cure. 
 
 The juice of cabbage is of such a nature, 
 says Dr. James, as not only to afford a suffi- 
 cient supply of nourishment to the body, 
 but also to correct the acrid salts of the 
 juices, allay the acrimony of the blood, 
 cleanse the intestines, and scour the kidneys. 
 For this reason cabbage is highly salutary 
 in disorders of the breast, if baked in a close 
 vessel in an oven, adding sugar or honey to 
 it, after it is taken out ; for by this means 
 it will, in the space of half an hour, become 
 a jelly, or thick juice, which, used as a lamba- 
 tive, is of singular efficacy in dry coughs, &c. 
 
 # Lib. de Medicina Danorum Domest. Dissert. 1. 
 
I 
 
 108 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. J 
 
 A decoction of cabbage, with an addition 
 of raisins, was formerly much used by preach- 
 ers and pleaders, in hoarseness, and defects 
 of voice, arising from too long speaking. 
 
 The juice of cabbage is said to be a lax- 
 ative, and the substance an astringent: hence 
 the proverb in the school of Salerno : 
 
 " Jus caulis solvit, cujus substantia stringit." 
 
 The Dutch and the Germans make great 
 use of cabbage; and in Berne, there is scarcely 
 an inhabitant who does not eat of it at least 
 once every day. 
 
 In this country it is brought to table plain 
 boiled, or stewed with beef, also fried with 
 beef, and it is one of the vegetables that 
 form our spring soup. Force meagre cabbage 
 is an excellent dish, and both the red and 
 the white make a good pickle. 
 
 Dr. R. James says, cabbage is agreeable 
 to the stomach, if it be eaten slightly boiled; 
 for after thorough boiling it binds, and much 
 more so if twice boiled. We cannot here 
 pass over the advice of Bruyerinus, respect- 
 ing the preparing cabbage for the table. " I 
 must," says he, " expose an error, which is 
 no less common than pernicious, in preparing 
 cabbage. Most people, in consequence of 
 
CABBAGE. 109 
 
 the ignorance of their cooks, eat it after it 
 has been long boiled, a circumstance which 
 does not a little diminish both its grateful 
 taste and salutary qualities. But I observe, 
 that those who have a more polite and ele- 
 gant turn, order their cabbage to be slightly 
 boiled, put into dishes, and seasoned with 
 salt and oil; by which method they assume a 
 beautiful green colour, become grateful to 
 the taste, and proper for keeping the body 
 soluble. This circumstance ought not to be 
 forgot by those who are lovers of cabbage." 
 
 The ancients boiled their cabbage with 
 nitre, which rendered it at once more grate- 
 ful to the palate, and more agreeable to the 
 eye. 
 
 The summer cabbage is said to be more 
 acrimonious and hurtful to the stomach, 
 than that which is eaten in the winter. 
 The use of this vegetable in food has been 
 affirmed by some authors, to be good for 
 dulness of sight, and tremblings of the 
 limbs. 
 
 Simon Pauli tells us, that he knew a young 
 girl, who, in the space of fourteen days, had 
 an incredible number of warts taken off one 
 of her hands, by anointing them with the 
 juice of cabbage, which was allowed to dry 
 on them. 
 
110 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 From the nature of the organization of 
 these plants, and the diversity of powers 
 they possess, to receive nourishment in 
 the superabundance which high cultivation 
 affords them, they undergo more rapid 
 changes than most plants ; this is particularly 
 observable in the species called cauliflower, 
 which often in a few days branches from the 
 principal stalk, with such force and numbers, 
 as to form a solid head of snowy tender 
 buds, which are afterwards forced to a consi- 
 derable height before the blossoms open. 
 
 In the Economicfal Journal of France, the 
 following method of guarding cabbages from 
 the depradation of caterpillars, is stated to 
 be infallible; and may, perhaps, be equally 
 serviceable against those which infect other 
 vegetables. 
 
 Sow a belt of hemp-seed round the borders 
 of the ground where the cabbages are planted, 
 and although the neighbourhood be infected 
 with caterpillars, the space inclosed by the 
 hemp will be perfectly free, and not one 
 of these vermin will approach it. 
 
 We have known brocoli preserved from 
 the injury of the severest winters, by being 
 taken out of the ground late in the autumn, 
 and replanted in a slanting direction. This 
 experiment was made in the year 1819, with 
 
CABBAGE. Ill 
 
 such success, that they all flowered in the fol- 
 lowing spring, although there was scarcely a 
 single head out in all the extensive planta- 
 tions at Fulham, that survived the incle- 
 mency of that winter. 
 
112 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 CAPER BUSH.— CAPPARIS. 
 
 Natural order, Putaminece. A genus of the 
 Polyandria Monogynia class. 
 
 This shrub, or bush, the flower-buds of 
 which, when pickled, form such an agreeable 
 sauce to our boiled mutton, is not a native of 
 Europe, being originally brought out of 
 Egypt. Theophrastus, who wrote about 300 
 years before the birth of Christ, was of an 
 opinion, that the caper bush was of so wild 
 a nature as not to bear cultivation. Pliny, 
 in after-ages, entertained the same idea re- 
 specting the citrus tree, and says it will not 
 live out of its native country. The Roman 
 naturalist as little thought that his native 
 valleys would be covered with the fragrant 
 orange, as the Lesbian philosopher expected 
 the ruins of the temples would be overrun by 
 the trailings of the caper bush. This plant 
 seems to have sprung from a dry sandy soil ; 
 and since its migration into Europe has fixed 
 
CAPERS. 1 13 
 
 itself in old walls and the fissures of rocks, 
 generally taking a horizontal direction. 
 
 Pliny directs the seeds to be sown in san- 
 dy ground, and that a bank of stone- work 
 should be raised for it to spread on : he says, 
 those who eat capers daily, need not fear the 
 palsy or the spleen. The Romans used the 
 root, when bruised, to take off the marks of 
 the leprosy, and to remove glandular swell- 
 ings ; the seeds pounded in vinegar were an 
 esteemed remedy for the tooth-ache. Pliny 
 cautions his countrymen to beware how they 
 eat foreign capers, excepting those of Egypt, 
 as he says those of Arabia are poisonous, 
 that the African capers are hurtful to the 
 gums, and those which are grown in Apulia 
 cause sickness, and injure the stomach.* 
 
 Dodoens says, the capers that grow in 
 Africa, Arabia, Libya, and other hot coun- 
 tries, are apt to cause ulcers in the mouth, 
 and that they consume and eat away the 
 flesh even to the bone ; but, he adds, those of 
 Spain and Italy are not so strong, and when 
 brought to us preserved in salt and water, 
 being washed and eaten with vinegar, are 
 both meat and medicine, as they create 
 
 # Book xiii. c. 23, book xix. c. 8, and book xx. c, 15. 
 
 VOL. 1. ] 
 
114 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 appetite, although they give but little nou- 
 rishment. 
 
 Capers appear to have been eaten in 
 greater abundance in the time of Queen 
 Elizabeth than at present. Gerard says, 
 " They are eaten boiled, (the salt first 
 washed off,) with oile and vinegar, as other 
 sallads be, and somtimes are boiled with 
 meate." This author adds, " In these our 
 daies diuers vse to cherish the caper, and to 
 set it in dry and stony places : myselfe, at 
 the impression heereof, planted some seedes 
 in the brick wals of my garden, which as 
 yet (1597) doe spring and growe greene ; 
 the successe I expect." 
 
 In the garden of Camden House, at Ken- 
 sington, there was a remarkable fine caper 
 tree, which had endured the open air of this 
 climate for the greater part of a century, 
 and, though not within the reach of any ar- 
 tificial heat, produced flowers and fruit every 
 year. This has been termed a real curiosity, 
 and should induce the inhabitants of the 
 warmer parts of Devonshire, Sussex, and 
 Kent, to cultivate the caper bush, where they 
 have chalk-pits, cliffs, or old walls. 
 
 As the caper sauce is more familiar to us 
 at our tables, than the plant is in our gar- 
 
CAPERS. 115 
 
 dens, it may be remarked, that it is not a 
 capsule or seed, which is pickled ; but the 
 bud of the flower just before it is ready to 
 blossom, when the branches are stripped of 
 their buds and leaves, and afterwards sepa- 
 rated by passing through a sieve, when they 
 are dried in the shade, and then pickled 
 either in salt or vinegar, and brought to us 
 in barrels, principally from Italy and Toulon. 
 The small Majorca capers that are brought 
 in a salt pickle are esteemed by many per- 
 sons. Capers are considered an aperient 
 that excites appetite, and assists digestion ; 
 and they sometimes enter into compositions 
 for diseases of the spleen and liver. 
 
 Benivenius, De Abditis Morborum Causis, 
 chap. 105, informs us, that he cured a patient, 
 labouring under disorders of the spleen, only 
 by the use of capers, ordering him to drink 
 forge-water for a year ; after he had been 
 harassed with this distemper for seven years, 
 consulted many physicians, and tried many 
 remedies to no purpose. " Externally," says 
 Ettmuller, " the pickle of capers is applied 
 to the side, under the left hypochondrium, 
 with linen cloths, or a sponge, for discussing 
 swellings of the spleen. If to this mustard- 
 seed is added, that the vinegar may be im- 
 
 i2 
 
116 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 pregnated with its volatile salt, it is an excel- 
 lent remedy in disorders of the spleen." 
 
 The austere bitterish taste of capers suf- 
 ficiently convinces us of their astringent and 
 corroborating virtues ; and if we consider 
 the qualities they derive from the vinegar 
 and salt, we may easily conceive, that they 
 are of a resolvent and inciding nature : for 
 this reason, they are recommended as pickles 
 with food, in order to strengthen a languid 
 appetite ; and are principally beneficial to 
 those whose stomachs abound with gross 
 pituitous humours, or who have weak sto- 
 machs, and want a due appetite. They are 
 also good for obstructions of the viscera, espe- 
 cially those of the spleen; for the palsy, and 
 convulsions arising from a superfluity of 
 peccant humours. They are also highly re- 
 commended in long and chronical fevers. * 
 
 Laurentius Joubert recommends them in 
 the plague, seasoned with salt, gently boiled 
 in water, and eaten with vinegar ; " for," says 
 he, " they excite an appetite, and open ob- 
 structions, if there are any in the body." For 
 this reason they ought not only to be allowed 
 in pestilential cases, but also recommended 
 because they resist putrefaction. 
 
 * Prosp. Alpin. Hist. Nat. 
 
CAPERS. 117 
 
 According to Simeon Sethi, " Capers are 
 possessed of different qualities ; such as bit- 
 terness, by which they absterge, cleanse, 
 and incide ; acridness, by which they heat, 
 dissipate, and attenuate; and acidity, by 
 which they inspissate, and prove astringent." 
 
 We have procured four new species of this 
 plant from the West Indies ; but, as these na- 
 turally require the stove, we can only expect 
 from them the gratification of our curiosity, 
 in a sight of the living plants of the west- 
 ern world. 
 
118 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 GUINEA PEPPER.— CAPSICUM. 
 
 Natural order, Litridce. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Monogynia class. 
 
 The generic name of this plant is derived 
 from a Greek word, signifying to bite, on 
 account of the biting heat of its fruit ; some 
 take it from capsa, a chest. 
 
 This herbaceous plant was brought to 
 Europe by the Spaniards, and we have ac- 
 counts of its being cultivated in this country 
 as early as the reign of Edward the Sixth, 
 although it seldom ripens its pods with us 
 unaided by artificial heat ; for plants, like 
 men, have 
 
 " constitutions fitted for that spot 
 
 Where Providence, all wise, has fiVd their lot." 
 
 There are many varieties of the capsicum 
 in hot countries, where Nature has sported 
 so much in the form of the fruit, that it is 
 almost endless to trace the shapes and 
 figures which the different kinds assume. 
 They are principally distinguished by the 
 
GUINEA PEPPER. 119 
 
 size, colour, or shape of the pods, which 
 are hollow, and divided into two or three 
 cells, containing kidney-shaped, round, or 
 beaked smooth seeds. 
 
 From the rich and varied colour of the 
 fruit, this plant is cultivated among our 
 ornamental housed exotics ; but it is also 
 grown in considerable quantities by the 
 market gardeners for the supply of London, 
 where it is much used in pickles, seasonings, 
 and made-dishes, as both the capsula and 
 seeds of the whole tribe are full of a warm 
 acrid oil, the heat of which being im- 
 parted to the stomach is thought to pro- 
 mote digestion, assist the tonic motion of 
 the bowels, invigorate the blood, and correct 
 the flatulency of vegetable aliments. 
 
 " Capsicum has all the virtues of the Ori- 
 ental spices, without producing those com- 
 plaints of the head which they often oc- 
 casion. In food it prevents flatulency from 
 being caused by vegetables ; but its abuse 
 occasions visceral obstructions, especially of 
 the liver. In dropsical complaints, or others 
 where chalybeates are prescribed, a minute 
 portion of powdered capsicum is an excel- 
 lent addition. In lethargic affections, this 
 warm and active stimulant might be of ser- 
 
120 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 vice. In tropical fevers, a coma and deli- 
 rium are common attendants, and in such 
 cases, cataplasms of capsicum have a speedy 
 and happy effect ; they redden the parts, 
 but seldom blister unless kept too long. 
 In ophthalmia, from relaxation of the mem- 
 branes and coats of the eyes, the diluted 
 juice of the capsicum is a sovereign remedy ; 
 and I have often witnessed its virtues in 
 many obstinate cases of this sort. In some 
 parts of South America, the Indians prick 
 the loins and bellies of hectic patients, with 
 thorns dipped in the juice of capsicum. 
 
 Of late, capsicum has been successfully 
 used in particular cases of the yellow fever. 
 It settles the stomach, abates bilious vomit- 
 ings, and even milcena, the morbus niger 
 of Hippocrates, or black vomit, has been 
 cured by it. The form it is given in is either 
 the green pepper, or the genuine powder 
 capsicum. Three parts of the green bonnet 
 pepper, and two parts crumbs of bread, 
 made into a large pill, and given every two 
 hours or oftener, till the stomach is settled. 
 Or, three grains genuine powder Cayenne 
 pepper, made into a firm pill, and completely 
 coated with white wafer, to be given as above. 
 This medicine has been given to patients in 
 
GUINEA PEPPER. 121 
 
 the end of the yellow fever, when debility 
 and extreme weakness had taken place, and 
 with the happiest effect. It warms and sti- 
 mulates the stomach, brings on a genial 
 warmth and diaphoresis, and assists greatly 
 in giving a favourable turn to this disorder."* 
 
 In recent pleuritic stitches, a poultice of 
 bruised pepper applied to the place affected, 
 frequently changed, removes the complaint ; 
 and the berries bruised and mixed with lard, 
 are recommended to be rubbed on paralytic 
 limbs. 
 
 The following receipt is the famous pepper 
 medicine for the cure of malignant influenza 
 and sore throats ; which has been found 
 highly efficacious, and is recommended as a 
 powerful diaphoretic, stimulant, and anti- 
 septic. 
 
 Take two table spoonfuls of small red 
 pepper, or three of common Cayenne pepper, 
 add two of fine salt, and beat them into a 
 paste ; add half a pint of boiling water, 
 strain off the liquor when cold, and add to it 
 half a pint of very sharp vinegar. Give a 
 table spoonful every half hour as a dose for 
 an adult, and so in proportion for younger 
 
 * Wright. 
 
122 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 patients. Perhaps this medicine might merit 
 a trial in the yellow fever.* 
 
 The general mode of preparing Cayenne 
 pepper is by gathering the bird peppers 
 when ripe, drying them in the sun, powder- 
 ing and mixing them with salt, which, when 
 well dried, is put into close corked bottles, 
 for the purpose of excluding the air, which 
 disposes the salt to liquefy, and therefore is 
 thought by some an improper ingredient in 
 the composition. This is sometimes called 
 Cayenne butter, and is in general esteem for 
 the excellent relish it gives to different 
 dishes. 
 
 The mixture called Man-dram is made 
 from these peppers, in the following manner, 
 and seldom fails to provoke the most languid 
 appetite : the ingredients are, sliced cucum- 
 bers, eschalots or onions cut very small, a 
 little lime-juice and Madeira wine, with a few 
 pods of bird or bonnet pepper well mashed 
 and mixed with the liquor. 
 
 For the purpose of pickling, the bell and 
 goat kinds are considered the best : they are 
 to be gathered before they arrive at their full 
 size, while their skin is tender : they are to 
 
 * Lunan. 
 
GUINEA PEPPER. 123 
 
 be slit down on one side, and the seeds taken 
 out, after which they should be soaked in 
 salt and water for twenty -four hours, and the 
 water changed at the end of the first twelve 
 hours. When they are taken out of this, 
 they should be drained, put into bottles or 
 jars, and boiled vinegar, after being allowed 
 to cool, poured upon them in sufficient 
 quantity to cover them. The vessels should 
 then be closely stopped for a few weeks, 
 They are esteemed the wholesomest pickle 
 in the world. The pepper vinegar, with 
 barley water and honey, is a good mouth or 
 throat gargle. 
 
 The following is a receipt for making what 
 is called Cayenne pepper pot : " Take the 
 ripe bird peppers, dry them well in the sun, 
 then put them into an earthen or stone pot, 
 mixing flour between every stratum of pods, 
 and put them into an oven after the baking 
 of bread, that they may be thoroughly dried : 
 after which they must be well cleansed from 
 the flour ; and if any stalks remain adhering 
 to the pods, they should be taken off, and 
 the pods reduced to a fine powder : to every 
 ounce of this add a pound of wheat flour, 
 and as much leaven as is sufficient for the 
 quantity intended. After this has been pro- 
 
124 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 perly mixed and wrought, it should be made 
 into small cakes, and baked in the same 
 manner as common cakes of the same size : 
 then cut them into small parts, and bake 
 them again, that they may be as dry and hard 
 as biscuit ; which being powdered and sifted, 
 is to be kept for use." This is prodigiously 
 hot and acrimonious, and by some recom- 
 mended as a medicine for flatulencies. If the 
 ripe pods of capsicum are thrown into the fire, 
 they will raise strong and noisome vapours, 
 which occasion vehement sneezing, coughing, 
 and often vomiting in those near the place, 
 or in the room where they are burned. Some 
 persons have mixed the powder of the pods 
 with snuff, to give to others for diversion : 
 but where the quantity is considerable, there 
 may be danger in using it; for it will occa- 
 sion such violent fits of sneezing as may 
 break the blood-vessels of the head. 
 
 A small quantity of the capsicum powder 
 has sometimes given almost immediate relief 
 in the tooth-ache, when arising from a carious 
 cause : it is to be applied to the part affected 
 by introducing it into the cavity of the carious 
 tooth. 
 
 Capsicum Peppers. — These are all much 
 of the same nature. The large hollow sort, 
 
GUINEA PEPPER. 125 
 
 called bell pepper, picked while green, is 
 an excellent relishing pickle or sauce for 
 meat ; the other small red peppers, when ripe, 
 taken and dried in the sun, and then ground 
 with salt and pepper, close stopped in a bottle, 
 are an excellent relisher to sauces for fish or 
 flesh, and commonly called Cayenne butter. 
 All these sorts of pepper are of a much more 
 burning nature than white or black pepper. 
 Some punish their slaves by putting the juice 
 of these peppers into their eyes, which is 
 an unspeakable pain for a little while ; and 
 yet it is said that some Indians will put it 
 into their eyes before they go to strike fish, 
 to make them see clear.* 
 
 Near St. Michael de Sopa, in the vale of 
 Aricia, they cultivate the agi, that is, Guinea 
 pepper ; where there are several farms which 
 have no other product but this pepper. 
 The Spaniards of Peru are so generally ad- 
 dicted to that sort of spice, that they can 
 dress no meat without it, though it is so 
 very hot, that it can only be endured by 
 those who are well used to it.-f 
 
 * Lunan. t Barham, p. 30. 
 
126 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 CARAWAY.— C ARUM. 
 
 Natural order, Umbellatce. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Digynia class. 
 
 Modern botanists pronounce this plant to 
 be a native of Britain, and from its growing 
 so freely in our island we might have claimed 
 it as indigenous to our soil, but the origin of 
 its name, and the positive manner in which 
 Pliny mentions from whence it sprang, refute 
 this opinion. 
 
 Pliny says, " The caraway is a stranger, 
 and it is named from its native soil, Caria:" 
 the same author states, that the second in 
 quality came from Phrygia, — both countries 
 in Asia Minor.* He says, it will grow in 
 most places, and that its seed is in great de- 
 mand in the kitchen for culinary purposes. 
 Dioscorides, who wrote on medicinal herbs 
 in the time of Antony, to whom he was phy- 
 sician, states likewise that it is called Carum, 
 
 * Pliny, book xix. chap. 8. 
 
CARAWAY. 127 
 
 from the seed having been first brought from 
 Caria ; and from the Latin the other Euro- 
 pean names seem to have been derived. The 
 Italians call it Caro, the Spanish Caravea, 
 the French Carvi, the English Caruwaie, now 
 corrupted to Caraway. As it was used by 
 the Romans as a domestic spice, they, in all 
 probability, were the first who sowed it in 
 the British soil. Gerard takes no notice of 
 its growing wild in England, but says, it 
 grows abundantly in Germany and Bohemia, 
 in fat and fruitful fields. The people of 
 these countries are naturally fond of hot 
 spicy food, and therefore make great use of 
 this wholesome seed in bread, comfits, con- 
 fections, &c. &c. Ray says, this plant grows 
 wild in several places of Lincolnshire and 
 Yorkshire, but we presume that it is the re- 
 mains of former cultivation. 
 
 It is one of the greater hot seeds, and is 
 esteemed stomachic, carminative, and diu- 
 retic ; it dispels wind, and strengthens diges- 
 tion ; is good for the dizziness in the head, 
 and weakness of sight. Our distillers use it 
 in forming a cordial spirit. When young, it 
 is an excellent salad herb. 
 
 The seed-cake formed one of the rural 
 entertainments that the old English farmers 
 
128 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 made to reward their servants, at the end of 
 wheat-sowing, and which Tusser mentions 
 next to the festival of harvest-home : 
 
 '*. Wife, sometime this week, if the weather hold cleer, 
 an end of wheat-sowing we make for this yeere : 
 Remember thou, therefore, though I do it not, 
 the seed-cake, the pastries, and furmenty-pot." 
 
 We regret to find, that refinement has so 
 far crept into the farm-houses, as to banish 
 this feast, and in many instances, even the 
 harvest-supper. We cannot see these old 
 customs abolished, which time has almost 
 made sacred, without feelings of regret ; and 
 we are satisfied, that the master loses none 
 of his importance by joining in these annual 
 feasts and rustic sports, but, on the contrary, 
 attaches his servants to the interests of his 
 family, and keeps them from the habit of fre- 
 quenting public ale-houses ; therefore, every 
 good subject, who is solicitous for the pros- 
 perity of the farmer and happiness of the 
 husbandman, will be glad to see Thomson's 
 festive descriptions realized : 
 
 <( 
 
 Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn, 
 Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat 
 Of thirty years;" ■ 
 
CARAWAY. 129 
 
 " Nor wanting; is 
 
 the smoking sirloin stretch'd immense 
 
 From side to side ; in which, with desperate knife, 
 They deep incision make, and talk the while 
 Of England's glory, ne'er to be defaced." 
 
 Autumn. 
 
 The Romans held their rural festivities 
 with religious mirth, and which had great ana- 
 logy to the customs of old English farmers. 
 
 " But, first of all, Immortal Powers adore, 
 With annual rites great Ceres' aid implore, 
 With joy her altars on the grass restore. 
 
 •& ^t- ^fc ^- ~y- ~v- «v- 
 
 *7t* "71* TT VK* "W* "«* "7^ 
 
 Then you and all your village neighbours join, 
 And offer honey, mix'd with milk and wine, 
 To Ceres' name ; in solemn pomp lead thrice 
 Around the fields the destined sacrifice. 
 With all your rural train in chorus sing, 
 And to your homes with vows the goddess bring : 
 Nor is it lawful to unload the ground, 
 Till you perform those rites with joyful sound, 
 And dancing, sing her praise, with oaken garlands crown'd." 
 
 Vihgil, Georgics, book i. 
 
 This elegant poet tells us, at the end of 
 the second book of the Georgics, that the 
 ancient farmers entered into the holyday 
 sports of their domestics. 
 
 " When harmless holydays inspire, 
 
 He and his friends, around a cheerful fire, 
 
 Upon the grass their careless limbs recline, 
 
 To Bacchus quaff, and pour out sprightly wine ; 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Then with a prize provokes his shepherds' art, 
 
 To see who best can throw the winged dart ; 
 
 Or else, with moist'ning oil their joints prepares, 
 
 And for the wrestling prize the brawny shoulders bares. " 
 
 The root of the cultivated caraway is of a 
 pleasant sweet taste, and was formerly pre- 
 ferred by many persons to parsnips, having 
 the faculty of warming and comforting a cold 
 weak stomach. We cannot account for the 
 cause of its having fallen so entirely into 
 neglect, but from the great variety of new 
 favourites, with which modern gardens are 
 filled. 
 
131 
 
 CARROT.— DAUCUS. 
 
 A genus of the Tentandria Digynia class. 
 It is a biennial plant, belonging to the nu- 
 merous Umbellated family . 
 
 Actvxos, Dioscor. Daucus, Plin. from dcctoa, 
 as some think, on account of its hot taste. 
 
 The wild carrot, Daucus Carota, is indi- 
 genous to our soil, the seed of which, it is 
 said, when sown in manured ground, will pro- 
 duce good roots the second or third year ; 
 but Miller tells us that he could not suc- 
 ceed in obtaining good carrots from the seed 
 of the Daucus Carota. 
 
 The best kind of carrots appear to have 
 been natives of Candia, where, according to 
 Pliny, the finest and most esteemed carrots 
 were to be found ; and the next to them 
 in Achaia.* This author observes, that in 
 whatever country they grow, the best are 
 produced in sound dry ground ; that wild 
 carrots are to be found in most countries, 
 but never in a poor hungry soil. 
 
 # Book xxv. c. 9. 
 K 2 
 
132 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Theophrastus states, in the ninth book of 
 his History of Plants, that carrots grow in 
 Arcadia, but that the best are found in 
 Sparta. 
 
 Petronius Diodotus reckoned four kinds of 
 this root, but there is reason to think he in- 
 cluded the parsnip with them. 
 
 The ancients used the seed both of the 
 wild and the cultivated carrot, as an internal 
 medicine against the bite of serpents ; they 
 also gave it to animals that had been stung 
 by them ; a dram weight in wine was 
 thought a sufficient dose. 
 
 Gerard calls these plants Daucus Cretensis 
 verus, or Candie carrots, and says, " that the 
 true Daucus of Dioscorides does not grow 
 in Candia only, but is found vpon the 
 mountains of Germanie, and vpon the hils 
 and rocks of Iura, about Geneua, from 
 whence it hath been sent and conueied by 
 one friendly herbarist unto another, into 
 sundrie regions." This author describes 
 the Pastinaca sativa temdfolia, yellow or 
 garden carrot, which, he says, " are so wen 
 in the field and in gardens, where other 
 pot-herbs are : they require a loose and well- 
 manured soil." He adds, " that in his time, 
 the yellow carrot was most commonly boiled 
 
CARROT. L33 
 
 to be eaten with fat meat, but that he did 
 not esteem it to be a very nourishing food." 
 
 By later authors, carrots are said to have 
 been introduced into this country by the 
 Flemings, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
 and that they were first sown about Sand- 
 wich in Kent. 
 
 We now cultivate many varieties, so as to 
 suit various soils, and to supply the kitchen 
 regularly at all seasons of the year. 
 
 The early red horn carrot is the forward - 
 est sort in ripening, and best adapted for 
 forcing. The white carrot, or carotte 
 blanche, of the French, is but little known 
 in our markets, and seldom grown, excepting 
 by those families who are fond of French 
 dishes, as it is much used in their pottage, 
 and is certainly a very delicate root, but 
 is best adapted for summer and autumnal 
 use, as it does not keep so well through 
 the winter as the common carrot. 
 
 The French consider the carotte violette, 
 purple carrot, to be the sweetest of all the 
 kinds ; but it is generally found to run to 
 seed the year it is sown. 
 
 The garden carrot delights in a warm 
 sandy or light soil, which should be dug- 
 deep, that the roots may better run down ; 
 
134 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 for if they meet with any obstruction, they 
 grow forked. Carrots should not be sown 
 on land that has been much dunged the same 
 year, as it causes them to be worm-eaten, 
 but when they are sown on fresh ground 
 well prepared, a heavy crop may be ex- 
 pected. 
 
 The seeds should be sown on a calm day, 
 as, from their light and feathery nature, it is 
 impossible to sow them regularly when the 
 air is agitated : it is also a good practice to 
 mix the seeds with sand, in order that they 
 may not adhere together in sowing. 
 
 Mr. Billing, an ingenious farmer in Nor- 
 folk, obtained from twenty acres and a half, 
 510 loads of carrots, which he found equal 
 in use and effect to a thousand load of tur- 
 nips, or 300 loads of hay. Some of them 
 measured two feet in length and from twelve 
 to fourteen inches round. Cows, sheep, hogs, 
 and horses, become fond of this food; and as 
 they are greatly nourished by them, its cul- 
 ture may be worthy the attention of those 
 farmers whose lands are suitable to its 
 growth. 
 
 Four pounds of carrot-seed is considered 
 enough to sow an acre of land. 
 
CARROT. L35 
 
 Martyn says, " It is greatly to be wished, 
 that the culture of this root was extended to 
 every part of England, where the soil is pro- 
 per for the purpose ; for there is scarce any 
 root yet known which more deserves it, be- 
 ing a very hearty good food for most sorts of 
 animals. One acre of carrots, if well planted, 
 will fatten a greater number of sheep or bul- 
 locks, than three acres of turnips, and the 
 flesh of these animals will be firmer and 
 better tasted. I have known these roots 
 cultivated for feeding deer in parks, which 
 has proved of excellent use in hard winters, 
 when there has been a scarcity of other food ; 
 at which times great numbers of deer have 
 perished for want, and those which have 
 escaped, have been so much reduced, as not 
 to recover their flesh the following summer ; 
 whereas, those fed with carrots have been 
 kept in good condition all the winter, and, 
 upon the growth of the grass in the spring, 
 have been fat early in the season, which is 
 an advantage, where the grass is generally 
 backward in its growth. 
 
 " There is also an advantage in the culti- 
 vation of this root over that of the turnip, 
 because the crop is not so liable to fail ; for 
 
136 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 as the carrots are sown in the spring, the 
 plants generally come up well: whereas tur- 
 nips are frequently destroyed by the flies at 
 their first coming up, and in dry autumns 
 they are attacked by caterpillars, which in 
 a short time devour whole fields." 
 
 Carrots are generally served to table with 
 boiled meats : they make an excellent soup, 
 and form an agreeable pudding. In some 
 parts of the country they are sent to table 
 with fish of every description. 
 
 Dr. James says, carrots are one of the 
 most considerable culinary roots ; that they 
 strengthen and fatten the body, and are a 
 very proper food for consumptive persons. 
 They are somewhat flatulent, but are 
 thought to render the body soluble, and to 
 contribute to the cure of a cough. 
 
 In the Historia Plant arum, ascribed to 
 Boerhaave, we read that this root is much 
 celebrated for its virtues against the stone, 
 and nephritic disorders. 
 
 The seeds of wild carrots are esteemed 
 one of the most powerful diuretics we are 
 acquainted with, of our own growth. They 
 are given in disorders of the breast and 
 lungs, in pleurisies, in stranguries, and in 
 
CARROT. 137 
 
 the stone and gravel. Helmont informs us, 
 that he knew a gentleman who was seized 
 with a fit of the stone every fifteen days, 
 freed from the attacks of his disorder for 
 several years, by means of an infusion of car- 
 rot-seed in clear malt liquor. An infusion of 
 them in white wine is excellent in hysteri- 
 cal complaints. 
 
 The roots of the garden carrots are now 
 much used as a poultice for running can- 
 cers, &c. 
 
 Sugar is found in this root, but in less 
 quantities than in the parsnip, or the beet. 
 A very good spirit may be distilled from 
 carrots. An acre of these roots, allowing 
 the produce to be twenty tons, will produce 
 240 gallons of spirits, which is considerably 
 more than can be obtained from five quarters 
 of barley.* 
 
 Parkinson tells us that the gentlewomen 
 of former days, decorated their hats or heads 
 with the leaves of the wild carrot, which in 
 autumn are exceedingly beautiful. This 
 would rather shew the simplicity of our an- 
 cestors than their want of taste ; as we have 
 
 * Hornby in Young's Annals. 
 
138 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 seen ladies' dresses trimmed with the curled 
 leaves of the garden parsley, and which were 
 not more admired for their novelty than for 
 the elegance they displayed. 
 
 Flowers may be cut out of large carrots 
 that closely resemble ranunculuses, without 
 the least aid of colouring. 
 
139 
 
 CHAMOMILE.— ANTHEMIS. 
 
 Natural order, Compositce discoides. A genus 
 of the Si/ngenesia Poiygamia superflua class. 
 
 This herb is the Avftepis of Dioscorides, 
 and the Av^e/mov of Theophrastus. It was 
 called Leucanthemis, and Leucanthemus, from 
 the whiteness of the double blossom : others 
 named it Eranthemon, because it flourished 
 so early in the spring ; and on account of its 
 savour resembling an apple, it was called 
 Chamxmelon, from which the English name 
 is derived. 
 
 Ancient story informs us, that this plant 
 took its generic name from Athemis, a virgin 
 shepherdess, who kept her flock near Cuma, 
 and not far from the cave where one of the 
 Sibyls delivered her oracles. Athemis fre- 
 quently assisted at these ceremonies, and 
 being present when the fate of lovers was 
 to be decided, was so frightened by Arphor- 
 les bursting abruptly into the cave to know 
 his doom, that she died on the spot, and was 
 
140 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 instantly changed into a plant bearing flow- 
 ers, which received her name.* 
 
 It is a curious circumstance, that the first 
 person who appears to have praised and re- 
 commended this herb in medicine, lived to a 
 very advanced age without ever knowing a 
 day's illness. Asclepiades pledged himself 
 to cease to act as a physician if he should 
 ever be known to be sick. Mithridates, king 
 of Pontus, entertained so high an opinion of 
 his skill, that he sent ambassadors to him with 
 great offers of reward to tempt him to reside 
 at his court, but which proposal was rejected 
 by the Bithynian, who gave the preference 
 to Rome ; where he became the founder of 
 a sect in physic which bore his name.-f* 
 
 The ancient physicians considered the 
 flowers and leaves of the chamomile as a 
 diuretic which was salutary in cases of stone 
 and gravel. They made them into trochischs 
 or lozenges, which were for spasmodic dis- 
 orders, as well as for the jaundice and com- 
 plaints of the liver, and they pounded the 
 leaves with the roots and flowers as a remedy 
 against the sting of serpents and other rep- 
 tiles. The Romans preserved the dried 
 
 # Liger. f Plin. b. vii. c. 37, and b. xxii. c 21. 
 
CHAMOMILE. 141 
 
 flowers, as well as the leaves, both for medi- 
 cine and for winter garlands. 
 
 The common single chamomiles are es- 
 teemed in medicine as being more effective 
 than the double flowers, having a greater 
 quantity of the yellow thrum, in which lies 
 the strength of the flower, although the lat- 
 ter blossoms are generally brought to market 
 in preference. The leaves of the plant are 
 commended before the blossoms, as a diges- 
 tive, laxative, emollient, and diuretic medi- 
 cine. The flowers are given in infusion as a 
 gentle emetic; they are also used in emol- 
 lient decoctions, to assuage pain. 
 
 Dr. R. James says, " Chamomile is a plant 
 of many virtues, being stomachic, hepa- 
 tic, nervine, emollient, and carminative; it 
 strengthens the stomach and bowels, helps 
 the cholic, jaundice, and stone, &c. It is 
 good against quartan and other agues. Out- 
 wardly, it is used in fomentations for inflam- 
 mations and tumours ; applied hot to the 
 sides, it helps the pains thereof." 
 
 The powder of dried chamomile-flowers 
 was used in the time of Dioscorides to cure 
 intermitting fevers : Riverius prescribed it 
 on the same occasion. Morton, and Dr. Eli- 
 sha Coysh, both affirm, that they have cured 
 
142 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 fevers with chamomile flowers reduced to 
 fine powder ; and it is still a common febri- 
 fuge with the Scotch and Irish. 
 
 It is said that no simple in the Materia 
 Medico, is possessed of a quality more friend- 
 ly and beneficial to the intestines than cha- 
 momile flowers. 
 
 Boerhaave says, " The essential oil of 
 chamomile, made into pills with a bit of 
 bread, and given two hours before meals, 
 after fasting a considerable time, is a certain 
 cure for worms." 
 
 Gerard informs us that chamomile flowers 
 were formerly used in the bath to rarify the 
 skin, open the pores, and produce perspira- 
 tion; " and were," says he, " planted in gar- 
 dens both for pleasure and profit." The 
 double-blossomed variety makes a pretty 
 edging for the borders of cottage gardens. 
 • The Hortus Kewensis notices twenty va- 
 rieties as known to the English gardeners, 
 one-fourth of which are native plants ; and 
 the kind most esteemed for medical purposes 
 is found abundantly on many of our com- 
 mons. 
 
 It is said, that a stone taken out of the hu- 
 man body, on being wrapped in chamomile, 
 will in a short time dissolve. Hence, says 
 
CHAMOMILE. 143 
 
 Coles, it is evidently an excellent remedy for 
 that complaint, if the syrup or decoction of 
 the flowers be taken in a morning, fasting. 
 
 This plant is remarkable for beginning to 
 flower at the top of the branches, whereas 
 others that do not open all at one time, begin 
 at the bottom ; and the flowers, which are 
 composed of white petals set in a yellow 
 disk, yield by distillation a fine sky-blue oil. 
 
144 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 CHERVIL.— SCANDIX. 
 
 Natural order, Umbettatce. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Digynia class. 
 
 The Greeks called this herb Xa^'puAAo*/, 
 Cheer ephyllum, either from its numerous 
 leaves, or, as most old herbalists suppose, 
 from the cheerfulness, or joy and gladness, 
 which, they affirm, the leaves of this plant 
 produced in those who ate them. The 
 Latins followed the same word, with little 
 variation, as Columella calls it ChcErophyllum. 
 Most of the European languages seem to 
 have derived the name of this vegetable 
 from the same source ; the Dutch calling it 
 Kervell, the Germans Korffol, the Italians 
 Cerefoglio, the French du Cerfeuil, and by 
 our oldest botanists it is written Cheruill. 
 
 The garden chervil, Scandix cerefolium, is 
 said to be a native of the Austrian Nether- 
 lands. Aiton ranks it among: the indigenous 
 plants of England ; Gerard takes no notice 
 of its country, but says, " The common cher- 
 
CHERVIL. 145 
 
 uill groweth in gardens with other pot- 
 herbs : it prospereth in a ground that is 
 dunged and something moist." He adds, 
 " The great sweet cheruill groweth in my 
 garden, and in the gardens of other men 
 who haue been diligent in these matters." 
 
 Parkinson says, " It is sown in gardens to 
 serve as a sallet herbe : the other (Cerefolium 
 sylvestre) groweth wilde in their vineyards 
 and orchards beyond sea, and in many of 
 the meadowes of our owne land, and by the 
 hedge-sides, as also on heathes." 
 
 The ancients held this herb in the highest 
 esteem. Pliny tells us, that the Syrians, 
 who were great gardeners, cultivated it as a 
 food, that they ate it both boiled and raw, 
 and that they considered it capable of eradi- 
 cating most chronical distempers. 
 
 This was evidently the species called 
 Venus's comb, Scandix pecten, or what was 
 formerly called Shepherd's needle, as Pliny 
 observes, that it was often called Gingidium, 
 viz. tooth-pick chervil. 
 
 The garden chervil is a small annual 
 plant, with winged leaves ; when young, 
 somewhat resembling parsley, but as it runs 
 to seed it bears more the appearance of hem- 
 lock. This herb is grateful to the palate, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 

 146 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 and is much cultivated by the French and 
 Dutch, who are so fond of it, that they have 
 hardly a soup or salad but the leaves of 
 chervil make part of the composition ; and it 
 certainly is often found a more agreeable 
 and mild addition to seasonings, than the 
 parsley which is so universally used by the 
 English cooks. We have found a small 
 quantity of this herb an improvement to a 
 lettuce salad, as its moderately warm qua- 
 lity in some degree qualifies the coolness of 
 the latter plant. It is said to be aperient 
 and diuretic. 
 
 The herbalists of ancient days are lavish 
 in the praise of this vegetable ; both Dio- 
 scorides and Galen thought it good for the 
 stomach, and serviceable in complaints of 
 the liver, &c. 
 
 Chervil should be sown early in the 
 spring, and it will be found to scatter its 
 seed for the autumnal crop, without further 
 trouble than keeping it from weeds. 
 
 The roots of this plant were formerly 
 eaten. Gerard says, " I do vse to eate them 
 with oile and vinegar, being first boiled, 
 which is very good for old people that are 
 dull and without courage: it reioiceth and 
 comforteth the heart, and increaseth their; 
 strength." 
 
14? 
 
 CINNAMON, CINNAMOMUM, AND 
 CASSIA.— CASSIA. 
 
 Natural order, Holoracea. A genus of the 
 Enneandria Monogynia class. 
 
 Cinnamomum or Cinnamum, among the 
 Latins, is the same with the KiwocfJLov and 
 KivctfjLov, or KivvdfJLoofjLov, of the Greeks. This 
 last name is derived from KiwafjLov and a/z^oy, 
 or from the Hebrew word D*p or j— Dp which 
 signifies a cane or reed, and the a^^ov of 
 the Greeks. 
 
 This tree, the spicy bark of which was 
 so much esteemed by the ancients, on ac- 
 count of the sweet odour it afforded in their 
 solemn sacrifices, and is now so justly re- 
 garded for its astringent quality in medicine, 
 is a species of the laurel, Laurus, and a na- 
 tive of the East Indies ; the cinnamon being 
 principally confined to the Island of Ceylon, 
 whence it might justly be styled the Ceylon 
 laurel. 
 
 It seems natural to man to covet things 
 
 difficult to obtain, and to estimate their 
 
 l2 
 
148 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 value more by their rarity than their qua- 
 lity ; this desire appears to form a necessary 
 part of our constitution, wisely ordained to 
 stimulate industry and promote communi- 
 cation. 
 
 The spices of the torrid zone had found 
 their way into the land of Canaan at a very 
 early period, at least 1728 years before the 
 birth of Christ, as we read in the time of 
 Jacob, that they were become an article 
 of commerce. The Ishmaelitish merchants 
 were going into Egypt with their camels 
 laden with spicery, when Joseph was sold by 
 his brethren.* 
 
 Moses made the holy anointing oil of pure 
 myrrh, sweet cinnamon, cassia, and sweet 
 calamus. *j- 
 
 Spice appears to have been highly es- 
 teemed by the Hebrews in the time of 
 Solomon. The Queen of Sheba, in her visit 
 to that monarch, carried a present of spices, 
 gold, and precious stones ; " besides that 
 he had of the merchantmen, and of the 
 traffic of the spice merchants, and of all the 
 kings of Arabia, and of the governors of 
 the country." % Solomon notices this spice as 
 
 * Gen. c.xxxvii. v. 25. t Exodus, c. xxxvi. v. 23. 
 J 1 Kings, c. x. v. 15. 
 
CINNAMON. 149 
 
 a luxurious perfume ; "I have perfumed 
 my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon."* 
 
 From the great distance the Eastern mer- 
 chants had to travel over desert sands, and 
 the dangers they had to surmount, together 
 with the duties they were obliged to pay 
 at certain cities, the price of cinnamon was 
 much enhanced ; and the fabulous stories 
 told of this aromatic drug appear to have 
 been invented for the purpose of exciting 
 wonder, and adding to its rarity. The coun- 
 try from whence cinnamon came, also, ap- 
 pears to have been concealed in great mys- 
 tery, as well as the spice itself, even in the 
 time of Herodotus, who relates that it fell 
 from the nests of the phoenix, and other 
 fowls which fed on venison, and built on 
 trees situated on the highest rocks, in the 
 country where Bacchus was nourished. It is 
 farther related, that the cinnamon was ob- 
 tained from these nests, by beating them 
 down with arrows headed with lead. 
 
 The cassia was said to be brought from 
 a country surrounded with marshes, and 
 guarded by terrible bats, armed with dread- 
 ful talons, and accompanied by flying dragons. 
 
 # Prov. c. vii. 
 
150 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Pliny tells us, that the cinnamon grew in 
 that part of /Ethiopia now called Abyssinia, 
 and that the sale of it was confined to the 
 King of the Gebanites, by whom it was 
 taxed and then sold in open market to the 
 merchants at a price fixed by that sovereign. 
 " In old times," says Pliny, " it sold for one 
 thousand denarii per pound, but it afterwards 
 rose to one thousand five hundred denarii, 
 owing to the forest of cinnamon being burnt 
 down by the wrath of the Troglodites, their 
 barbarous neighbours." This proves that the 
 cinnamon tree was not anciently confined to 
 Asia, much less to the Island of Ceylon. 
 The same author informs us that the /Ethio- 
 pians bought up all the cinnamon of their 
 neighbours, and transported it to other coun- 
 tries, in small punts or boats, without either 
 helm, rudder, or sail, and only one man to a 
 boat. They chose the dead of the winter for 
 the voyage, when the south-east winds blew, 
 and on which alone their safe arrival must 
 have depended, as these winds drove them 
 through the Gulfs. They doubled the point 
 of Argest, and coasted along to the port of 
 Ocila, the principal town of the Gebanites. 
 It took them five years to make one voyage 
 and to return. This will naturally account 
 
CINNAMON. 1.51 
 
 for the high price of cinnamon in Syria, as 
 well as in Europe. Added to this, one third 
 of the cinnamon was annually burnt, as an 
 offering to the sun, by these idolatrous peo- 
 ple, who, before they commenced barking 
 the branches of the cinnamon-trees, made 
 great offerings of oxen, goats, and rams, to 
 their god Assabinus, (the Jupiter of the 
 Arabians,) who was considered the patron of 
 these trees. It was contrary to their reli- 
 gion to commence stripping the cinnamon 
 either before sun-rising, or to continue it 
 after his setting. When this harvest finished, 
 the bark was divided by their priest into 
 three lots, one of which remained on the 
 spot until it became so dry as to be set in 
 flames by the sun, and so consumed. 
 
 The Emperor Vespasian, in all probability, 
 first observed the high regard paid to cinna- 
 mon by the inhabitants of Palestine, in their 
 places of worship, and which he seems to 
 have imitated at Rome ; for on his return 
 from the former country, he dedicated to the 
 Goddess of Peace, in one of the temples of 
 the Capitol, garlands and chaplets of cinna- 
 mon, inclosed in polished gold. 
 
 In the temple built on Mount Palatine, 
 by the Empress Augusta, in honour of Au- 
 
152 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 gustus Caesar, her husband, was placed a 
 root of the cinnamon-tree, of great weight, 
 set in a cup of gold, which yielded, yearly, 
 several drops of sap, that congealed into a 
 gum. This I have seen, says Pliny, and it 
 remained in the same situation until the 
 temple was consumed by fire. 
 
 The Ceylonese draw from the roots of these 
 trees, a liquor, which, as it hardens, becomes 
 a true camphor. This anecdote, therefore, 
 confirms the opinion, that the cinnamon now 
 in use is the same as that of the ancients, 
 although some authors state, that the cinna- 
 mon so highly extolled by the Israelites, is 
 now unknown. We agree, that the tree 
 which anciently grew in Ethiopia, might 
 have been of a more fragrant quality than 
 that produced in Ceylon. 
 
 The species of camphor obtained from the 
 root of the cinnamon-tree is called Baros by 
 the Indians, and is considered by far the best 
 for medical purposes ; and in some parts it 
 is gathered and kept only for the use of the 
 kings, who use it as a cordial medicine, it 
 being esteemed of a singular and uncommon 
 efficacy. 
 
 Nievhoff, who accompanied the embassy 
 which the Dutch made to China in the year 
 
CINNAMON. 153 
 
 16*55-6, tells us, that there are great quanti- 
 ties of cinnamon-trees in the province of 
 Quangsi, particularly near the city of Cin- 
 chew. He says, these trees differ in no re- 
 spect from those of Ceylon, excepting that 
 the scent is stronger, and the flavour hotter. 
 He adds, that these cinnamon-trees are 
 about the size of orange-trees, and have 
 many long straight branches, whose leaves 
 have some analogy to those of the laurel. 
 This tree bears a white well-scented flower, 
 followed by a fruit of the size of an acorn, 
 but which is not much regarded except by 
 the birds. A kind of pigeon that feeds on 
 this fruit, is the chief agent in propagating 
 these trees in Ceylon; for, in carrying the 
 fruit to a distance to its young, it often drops 
 it in various places, where it takes root. 
 
 NievhofF says, it is the nature of these 
 trees to renew their bark in about three years, 
 when they may be peeled a second time; but 
 it appears to be the present practice in Cey- 
 lon to cut the trees down to the root as 
 soon as they are barked, and from the trunk 
 new shoots spring up, which in five or six 
 years become trees fit for barking. When the 
 cinnamon is freshly taken from the tree, it is 
 flat, and has little taste, smell, or colour ; but 
 
154 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 it twists or convolves, as it dries, into the 
 form of a hollow stick or cane, and by thus 
 exhaling its superfluous humidity, it ac- 
 quires a sweet brisk smell, and a sharp pun- 
 gent taste. Some of the trees produce a 
 blossom as red as scarlet; and Seba tells us, 
 that he has found them with a blue flower. 
 
 The blossoms of the cinnamon are small, 
 and generally white; they grow in large 
 bunches at the extremity of the branches ; 
 their perfume is something like that of the 
 lily of the valley. The leaf is longer and nar- 
 rower than that of the common bay-tree; the 
 body grows to twenty or thirty feet in height. 
 
 The fruit or berries are said to be an 
 excellent carminative. When boiled in water, 
 they yield an oil, which, as it cools, hardens, 
 and becomes as white and firm as tallow, and 
 is called cinnamon wax, of which they made 
 candles, that were only allowed to be burnt 
 in the king's palace. 
 
 When the Dutch possessed Ceylon, they 
 were so jealous of these trees, which afforded 
 them such a valuable article of commerce, 
 that the fruit and young plants were forbid- 
 den, by an order of the States, to be sent 
 from thence, lest other powers should avail 
 
CINNAMON. 153 
 
 themselves of the advantages derived from 
 them. They destroyed all the cinnamon 
 trees about the kingdom of Cochin, and 
 thus for a long time kept the whole of this 
 aromatic spice in their own hands, and ex- 
 clusively supplied all Europe, in the same 
 manner as the eastern nations were anciently 
 served by the Gebanites. 
 
 Cinnamon is now understood to be that 
 which comes only from Ceylon; that brought 
 from Java, Sumatra, and Malabar, being 
 considered cassia. NievhofF says, these trees 
 grow in such abundance in Ceylon, that it 
 would more than supply all the world, if 
 the inhabitants of that island were not some- 
 times to burn whole woods. 
 
 We presume, likewise, that cinnamon is 
 much less in demand now than in ancient 
 times, when it was so much used at the altars 
 and the funeral piles, as well as by those 
 nations which embalmed their dead. 
 
 Bauhine writes, in the sixteenth century, 
 " that the powder called the Pulvis Ducis 
 is used by many, which consists of cinnamon 
 and sugar; and is of so grateful a taste, 
 that, with an addition of wine, it is used as a 
 sauce in the entertainments of grandees, 
 
156 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 whose luxury is (says he) grown to such an 
 exorbitant height, that they use the most 
 delicious medicines as common aliments." 
 
 The best cinnamon is of a bright brown 
 colour, of a brisk agreeable taste. Its quali- 
 ties are to heat and to dry, to fortify the spi- 
 rits, and to help digestion ; but its principal 
 use in medicine is as an astringent, with which 
 intention it is prescribed in diarrhoeas, and 
 weaknesses of the stomach. It is much used 
 for adding a grateful and agreeable taste to 
 various kinds of aliments, principally by boil- 
 ing it among them. Bauhine expressly af- 
 firms, that whatever virtues the ancients as- 
 cribed to their Cinnamomum and Cassia, justly 
 belong to our cinnamon, since it is of an 
 aromatic, stimulating, and corroborating qua- 
 lity. Hence it is classed among the stoma- 
 chics and uterine medicines, and affords sin- 
 gular relief to women afflicted with a loss of 
 strength, or a lax state of the fibres. In a 
 word, whatever can be said of the use or abuse 
 of aromatics, may be justly applied to cinna- 
 mon ; for, according to Boerhaave, in his 
 Chim. vol. i. cinnamon, the most excellent of 
 all other aromatics, is possessed of the same 
 common virtues with them, though in a 
 higher degree. 
 
CINNAMON. 157 
 
 Its taste is exquisitely grateful, and its 
 smell so highly fragrant, that it diffuses itself 
 not only over all the island of Ceylon, but 
 also, when the winds blow from the land, over 
 a large tract of the ocean ; so that, according 
 to Jurgen Anderstn, quoted by Dexbachius, 
 " the sailors are sensible of the smell of cin- 
 namon at six or eight miles distance from the 
 shore." 
 
 Cinnamon mixed with honey, and used as 
 an ointment, is said to remove freckles and 
 other cutaneous blemishes of the face. 
 
 An oil is extracted from this bark, called 
 the essence of cinnamon, which is an excel- 
 lent cardiac. The Chinese, as well as the 
 islanders of Ceylon, distil from the green 
 bark and flowers of this tree, a liquor similar 
 to our cinnamon water, which is applied to 
 several useful purposes. 
 
 The cinnamon-tree was first cultivated in 
 this country in the year 1768. 
 
158 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 COTTON.— GOSSYPIUM. 
 
 Natural order, Malvacece, or Columniferce. 
 A genus of the Monadelphia Polyandria 
 class. 
 
 We are not able to discover on what ac- 
 count the Greeks named this plant Hvhov and 
 Too-aiTiov, Xylum and Gossipium. Serapio calls 
 it Coto, from whence we seem to have derived 
 the English word Cotton. 
 
 There are six distinct species of this plant 
 now discovered; the most common and im- 
 portant of which is the Xylon herbaceum, or 
 herby cotton. The vegetable floss is formed 
 in the interior of the blossom of the plant, 
 and surrounds and intermixes with the seeds, 
 when the petals decay. 
 
 The cotton down, which is of a nature be- 
 tween wool, silk, and flax, now forms a 
 principal branch of a tree that is happily 
 cultivated in this country; and lest it should 
 be forgotten, that Commerce is not an indi- 
 genous plant of England, we will venture to 
 
COTTON. 159 
 
 remind the reader, that it is an exotic of the 
 most tender nature, that requires the con- 
 tinual care and attention of man to ensure 
 its growth. 
 
 There has seldom been more than one 
 large plant known to exist in an age: this, 
 when destroyed, gives rise to its cultivation 
 in some distant part of the globe, where its 
 blossoms beautify, and its fruit enriches the 
 country that nourishes it. Commerce is a 
 native of no particular country, and only 
 thrives in a soil that is manured by honour, 
 equity, and justice. The wisest monarchs 
 have nourished it, and the best servants of 
 thrones have protected it. The Kings of 
 Tyre planted it by the water, and it made 
 their city a great nation, and their merchant- 
 men, princes. " By thy great wisdom and 
 thy traffic, hast thou increased thy riches."* 
 
 Solomon obtained a branch of this plant 
 from Tyre, through which he made himself 
 the richest monarch of the universe, and his 
 little kingdom the admiration of the world. 
 Alexander sowed its seed in the city to 
 which he gave his own name, and Constan- 
 tine transplanted it into Constantinople. Ed- 
 ward the First planted it on the banks of the 
 
 # Ezekiel. 
 
160 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Thames about the year 1296. It was then a 
 small plant cultivated only by the Hamburgh 
 Company. Elizabeth lived to see it blos- 
 som through the nourishment which her en- 
 lightened mind procured, not only from the 
 original soil of the Levant, but from the east- 
 ern and the newly discovered western world, 
 as well as from the north. The succeeding 
 reigns have enjoyed the fruit, except when 
 it has been blighted by intestine troubles, or 
 cankered by monopoly ; a disease that stints 
 the growth, and nourishes caterpillars. 
 
 But, to leave allegory and ideal plants, we 
 travel into the land of Ham, from whence 
 the Gossipium plant originated. It is sup- 
 posed that anciently it grew only in Upper 
 Egypt ; but on this we cannot decide so po- 
 sitively as we can affirm that the Egyptians 
 were the people who first made cloth from 
 cotton wool. 
 
 The Israelites, who must have learnt the 
 art while in bondage, in all probability were 
 the first who cultivated this plant in the land 
 of Canaan. 
 
 From Arabia it would naturally travel 
 towards China, through all the countries that 
 lie below the 40th degree of north latitude; 
 but, as a species of the cotton plant has 
 
COTTON. 101 
 
 been found in the same latitude in America, 
 it confirms the opinion that most plants 
 spring spontaneously within a given distance 
 of the Poles, and that their varieties originate 
 from the nature of the soil, or accidental im- 
 pregnation from plants of a similar species. 
 
 The Phoenicians, who were the fathers of 
 trade, and the Greeks, who were the sons of 
 art, would, from their intercourse with Egypt, 
 transplant the Gossypiurn to their own isles. 
 
 Pliny says, in his Natural History*, that in 
 the higher parts of Egypt, towards Arabia, 
 there grows a shrub or bush that produces 
 cotton, which is called by some Gossypiurn, 
 and by others Xylon. He says, the plant is 
 small, and bears a fruit resembling the bearded 
 nut or filbert, out of the inner shell or husk 
 of which the downy cotton breaks forth, 
 which is easily spun, and is superior, for 
 whiteness and softness, to any flax in the 
 world. Of this cotton, he adds, the Egyptian 
 priests of old times delighted to have their 
 sacred robes made. This cloth was called 
 Xylina. The same author informs usf, that 
 in an island in the Persian gulf, there were 
 cotton-trees that produced fruit as large 
 
 # Book xix. c. 1. f Book xii. c. 10 8c 11. 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
162 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 as quinces, which opened when ripe, and 
 were full of down, from which was made fine 
 and costly cloth like linen ; and that in an 
 island in the same gulf, called Tylos, there 
 was another kind of cotton tree, called Gossam- 
 pines, that was very productive. Theophras- 
 tus also mentions these trees # , which we 
 presume to be the Arbor turn, or tree cotton, 
 and which seem also the same that Virgil 
 notices : 
 
 " Or Ethiopian forests, bearing wool, 
 
 Or leaves from whence the Seres fleeces pull." 
 
 This species is a perennial plant or shrub, 
 and was cultivated as a curiosity in this 
 country as long back as 1694. 
 
 Nievhoff, who was in China in the year 
 1655, says, cotton grows in great abundance 
 in that country, and was then one of the 
 principal articles of its trade. The seeds 
 had been introduced into that empire about 
 500 years previously. Siam produces the 
 most beautiful cotton ; hose and other arti- 
 cles, manufactured from this down, exceeding 
 even silk for lustre and beauty. The seed 
 of this silky cotton has been sown in the 
 Antilles, where the plants flourish, and yield 
 this delicate floss in abundance. 
 
 * Book iv. c. 9. 
 
COTTON. 1()3 
 
 The Turks have long had possession of 
 that part of the Eastern world from whence 
 the common cotton springs. They cultivate 
 this annual plant in the neighbourhood of 
 Damascus and Jerusalem, as also in the Isle 
 of Cyprus. It is likewise cultivated in Can- 
 dia, Lemnos, Malta, Sicily, and Naples. This 
 variety of the cotton plant is sown in the 
 spring, on land that has been ploughed 
 and prepared for the purpose; and is cut 
 down when ripe, in the same manner as 
 our harvest. The seed of the cotton is 
 about the size of that of tares, and of rather 
 a clammy nature, which causes it to adhere 
 to the downy substance with which it is 
 mixed, and from which it is separated by 
 the little machines, which discharge the seed 
 on one side, and the cotton on the other. 
 Smyrna alone has furnished us with 10,000 
 bales of cotton wool per annum. This coun- 
 try formerly took great quantities of cotton- 
 yarn from the Turks ; but our manufactories 
 are now so complete, that even the spinning 
 is done by machinery, which enables us to 
 get it turned into thread, both more regu- 
 larly and cheaper than the indolence of 
 the Turks can furnish it ; but we still import 
 some cotton-yarn from the Mahometans, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 which, being drawn from the distaff, has great 
 advantage over the yarn which is spun by 
 machinery for making candle-wicks, par- 
 ticularly those of sperm and wax, as the 
 fine threads being drawn straighter, are not 
 so liable to spring out in burning, which 
 causes the candles made of other cotton to 
 gutter and burn irregularly. 
 
 It appears that we had made some pro- 
 gress in the manufactory of cotton in Queen 
 Elizabeth's reign, as Gerard observes in his 
 History of Plants, " To speake of the com- 
 modities of the wool of this plant, it were 
 superfluous ; common experience, and the 
 daily vse and benefit we receive by it, doth 
 shew ; so that it were impertinent to our 
 history, to speake of the making of fustian, 
 bombasies, and many other things that are 
 made of the wooll thereof." 
 
 This author appears to have been the first 
 who attempted to cultivate the Gossipium 
 plant in England, for he says that, " it grow- 
 eth about Tripolis and Alepo in Syria, from 
 whence the factor of a worshipful merchant 
 in London, Master Nicholas Lete, did send j 
 vnto his said master diuers pounds weight ' 
 of the seede, whereof some were committed ! 
 
COTTON. 165 
 
 to the earth at the impression hereof: the 
 success we leave to the Lord. Notwith- 
 standing, my selfe, three yeares past, did 
 sowe of the seedes, which did grow very 
 frankly, but perished before it came to per- 
 fection, by reason of the colde frostes that 
 overtooke it in the time of flo wring." 
 
 The cotton manufactory alone has raised 
 Manchester from an humble town to a place 
 of the first importance. It has for near 
 two centuries been increasing in size and 
 in trade; and the perfection to which ovir 
 machinery and the industry of the people 
 have arrived, within these last fifty years, 
 has multiplied the inhabitants, and increased 
 the trade from the supply of its neighbour- 
 hood with a few domestic articles, to fur- 
 nishing the most distant countries, as well as 
 the most sumptuous courts, with its useful 
 and elegant productions. 
 
 Calico, or cotton cloth, is now generally 
 become a substitute for linen cloth through- 
 out the kingdom, not only for the finer parts 
 of female dress, but even for domestic pur- 
 poses, where strength and durability are re- 
 quired. Calico is so called from Callicut, 
 a city on the coast of Malabar, being the 
 
166 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 first place at which the Portuguese landed 
 when they discovered the Indian trade. The 
 Spaniards still call it C allien. 
 
 The demand for printed calicoes becoming 
 common, induced some persons to attempt 
 the art in London, about the year 1676; and 
 in 1722, an act was passed to promote the 
 consumption of our own manufactures, which 
 prohibited the use of foreign calicoes, that 
 were either dyed or printed, to be used as 
 apparel or furniture, under a penalty of five 
 pounds to the informer for every offence ; 
 and drapers selling such calico, forfeited 
 twenty pounds.* The effect of this act was 
 this : it drove the calico printers to imitate 
 the India chintzes, by printing Irish and 
 Scotch linens ; which was continued until 
 the making of cloth from cotton was estab- 
 lished in England. 
 
 The manufacture of calicoes and muslins 
 of every description, with that of velvets, fus- 
 tians, counterpanes, &c. is now carried on to 
 such an extent, and brought to such perfec- 
 tion, that it is supposed that the neighbour- 
 hood of Manchester could supply the whole 
 
 # 
 
 7 Geo. I. Stat. i. cap. 7. 
 
COTTON. 167 
 
 world with these goods ; which, instead of 
 being imported from the East, are at present 
 shipped for the Indies in great quantities. By 
 the aid of our machinery we also produce 
 from cotton, lace of so even a fabric, and at 
 prices so infinitely below what it can be made 
 for in linen thread, that it has in a great 
 measure superseded the use of real lace. 
 
 Manchester, being the centre and heart of 
 the cotton-trade, has either given birth to, or 
 attracted genius from all quarters of the nation, 
 to assist in the necessary operations for form- 
 ing fabrics as numerous as their embellishing 
 colours are various, in which the arts of the 
 engineer, the mechanic, and the artist, as well 
 as the spinner, the weaver, the bleacher, the 
 dyer, the stainer, and the chemist, are all 
 called into action. 
 
 This vegetable wool, that employs so great 
 a portion of our population, is imported in a 
 raw useless state, and is advantageously ex- 
 ported, after being stamped with British art 
 and industry. 
 
 The following account of a pound weight 
 of unmanufactured cotton strikingly evinces 
 the importance of the trade and employ af- 
 forded by this vegetable : " The cotton-wool 
 
168 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 eame from the East Indies to London ; from 
 London it went to Manchester, where it was 
 manufactured into yarn ; from Manchester it 
 was sent to Paisley, where it was woven ; it 
 was then sent to Ayrshire, where it was tam- 
 boured ; it came back to Paisley, and was 
 there veined; afterwards it was sent to Dum- 
 barton, where it was hand-sewed, and again 
 brought to Paisley ; whence it was sent to 
 Renfrew to be bleached, and was returned to 
 Paisley ; whence it went to Glasgow and was 
 finished; and from Glasgow was sent per 
 coach to London. The time occupied in 
 bringing this article to market was three 
 years, from its being packed in India till it ar- 
 rived in cloth at the merchant's warehouse in 
 London : it must have been conveyed 5000 
 miles by sea, and about 920 by land; and con- 
 tributed to support not less than 150 people, 
 by which the value had been increased 2000 
 per cent."* 
 
 So wide and so beneficially is the influence 
 of the cotton-trade spread, that, to the know- 
 ledge of the author of this work, one indivi- 
 dual in the metropolis pays annually from 
 ten to twelve thousand pounds for the article 
 
 * Monthly Magazine. 
 
COTTON. 169 
 
 of silver-gilt wire, which he prepares lor the 
 manufacturers of Paisley, to be woven in the 
 corner of each demy of muslin, in imitation 
 of the Indian custom. 
 
 The cotton-wool is not only used for ge- 
 nuine articles, but is employed to adulterate, 
 or as a substitute for silk; and even many of 
 our linen cloths have a considerable portion 
 of cotton in their composition. 
 
 Cotton cloth, like that of linen, when de- 
 cayed, is transformed into paper for printing. 
 
 The seed of the cotton-plant intoxicates 
 parrots. Old medical authors mention the 
 seeds as being a good remedy against coughs, 
 and of a singularly stimulating quality. 
 
 Leewenhoek accounts for cotton producing 
 inflammation, when applied to wounds in lieu 
 of linen, by a discovery which he made in 
 examining the cotton with a microscope. 
 The fibres were found to have two flat sides, 
 whence he concludes that each of its minute 
 parts must have two acute angles or edges ; 
 which acute edges being not only thinner 
 and more subtle than the globules, whereof 
 the fleshy filaments consist, but also more 
 firm and stiff than any of the globulous flesh, 
 it follows that, upon the application of cot- 
 ton to a wound, its edges must not only 
 
170 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 hurt and wound the globules of the flesh, but 
 also cut incessantly the new matter brought 
 to them to produce new flesh ; and that with 
 more ease, as this matter, not having attained 
 the firmness and consistence of flesh, is the 
 less able to resist its attacks ; whereas the 
 linen ordinarily used in wounds, being com- 
 posed of little round parts, very close to each 
 other, forms large masses, and is thus inca- 
 pable of hurting the globular parts of the 
 flesh. 
 
171 
 
 EARTH or GROUND NUT.— BUNIUM. 
 
 Natural order, Umbellatce. Bulbocastanum. A 
 genus of the Pentandria Digynia class. 
 
 There are two species of this plant indi- 
 genous to our soil, although they are now as 
 little known to the English, as the Arachis 
 of South America. 
 
 The general inclosures, and the high state 
 of the cultivation of our country, have made 
 many of our wild plants as rare as exotics. 
 
 They have changed their English name 
 almost with every British herbist, and have 
 been nearly as often latinized ; but we do not 
 find that any attempt has been made in this 
 country to change their nature by cultivation. 
 
 In addition to the names above, they are 
 called Kipper nuts, Earth Chesnuts, and Pig 
 nuts. 
 
 " I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts. v * 
 
 Turner mentions them in his " Compleat 
 
 * Caliban, in the Tempest. 
 
172 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Herbal' as growing in Richmond heath, and 
 in Coome parke. They are soon after noticed 
 by Gerard, who says, "These herbes do growe 
 in pastures and corne fleldes almost euery 
 where : there is a field adjoining to Highgate, 
 on the right side of the middle of the village, 
 couered ouer with the same ; and likewise in 
 the next flelde vnto the conduit heads by 
 Maribone, neer the way that leadeth to 
 Paddington by London, and in diuers other 
 places." He adds, " these roots be eaten 
 rawe, or rosted in the embers." 
 
 Dodoens, who was physician to Charles 
 the Fifth, of celebrated memory, mentions in 
 his Herbal, that there is great store of these 
 earth-nuts in some places in England ; he 
 says also, that they grow in Holland and in 
 Zealand, particularly by the river Zoom near 
 Barrow, in Brabant. This author informs us 
 that they were cultivated at Brabant, in the 
 gardens of the herbalist ; and that they were 
 boiled in many parts of Holland and Zealand, 
 and eaten with meat as turnips or parsnips : 
 they are, says this physician, as nutritious as 
 the latter roots, but harder of digestion than 
 the turnip. Both this author and Gerard 
 mention earth-nuts as an excellent diuretic, 
 and good for the bladder and kidneys. The 
 
EARTH OR GROUND NUT. 173 
 
 seeds of the plant are more powerful as a 
 medicine than the roots. 
 
 They are to be found in considerable 
 quantities at Henfleld in Sussex, growing in 
 a poor sandy soil, which produced broom 
 spontaneously ; particularly in July and Au- 
 gust when they are in blossom : the flowers 
 are like those of parsley or fennel, but smaller, 
 and seldom exceeding a foot in height ; the 
 leaves are something between those two 
 plants ; being less thready than the fennel, 
 and not so connected as the parsley. The 
 root is about the size of a Barcelona nut, and 
 in appearance like the Jerusalem artichoke ; 
 the taste very similar to the chesnut, but 
 more oily. 
 
 The American ground-nut, or Pindars, 
 Arachis, is of the order of Papilionacece, and 
 of the Diadelphia Decandria class. 
 
 The manner in which this nut is propa- 
 gated is very singular : as the flowers fall off, 
 the young pods are forced into the ground 
 by a natural motion of the stalk, where they 
 are entirely buried, and the pods are not to 
 be discovered without digging for them. 
 They are, says Lunan, very agreeable nuts, 
 and deserve to be more generally cultivated 
 
174 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 than they are ; when roasted, ground, and 
 boiled, they make a good substitute for cho- 
 colate. This author says, in his Hortus 
 Jamaicensis, that he first saw them growing 
 in a negro's plantation, who affirmed, that 
 they grew in great plenty in his country ; 
 these nuts have been cultivated in Jamaica, 
 where they prosper, and are called Gub-a-gubs 
 by the slaves. 
 
 They are of the size, colour, and shape 
 of a filbert, are covered over in the ground 
 with a thin cistus or skin, which contains two 
 or three of them, and many of the cistuses, 
 with their nuts or kernels, are to be found 
 growing to the roots of one plant. When 
 they are ripe and fit to dig up, the cistus 
 that contains them is dry, like a withered 
 leaf, which is taken off, and leaves a kernel 
 reddish without side, and very white within, 
 tasting like an almond, and accounted by 
 some as good as a pistachio ; they are very 
 nourishing, and accounted provocatives. It 
 is said, that if eaten in quantities, these nuts 
 cause the head-ache. Lunan contradicts this 
 assertion, and says he never knew any such ef- 
 fect produced, even in those who chiefly lived 
 upon them ; for masters of ships often feed 
 negroes with them all their voyage ; and that 
 
EARTH OR GROUND NUT. 175 
 
 he had often eaten of them plentifully, and 
 with pleasure, and never found that effect. 
 They may be eaten raw, roasted, or boiled. 
 The oil drawn from them by expression is as 
 good as oil of almonds ; and the nut beaten 
 and applied as a poultice, takes away the 
 sting of scorpions, wasps, or bees. 
 
 These plants were first brought from 
 Africa to the West India islands. In south- 
 ern climates vast crops of these nuts are 
 said to be produced from light, sandy, and 
 indifferent soils. 
 
 Dr. Brownrigg, of North Carolina, trans- 
 mitted some account of the value of these 
 nuts to the Royal Society. From a quantity 
 of them, first bruised, and put into canvass 
 bags, he expressed a pure, clear, well-tasted 
 oil, useful for the same purposes as the oil of 
 olive or almonds. 
 
 From specimens, both of the seeds and oil, 
 produced before the Society, it appeared, 
 that neither of them were subject to turn 
 rancid by keeping. The oil, in particular, 
 which had been sent from Carolina eight 
 months before, without any extraordinary 
 care, and had undergone the heat of the 
 summer, remained perfectly sweet and good. 
 
 A bushel of them yielded (in Carolina), 
 
176 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 without heat, one gallon of oil ; and with 
 heat, a much larger quantity, but of inferior 
 quality. It has been justly supposed, that? 
 from a successful prosecution of this manu- 
 facture, the Colonies may not only be able 
 to supply their own consumption, in lieu of 
 the olive oil annually imported from Europe, 
 but even make it a considerable article of 
 export. 
 
177 
 
 EGG PLANT, on VEGETABLE EGG. 
 — MELONGENA. 
 
 Natural order, Luridce. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Monogynia class. 
 
 This plant is a species of Solatium, or 
 night-shade, of which there are at least 
 sixty-six species. It is a native of the East 
 Indies, and has acquired its present English 
 name from the shape and appearance of its 
 fruit, which is attached to the stem, and set 
 in a cornered cup similar to the berry of 
 the potatoe ; those that are white, perfectly 
 resemble an egg, from the size of that of a 
 pigeon to a swan's. Some of the varieties 
 bear fruit of a purple or violet colour, others 
 variegated. These vegetable eggs have one 
 cell filled with compressed roundish seeds. 
 
 They were formerly called Mala insana, 
 viz. mad or raging apples, from the resem- 
 blance they were supposed to bear to the 
 male mandrake of Theophrastus, which is 
 stated to have caused madness; whereas, in 
 reality, they cause no ill, nor excite any syr.ip- 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 toms of madness, but are used by the Italians, 
 Spaniards, and French, in their sauces and 
 sweetmeats. In these countries, as well as 
 in Barbary, they are planted in the kitchen- 
 garden, and are often boiled with fat flesh, 
 to which they add scraped cheese ; and they 
 are preserved through the winter, either in 
 honey, vinegar, or salt pickle. When the 
 fruit is just ripe, they eat it dressed with 
 spices, &c. It is thought to be the Bdingel 
 of the Portuguese, the Tongu of Angola, and 
 the Macumba of Congo. This plant has 
 been supposed to induce a sopor and mad- 
 ness, whence it takes its name.* 
 
 There are several varieties of them culti- 
 vated in the gardens of the West Indies, and 
 one kind, called Badinjan or Banjham, often 
 produces fruit in that climate weighing 
 from seven to ten pounds each. Lunan says, 
 in his Hortus Jamaicensis, " I planted, about 
 twenty years ago, half an acre of ground with 
 them, on which my slaves fed, and were well 
 pleased with the food ; they eat something 
 like a squash, but better than any of the 
 pumpkin kind." He adds, " they are boiled 
 or fried ; but the best way is to parboil them, 
 taking off their outer skin, which is somewhat 
 
 # Hist. Plant, adscript. Boerhaave. 
 
 
EGG PLANT. 179 
 
 bitter, and then fry them in oil or butter; 
 they are also sliced and pickled for a few 
 hours, and then boiled green, or served in the 
 same manner as mashed turnips ; either way," 
 says Lunan, " they are an agreeable food, and 
 accounted to be aphrodisiac, and to cure 
 sterility : when boiled with wine and pepper, 
 they taste like artichokes." A lady who has 
 many years resided in Jamaica, favoured the 
 author with the following receipt for dress- 
 ing vegetable eggs : — The inside, after being 
 scooped out, to be fried either in oil or but- 
 ter, and the outside to be boiled whole, and 
 when drained, to be filled with the fried 
 parts, and sent to table apparently whole, 
 as a dish of eggs. She informed him, that 
 when dressed in the common way, they 
 should be cut into slices, and soaked in salt 
 and water for a few hours, to extract the 
 bitter taste. 
 
 The French make great use of the purple 
 variety of this egg-shaped fruit, which they 
 call Aubergine, and which is as common as 
 the love-apple in the vegetable markets of 
 Paris. Their favourite method of dressing 
 them, is by taking out the seeds with a scoop, 
 filling the cavity with sweet herbs, and then 
 frying them whole. 
 
 
180 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 In England, the egg plant is principally 
 cultivated for its singular and curious appear- 
 ance, few families even knowing that they 
 are proper for aliment, excepting those who 
 have resided on the Continent, or who have 
 studied the natural history of plants. They 
 are rarely brought into the London markets, 
 and then so eagerly secured by foreign cooks, 
 that they are seldom seen exposed for sale. 
 
 The manner of propagating them, in this 
 country, is to sow the seeds in March, upon 
 a moderately hot bed ; and when the plants 
 are come up, they are to be thinned by 
 planting them in another hot-bed, at four 
 inches asunder, watering, and shading them 
 till they have taken root. They must after- 
 wards have as much air as the season will 
 allow, and in May they should be trans- 
 planted into a warm border, at about two 
 feet from each other. About the middle of 
 July the fruit will appear, when they require 
 watering to enlarge the eggs, which ripen 
 about the end of August.* 
 
 It is not exactly known at what period 
 this plant was first cultivated in England, 
 but certainly it was previous to 1596, as 
 
 * Miller. 
 
EGG PLANT. 1 8 1 
 
 Gerard says, in the first edition of his Herbal, 
 " This plant groweth in Egypt almost euery- 
 where, in sandie fieldes, euen of itselfe, 
 bringing foorth fruite of the bigness of a 
 great cucumber. We haue had the same in 
 our London gardens, where it hath borne 
 flowers, but the winter approaching before 
 the time of ripening, it perished ; notwith- 
 standing it came to beare fruite of the bigness 
 of a goose egge, one extraordinarie tempe- 
 rate yeere, as I did see in the garden of a 
 worshipfull merchant, Master Haruie, in 
 Lime-street, but neuer to full ripeness." 
 " It is better," continues this author, " to 
 haue this plante in the garden, for your 
 pleasure, and the rarenesse thereof, than for 
 any virtue or good qualities yet known. I 
 rather wish Englishmen to content them- 
 selues with the meate and sauce of our own 
 countrey, than with fruite and sauce eaten 
 with such perill : for, doubtless, these apples 
 have a mischeeuous quality ; the use thereof 
 is vtterly to be forsaken." 
 
 With this caution, we cannot be surprised 
 that the Melongena should have been in our 
 gardens for two hundred and twenty years 
 without reaching our tables. 
 
182 
 
 FENNEL.— FCENICULUM. 
 
 Natural order, Umbellatce. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Digynia class. Linnaus has 
 joined this genus to Anethum or DHL 
 
 " Sylvanus comes with rustic honours crown'd, 
 Fennel and lilies do his brows surround." 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 Foeniculum, Metpa&fpv, seems to be derived 
 from f allium, hay ; because, when withered 
 and dried like hay, it was formerly preserved 
 in like manner against winter. Others think 
 it was so called because when sown it returns 
 the seed magno cum fanore, with vast in- 
 terest. Marathrum, Ma'paS^or, is by some 
 derived from ^.aja/Vo^a/, to wither, because, 
 when dry and withered, it was much used in 
 seasoning a great variety of things. 
 
 The French writers on herbs state, that this 
 plant was originally brought from Syria ; but 
 the English botanists consider it a native of 
 this country. 
 
FENNEL. 183 
 
 It seems fond of the sea side, and is found 
 growing in a natural state at Feversham in 
 Kent. It may also be seen growing wild in 
 great abundance on the banks of the river 
 Adur, near the Sussex Pad, between Brigh- 
 ton and Worthing : this wild fennel is pre- 
 cisely the same as that of the garden. The 
 sweet fennel, Faniculum dulce, probably is the 
 kind alluded to by the naturalists of France 
 as coming from Syria and the Azores : this 
 variety soon degenerates in our soil into the 
 common fennel, which justifies the supposi- 
 tion, that the common fennel may not be an 
 aboriginal of England, but that it is more 
 probably changed from the seed anciently 
 sown in this country. 
 
 The Italians consider the sweet kind of 
 fennel to be a native of the Azores islands. 
 It has long been cultivated in Italy as a salad 
 herb, under the title of Finochia; but the 
 English in general have not yet acquired a 
 relish for it ; although it eats very tender 
 and crisp, when earthed up as celery, which 
 should be done at least fourteen days before 
 it is used. 
 
 We procure the seed from Italy, which 
 should be done annually. The first crop 
 
184 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 may be sown in March, in a light rich earth, 
 the second in April, and continued until 
 July, with the same management as celery. 
 
 The common fennel is now but little used 
 for culinary purposes, except as a sauce for 
 mackarel. The French epicures keep their 
 fish in the leaves of fennel, to make them 
 firm. It is also used in France in water- 
 suche, and all fish soups. 
 
 The whole of the plant is good in soup or 
 broth. It was formerly the practice to boil 
 fennel with all fish, and it never would have 
 been discontinued, had its virtues been more 
 generally known; for it consumes the phleg- 
 matic humour, in which most fish abound, 
 and which greatly annoys many persons who 
 are fond of boiled fish. Our fishmongers 
 should at all times have a plentiful supply of 
 this hardy and wholesome herb, every part 
 of which agrees with the stomach. 
 
 It is one of the five opening roots : it is 
 recommended in broth to cleanse the blood, 
 and remove obstructions of the liver, and to 
 clear and improve the complexion after the 
 jaundice, and other sickness. 
 
 The seed is one of the greater carmina- 
 tive seeds; and, boiled in barley- water, is good 
 
FENNEL. 185 
 
 for nurses, as it is said to increase milk and 
 make it more wholesome for the child— a virtue 
 attributed also to the leaves. The seeds are 
 also recommended for those who are troubled 
 with shortness of breath, and wheezzing, oc- 
 casioned by stoppage of the lungs. Its 
 leaves in decoction strengthen the sight ; its 
 juice, taken fasting, is said to cure intermit- 
 tent fevers. It is a sudorific and carmina- 
 tive, facilitates digestion when chewed ; and 
 is a specific in malignant putrid fevers. 
 
 There is a simple water made from the 
 leaves, and an essential oil from the seed and 
 leaves. Neumann says, " The oil obtained 
 from the leaves on the upper part of the 
 plant is much finer, lighter, and more subtle, 
 than the oil obtained from the lower leaves. 
 The former oil swims on water, and the latter 
 sinks. There is also a strong water, or kind 
 of brandy, made of the seeds of fennel, called 
 fennel water. 
 
 Snakes and serpents delight in fennel, and 
 seem to eat it medicinally before they cast off 
 their old skins. Pliny says, the ancient phy- 
 sicians observed that the serpents, having 
 wounded the fennel stalk, cleared their eyes 
 with the juice, and whereby they learnt that 
 
186 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 this herb hath the singular property of cleans- 
 ing our sight, and taking away the film or 
 web from our eyes : he adds, that the only 
 time to obtain the juice is when the stalk is 
 nearly full grown : it was administered with 
 honey. 
 
 Induced by these observations, the author 
 planted fennel on a bank in his shrubbery, 
 where he had frequently seen snakes ; but for 
 want of that time and caution, which it re- 
 quires to watch these reptiles, he has never 
 seen them bite this herb, but has often found 
 the stalks not only wounded, but eaten near- 
 ly half through, either by these, or some 
 other animals. 
 
 The Romans drank the seeds of fennel in 
 wine, as a remedy for the sting of scorpions 
 or serpents. They considered this vegetable 
 as a sovereign remedy for the liver. The 
 root boiled in wine was esteemed for the drop- 
 sy, as were the seeds for the stone and gravel. 
 
 Petridtus, in his work entitled Ophiaca, 
 Mycton, in his treatise named Rhizotomu- 
 mena, and Nicander, maintain, that there is 
 not a better counterpoison against the venom 
 of serpents than wild fennel. 
 
 In putrid fevers, attended with a malig- 
 
FENNEL. 187 
 
 nity, we shall hardly find a plant more aperi- 
 tive and discussive, by means of sweat, than 
 fennel ; whence nothing can be more proper 
 in the small-pox and measles, than a decoc- 
 tion of the herb, or its seeds or roots*. Ray 
 says, fennel is excellent for preventing abor- 
 tions. 
 
 Joannes Crats, physician to the Emperor 
 of Germany, says, he saw a monk, who was 
 cured by his tutor, in nine days, of a cata- 
 ract, by only applying the roots of fennel, 
 boiled in wine, with the decoction, to the 
 eyes. 
 
 It is also said, that the steam of the de- 
 coction of fennel is an excellent cleanser 
 for the eyes, and that it strengthens the 
 sight. 
 
 Boerhaave says, that this root agrees in 
 taste, smell, and medicinal quality, with the 
 celebrated ginseng of the Chinese; from 
 which, however, it appears to differ very 
 considerably. 
 
 Pliny states, that fennel was cultivated as 
 a garden herb by the Romans, and that it 
 was so much used in the kitchen, that there 
 were few meats seasoned, or vinegar sauces 
 
 * Sim. PauW. 
 
188 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 served-up, without it. That the bakers 
 used it to give a pleasant taste to their 
 bread, by placing it under their loaves, when 
 they were put into the oven. A good house- 
 wife, says this excellent author, will go into 
 her herb garden, instead of a spice-shop, for 
 her seasonings, and thus preserve the health 
 of her family, by saving her purse. 
 
189 
 
 FLAX, or LINE.— LINUM. 
 
 Natural order, Grecinales. A genus of the 
 Pentandria Pentagynia class. 
 
 The Greeks called this vegetable Alvov, 
 and the Latins had no other name for it than 
 Linum, both in its growing state and when 
 prepared for the spinner ; hence the Italians 
 and Spaniards have derived the word Lino ; 
 and the French, Lin. The ancient Britons 
 called it Lyne from the same source. The 
 word Flax is derived from the Saxon Fleax\ or 
 Flex; but we still term it Linseed and Linen 
 cloth, although when speaking of the plant 
 we call it Flax. 
 
 We know twenty-two species of linum, 
 four of which are said to be indigenous to 
 our soil. 
 
 The flax is scarcely superior in appearance 
 to the common grass ; yet on no other vege- 
 table has the ingenuity of man been so ex- 
 tensively employed, or exerted with such 
 success. 
 
190 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Without the aid of flax, this island might 
 have remained unknown and unpeopled. Its 
 assistance enabled the European sailor to 
 discover a new world, and people to whom 
 we must have remained strangers but for the 
 fibres of this herb, and from whose territories 
 we have since enriched our isle with the 
 most useful roots, the most luxurious fruits, 
 and ornamental plants. It was with flax that 
 we first made wings to our vessels, with 
 which we travelled with the swiftness of the 
 eagle, and extended our commerce to the 
 most distant parts of the globe. 
 
 Daedalus is said to have been the inventor 
 of sails for ships, by which he fled from Crete, 
 to escape from the revenge of the incensed 
 Minos, who had condemned him to be con- 
 fined in the labyrinth which he had con- 
 structed. Daedalus arrived safe in Sicily, 
 where he was hospitably received by Cocalus, 
 king of that island. From this circumstance 
 the ancient allegory states, that he made 
 himself wings. This was at least 1350 years 
 before Christ ; and we find that sails were 
 certainly used before Homers time, who says 
 
 the winds aloud 
 
 one wmus aiuuu 
 
 Howl o'er the niasts, and sing through every shroud.' 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 191 
 
 At that period the use of hemp was not dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Flax is a slender plant, that seldom exceeds 
 two feet and a half in height. From its 
 fibrous bark we procure the comfort of linen, 
 and the beauty of lace ; its very rags are 
 manufactured into the most exquisite of all 
 our luxuries, viz. the paper that enables 
 distant friends to hold converse, and commu- 
 nicates the wisdom of the learned of every 
 age and language. 
 
 How the fibrous qualities of this plant 
 were first discovered, it is beyond the powers 
 of research to ascertain ; probably the ear- 
 liest use of this pliable plant was to twist 
 into bands for the purpose of attaching pro- 
 ductive vines to unfruitful trees. Thus 
 Milton describes the employment of our first 
 parents : 
 
 " or they led the vine 
 
 To wed her elm ; she 'spoused, about him twines 
 
 Her marriageable arms, and with her brings 
 
 Her dower, adopted clusters, to adorn 
 
 His barren leaves." 
 
 Book 5. 
 
 As man multiplied, the necessity of en- 
 snaring wild animals and securing domes- 
 tic ones, would naturally call his attention 
 to the formation of a cord ; and when once a 
 
192 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 band was formed of the whole plant, it would 
 easily be discovered that the fibres were the 
 part that afforded the strength. 
 
 When New Holland was first discovered, 
 it was observed that the natives, who sub- 
 sisted principally on fish, had invented a 
 kind of net made of the fibres of flax, by in- 
 serting the loops into each other without a 
 knot ; yet these people had not the least idea 
 of forming a covering, even to protect them- 
 selves from the inclemency of the weather, 
 and were so barbarously ignorant as not to 
 have the least knowledge of the art of culti- 
 vating plants or fruits of any description. 
 
 The making and use of linen cloth ap- 
 pears to have been invented previously to 
 the Deluge, as we read that Noah slept in 
 a tent.* 
 
 Egypt, which appears to be the country 
 that Ham, the second son of Noah, resorted 
 to, from its being called in Scripture, the 
 Land of Ham, soon became the garden of 
 the East, and the seat of arts. 
 
 " Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob 
 sojourned in the Land of Ham."-f* 
 
 Ham is supposed to have led a pastoral 
 life, but his son Misraim, who is mentioned 
 
 # Gen. c. ix. v. 21 f Psalm cv. v. 23. 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 1}).) 
 
 in profane history by the appellation of 
 Men£s, assumed the style of king, and built 
 the town of Memphis. His wife Lsis, whom 
 some suppose to be the same as Io, is said to 
 have taught the art of agriculture, and em- 
 ployed herself diligently in cultivating the 
 earth, for which she was deified, and the 
 worship of lsis became universal in Egypt. 
 The priests of this goddess were clothed 
 in linen garments. 
 
 About 300 years after the flood, Abram 
 and his family went into Egypt to avoid the 
 famine ; and on their return the following 
 year, the book of Genesis notices, that Lot, 
 the nephew of Abram, had flocks and herds, 
 and tents. 
 
 Pharaoh arrayed Joseph in vestures of fine 
 linen ; and when Moses called down the 
 plague of hail upon Egypt, it destroyed the 
 flax. 
 
 " And the flax and the barley was smitten ; 
 for the barley was in the ear, and the flax 
 was boiled."* 
 
 That the art of weaving had attained a 
 wonderful perfection in Egypt in those days, 
 we learn both from profane and sacred 
 history. 
 
 * Exodus, c. ix. 31 . 
 vol. i. o 
 
194- CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The Israelites appear to have carried the 
 art with them when they were delivered 
 from bondage ; for they were commanded 
 in the wilderness to make offerings for the 
 tabernacle, of " blue, and purple, and scarlet, 
 and fine linen, and goats' hair." 
 
 " Thou shalt make the tabernacle with 
 ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, 
 and purple, and scarlet ; with cherubims of 
 cunning work shalt thou make them."* 
 
 In the 28th chapter of the same book, we 
 have a description of the holy garments for 
 Aaron, which were of fine linen. " And thou 
 shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and 
 thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and 
 thou shalt make the girdle of needle-work." 
 
 " And all the women that were wise- 
 hearted did spin with their hands, and 
 brought that which they had spun, both of 
 blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of 
 fine linen. And all the women, whose 
 heart stirred them up in wisdom, spun goats' 
 hair."-j' 
 
 Egypt continued to be celebrated as the 
 country of flax and linen in the days of 
 Solomon, whose merchants traded thither 
 
 * Exod. chap. xxvi. 1. f Exod. chap. xxxv. 25, 26. 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 195 
 
 nearly a thousand years after the time that 
 Abram visited that land. 
 
 " And Solomon had horses brought out 
 of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king's mer- 
 chants received linen yarn at a price." * 
 
 " I have decked my bed with coverings of 
 tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen 
 of Egypt."*f* 
 
 The prophet Isaiah notices this manufac- 
 ture of the Egyptians, about 250 years 
 later than Solomon. This prophet menaces 
 Egypt with a drought of so terrible a kind, 
 that it should interrupt every kind of labour. 
 
 " Moreover, they that work in fine flax, 
 they that weave net-works, shall be con- 
 founded, j" 
 
 Ezekiel the prophet, in his description of 
 the riches and the merchandize of Tyre, 
 speaks of the productions of Egypt, about 
 150 years after Isaiah. 
 
 " Fine linen with broidered work from 
 Egypt, was that which thou spreadedst 
 forth to be thy sail.§" 
 
 From the Egyptian linen, the principal 
 garments of the priests of the heathens, 
 as well as those of the Israelites, were formed. 
 
 * 1 Kings, chap. x. 28. f Proverbs, chap. vii. 16. 
 
 X Isaiah, chap. xix. 9. § Ezekiel, chap, xxvii. 7. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The Eastern kings and princes were also 
 habited in linen, therefore flax formed a con- 
 siderable branch of the trade of Egypt ; and 
 their method of making fine linen, was 
 carried to such a wonderful perfection, that 
 the threads which were drawn out of them 
 were almost imperceptible to the keenest 
 eye. Pliny states, that some of the thread 
 made from flax was finer and more even, 
 if possible, than the web of a spider, and 
 yet so strong, that it would give a sound 
 nearly as loud as a lute-string. This author 
 states in the first chapter of his nineteenth 
 book, that he had seen an Egyptian net 
 made of so fine a thread, that, notwithstand- 
 ing every cord in the mesh was made of 
 150 threads twisted, yet it could be drawn 
 through the ring of a finger. "I have known," 
 says this writer, " one man who could carry 
 about as many of these nets, as would encom- 
 pass a whole forest." He adds, that Julius 
 Lupus, who was governor of Egypt, pos- 
 sessed one of these nets ; but that the most J 
 extraordinary net-work was that which was ; 
 shewn in the temple of Minerva, in the Isle 
 of Rhodes ; every thread of which was twisted '' 
 365 times double, agreeably to the number 
 of days in the year. This singularly curious ; 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. If)/ 
 
 piece of workmanship had formerly belonged 
 to Amasis, who from a common soldier be- 
 came King of Egypt, about 526 years before 
 the Christian aera. 
 
 The author has now in his possession a 
 piece of linen cloth, which was woven in 
 Egypt as long back as the Trojan war. It 
 will naturally be surmised, that it is a part 
 of the envelope of a mummy. In comparing 
 this cloth to that of our linen of the same 
 fineness, and examining them through a 
 microscope, it is observed, that the warp of 
 the ancient linen is not so close as that of 
 the present make, but that the woof is 
 pressed much closer : it would consequently 
 be more durable, wear softer, and be less 
 susceptible of soil, than modern linen 
 cloth. 
 
 The Athenians, who were an Egyptian 
 colony from Sais, followed the custom of 
 their ancestors, by applying themselves to 
 raising flax for linen cloth : they therefore 
 worshiped Minerva, who was also styled 
 Ergatis, or the workwoman, for her excel- 
 lency in spinning and weaving ; and who 
 is supposed to be no other than the Egyp- 
 tian Isis ; for the Egyptians, to remind the 
 people of the importance of their linen 
 
198 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 manufactory, exposed in their festivals an 
 image, bearing in its right hand the beam 
 or instrument round which the weavers rolled 
 the warp of their cloth. This image was 
 called Minerva, from Manevra, a weaver's 
 loom. The name of Athene, that is also 
 given to this goddess, is the very word de- 
 noting in Egypt the flaxen thread used in 
 their looms. Near this figure, which was 
 intended to warn the inhabitants of the ap- 
 proach of the weaving or winter season, they 
 placed another of an insect, whose industry 
 is supposed to have given rise to this art, 
 and to which they gave the name of Arachne, 
 (from arach, to make linen cloth) to denote 
 its application. All these emblems, trans- 
 planted to Greece, were by the genius of a 
 people fond of the marvellous, converted 
 into real objects, and indeed afforded ample 
 room for the imagination of their poets to 
 invent the fable of the transformation of 
 Arachne into a spider. Ovid, who has set this 
 story in a beautiful light, says, Arachne was 
 
 " One at the loom so exquisitely skill'd, 
 That to the goddess she refused to yield. 
 Low was her birth, and small her native town, 
 She from her art alone obtained renown. 
 
 t£ $F ^p ^ 9r ^ ^ 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. l. ( )J) 
 
 " Oft to admire the niceness of her skill, 
 
 The nymphs would quit their fountain, shade, or hill." 
 
 After Minerva had accepted the challenge 
 of Arachne, the poet thus elegantly describes 
 their work : 
 
 " Straight to their posts appointed both repair, 
 And fix their threaded looms with equal care : 
 Around the solid beam the web is tied, 
 While hollow canes the parting warp divide ; 
 Through which with nimble flight the shuttles play, 
 And for the woof prepare a ready way ; 
 The woof and warp unite, press'd by the toothy slay. 
 
 Thus both, their mantles button'd to their breast, 
 Their skilful fingers ply with willing haste, 
 And work'd with pleasure : while they cheer the eye 
 With glowing purple of the Tyrian dye : 
 Or, justly intermixing shades with light, 
 Their colouring insensibly unite. 
 As when a shower transpierced with sunny rays 
 Its mighty arch along the heaven displays ; 
 From whence a thousand different colours rise, 
 Whose fine transition cheats the clearest eyes : 
 So like the intermingled shading seems, 
 And only differs in the last extremes. 
 Then threads of gold both artfully dispose, 
 And, as each part in just proportion rose, 
 Some antique fable in their work disclose." 
 
 The Greeks made a linen of so fine a 
 fabric, from the flax which they cultivated 
 near Elis, (now Belvedere,) that it sold by 
 weight, at the price of gold. This is the 
 
200 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 flax which Pliny calls Byssus, and from which 
 a kind of lawn or tiffany was made. The 
 same author says, a flax is now found out 
 which will not consume in the fire ; this he 
 calls living flax, and says, he saw at a great 
 feast, all the table-cloths, napkins, and 
 towels, thrown into the fire, which received 
 a cleanness and lustre from the flames, which 
 no water could have given it. This kind of 
 cloth was used at the royal obsequies and 
 funerals, to wrap round the corpse as a 
 shroud or sheet, in order to preserve the 
 ashes of the body from mixing with those of 
 the wood of the funeral pile. Pliny adds, 
 that this flax grew in the deserts of India, 
 where the country is parched and burnt with 
 the sun : he says, it is difficult to be found, 
 and as hard to be woven, being in short fibres. 
 In its natural state, the colour was reddish, 
 but by burning it became bright : it was 
 esteemed as precious as oriental pearls. It 
 does not appear by this account, that the 
 Romans were acquainted with its being a 
 mineral substance. 
 
 The art of making this fossil linen is nearly 
 lost, although John Baptist Porta, the inven- 
 tor of the camera-obscura, assures us, that in 
 his time (from 1445 to 1515) the spinning of 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 201 
 
 asbestos was a thing known to every body 
 at Venice ; and it is said to be still in use by 
 the Princes of Tartary, in burning their dead. 
 
 A handkerchief made of this substance, 
 which Dr. Plot judges to be of a nature be- 
 tween stone and earth, was long since pre- 
 sented to the Royal Society of London. 
 This has given several proofs of its resisting 
 fire ; and when taken out red hot, it did 
 not burn a piece of white paper, on which it 
 was laid. 
 
 The asbestos is found in the island of An- 
 glesey in Wales, and in Aberdeenshire in 
 Scotland, in some parts of France, in Tar- 
 tary, Siberia, and several other places ; and 
 were there a demand for this incombustible 
 cloth, or a price given equal to the trouble of 
 manufacturing it, we should soon recover the 
 art, and have it on sale in the shops of our 
 metropolis. 
 
 But to return to flaxen linen : by looking 
 back into history we shall find, that it was 
 used for other purposes than garments at a 
 very early period ; for the stupendous tem- 
 ples of the heathens, and the courts of their 
 palaces in ancient times, were open buildings 
 surrounded with massive columns, and orna- 
 mented with gigantic statues of their gods, 
 
202 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 and colossal figures of their inferior deities. 
 In these immense courts not only the inha- 
 bitants of a whole city, but often an entire 
 kingdom assembled, to celebrate a festival, 
 or to obey the mandate of their sovereign. 
 As the art of weaving became more known, 
 these gorgeous edifices were occasionally 
 hung with rich curtains of linen cloth, to 
 shade and protect the guest from the sun or 
 weather. The first chapter of the book of 
 Esther describes the feast which King Aha- 
 suerus gave in the third year of his reign 
 to all the princes and servants of the 127 
 provinces over which he reigned, from Ethi- 
 opia to India. This feast lasted 180 days, 
 at the expiration of which he feasted all 
 the people that were in Shusham, "both 
 great and small," for seven days, " in the 
 court of the garden of the king's palace," 
 where were white, green, and blue hangings, 
 fastened with cords of fine linen and purple, 
 to silver rings and pillars of marble. 
 
 The Romans appear to have derived this 
 idea from the Egyptians, as Lentulus Spin- 
 ther was the first who caused the great am- 
 phitheatre at Rome to be covered with fine 
 curtains. This was about the period when 
 Antony was in Egypt ; and Pliny observes, 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 203 
 
 that the sails of the ship in which Antony 
 and Cleopatra came to Actium, were dyed 
 purple. 
 
 Julius Caesar caused the Forum at Rome 
 to be covered with fine curtains ; as also 
 the whole of the principal street called 
 Sacra, from his own dwelling to the cliff 1 of 
 the Capitol. This sumptuous sight, says 
 Pliny, was beheld with great wonder and 
 admiration. 
 
 Marcellus, during his iEdileship, upon the 
 calends (or first) of August, caused the Ro- 
 man Forum to be hung and canopied with 
 curtains, that those who came to plead at 
 the bar might stand under shade. " What a 
 change," says Pliny, " since the days of Cato 
 the Censor, who advised that the said Forum 
 should be paved over with caltrops, to keep 
 away the lawyers and busy pleaders." 
 
 Nero caused the amphitheatre to be co- 
 vered with curtains of a sky-blue, spangled 
 with stars. 
 
 We now see the rustics of our own country 
 enjoying their pipe and their ale beneath the 
 linen canopy in a rural fair, as proud of their 
 liberty as the Eastern monarchs were of their 
 temples, or the Romans of their dictatorship. 
 
204 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 " 'Tis liberty that crowns Britannia's isle, 
 And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains 
 smile," Addison. 
 
 Spain was celebrated for her manufactory 
 of linen as early as the birth of Christ. The 
 Spaniards were the inventors of fine Cyprus 
 or clear lawn, which was made from the flax 
 of Arragon and Catalonia. France then pro- 
 duced a flax from which sails were made : 
 Holland and Flanders produced linen cloth 
 at the same period. The Germans of those 
 days carried on the spinning and weaving of 
 linen in vaults and caves under ground, which 
 was also the practice of the people of Lom- 
 bardy in the time of Pliny.* 
 
 The fine muslins of the East Indies were 
 also made by persons kept under ground, 
 who were never allowed to see the light. 
 Children were entombed from their infancy 
 in these dark abodes, in order to gratify the 
 vanity of the wealthy with a finer thread 
 than could be drawn by the eye that was 
 blessed with the sight of day. Our East 
 India Company has suppressed this subterra- 
 neous weaving. The art is now happily lost, 
 and no Christian can wish its revival. 
 
 Linen was not worn by the Hebrews, 
 
 * Book xix. c. 1. 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 205 
 
 Greeks, or Romans, as any part of their or- 
 dinary dress : their under-tunics were made 
 of fine wool or hair ; and hence arose the 
 occasion for frequent bathing. It has been 
 observed that the introduction of linen shirts 
 has been found to lessen the prevalence of 
 leprosy. 
 
 The Emperor Alexander Severus, who was 
 murdered in the year 235 a. d. was the first 
 person who wore a linen shirt : but the gene- 
 ral use of so necessary a garment did not 
 become common till long after him. 
 
 The making of linen cloth in England was 
 probably introduced by the Romans, who 
 certainly cultivated flax in this country. 
 
 Before Britain had become so great a com- 
 mercial nation, each town or village had its 
 weaver, and every good housewife was ex- 
 pected to furnish her family with linen 
 of her own spinning. The farmers' daughters 
 were early instructed in this art, and their 
 female domestics filled up all their vacant 
 hours at the distaff or wheel. Tusser, in his 
 advice to the farmer, for. May, says, 
 
 " Good flax and good hemp, for to haue of liir owne, 
 In May a good huswife wil see it be sown : 
 And afterward trim it, to serue at a need, 
 The fimble to spin, and the carle for his seed." 
 
206 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 In the same author's directions for July, he 
 
 says, 
 
 " Now pluck up thy flax, for thy maidens to spin, 
 First see it dried, and timely got in." 
 
 Flax has for many ages employed and en- 
 riched the French nation. Their city of 
 Cambray first manufactured that beautiful 
 linen called from thence Cambric, for pur- 
 chase of which, England for many years con- 
 tributed not less than 200,000/. per annum. 
 
 In the reign of George the Second several 
 salutary laws were enacted to prevent this 
 great loss of our wealth; and an Act passed 
 in the 4th of George the Third, c. 26, to regu- 
 late the cambric manufactory, not long be- 
 fore introduced into Winchelsea in Sussex, 
 but which soon failed, and was abolished. 
 Laws have been made to prevent the selling 
 and wearing of French cambrics and lawns 
 in England, but which have only established 
 their fame as being superior to our own. 
 
 The fine fibres of this plant have also af- 
 forded the French, as well as the Flemings, 
 a valuable article for commerce in their lace 
 of Brussels, Valenciennes, Lisle, Mechlin, 
 Normandy, &c. Our legislators have laid 
 heavy fines and duties to prevent the impor- 
 tation of this article of luxury, but with 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 207 
 
 little success, for while it is admitted at 
 court, it will naturally be seen in private 
 society. Flax is not known in China. 
 
 From the seeds of this vegetable is drawn 
 linseed oil, so useful to our house painters 
 and other artists. 
 
 "Whether their hand strike out some free design, 
 Where life awakes, and dawns at every line, 
 Or blend in beauteous tints the colour'd mass, 
 And from the canvass call the mimic face." Pope. 
 
 The seeds are esteemed an excellent 
 emollient and anodyne: they are used exter- 
 nally in cataplasms, to assuage the pain of in- 
 flamed humours : internally, a slight infusion 
 of linseed, by way of tea, is recommended in 
 coughs as an excellent pectoral, and of great 
 service in pleurisies, nephritic complaints, 
 and suppressions of urine. Cold-drawn lin- 
 seed oil is of great service in all diseases of 
 the breast and lungs, as pleurisies, peripneu- 
 monies, coughs, asthmas, and consumptions. 
 It likewise helps in the colic and stone.* 
 
 In pleuritic pains, says Raygerusf, I have 
 often experienced linseed oil to be the most 
 successful medicine I could prescribe ; for it 
 immediately facilitated respiration, and pro- 
 moted spitting. In haemoptoe, also, I ex- 
 
 * James. t Germ. An. 6 & 7. 
 
208 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 hibited the same oil with the desired suc- 
 cess ; for, by its balsamatic and emplastic 
 virtue, it consolidates the affected parts. 
 
 The oil, boiled with honey, clears the face 
 and skin of spots, and all cutaneous ble- 
 mishes.* 
 
 Linseed oil consists of parts so subtile, 
 that it cannot be kept in earthen vessels, 
 without transudation. 
 
 The lint made from linen rags has ever 
 been in great use in surgical cases, from its 
 softness, smoothness, and flexibility ; where- 
 as that made from cotton can never be used 
 about wounds, on account of its denticulated 
 parts, which dispose to inflammation.-f 
 
 Formerly the seed of the flax was occasion- 
 ally used with corn to make bread, but it 
 was considered hard of digestion, and hurt- 
 ful to the stomach. In a scarcity of corn 
 which happened in Zeland in the sixteenth 
 century, the inhabitants of Middleburgh 
 had recourse to linseed, which they made 
 into cakes, and which caused the death of 
 many of the citizens who ate of it ; causing 
 dreadful swellings of the body and face. 
 
 * Hist. Plant, ascript. Boerhaave. 
 
 t Seethe cause of this under the article Cotton, p. 169. 
 
FLAX, OR LINE. 209 
 
 Pliny informs us, that the peasants in Lom- 
 bardy and Piedmont had formerly used as 
 food, a sweet kind of bread or cakes made 
 from this seed, but which in his time was 
 only used in their sacrifices to the gods. 
 
 The quantity of linseed annually im- 
 ported into these kingdoms, was, in the year 
 1780, estimated to be not less than 240,000 
 bushels. 
 
 There is an act of parliament now in force, 
 which forbids the steeping of flax in rivers 
 or any waters where cattle are accustomed 
 to drink, as it is found to communicate a 
 poison destructive to the cattle which drink 
 of it, and to the fish in such waters. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
210 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 GINGER.— AMOUM ZINGIBER. 
 
 Natural order, Scitamitiece, and of the Mon- 
 andria Monogynia class. 
 
 Zingiber, by the Greeks called X"SyiQeo, 
 took its name from the Indian word Zengebil. 
 
 This acrid spicy-rooted plant is a native 
 of the East Indies. It grows naturally on the 
 coast of Malabar, in Bengal, and at Ceylon; 
 the Indians call it ZingibeL 
 
 It appears also to be indigenous to China, 
 where it grows wild, and is cultivated to a 
 great extent, particularly in the environs of 
 Gingi, from whence, in all probability, it 
 derived its name of Ginger. 
 
 This plant was introduced into New Spain 
 by a person named Francisco de Mendoza ; 
 from whence, most probably, it was carried to 
 the West India Islands, where it now grows 
 (particularly in Jamaica) so plentifully, even 
 in a wild state, as to induce a belief that it 
 was indigenous to the soil. Since its intro- 
 
 
GINGER. 211 
 
 duction to Jamaica, says Lunan, it has be- 
 come an article of considerable export ; for 
 which purpose it has been generally culti- 
 vated. 
 
 It is calculated that the quantity of this 
 root consumed in Europe, is about one mil- 
 lion of pounds annually. 
 
 Ginger was known in England in Queen 
 Elizabeth's reign, as Gerard says; " Our 
 men which sacked Domingo in the Indies, 
 digged vp ginger there in sundry places 
 wilde." This author adds, ■? Ginger groweth 
 in Spaine, in the Canarie Hands, and the 
 Azores. Ginger," he continues, " is most 
 impatient of these our northern regions, as 
 myselfe haue found by proofe; for that there 
 haue been brought vnto me at seuerall times, 
 sundry plants thereof, fresh, greene, and 
 full of iuice, as well from the West Indies, 
 as from Barbarie and other places, which 
 haue sprouted and budded foorth greene 
 leaues in my garden in the heate of somer ; 
 but as soone as it hath bin but touched with 
 the first sharp blast of winter, it hath pre- 
 sently perished both blade and roote." 
 
 It appears to have been known in London 
 about the year 1566 or 7, and was evidently 
 introduced by the Dutch ; as Gerard states, 
 
 9 
 
212 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 that about 30 years or more before he pub- 
 lished his account (1597), " an honest and 
 expert apothecarie William Dries, to satisfie 
 my desire, sent me from Antwerpe to Lon- 
 don, the picture of ginger, bicause I was 
 not ignorant, that there had been oft ginger 
 rootes brought, green, new, and full of iuice, 
 from the Indies to Antwerpe: and further, 
 that the same had budded and growne in the 
 said Dries' garden." 
 
 The following manner of preparing it in 
 Jamaica is extracted from Longs History: 
 
 " It is propagated by the smaller pieces, 
 prongs, or protuberances of the root* each of 
 which throws up two different stems : the 
 first bears the leaves, and rises to the height 
 sometimes of three feet or upwards ; but its 
 usual growth seldom exceeds eighteen inches. 
 It thrives best in a rich cool soil ; and there- 
 fore what has been recently cleared from 
 wood, is well adapted to the culture of it, 
 more especially as it is supposed to be a 
 great impoverisher of land. In such a soil 
 it grows so luxuriantly, that a hand, or a 
 large-spreading root, will weigh near a 
 pound. It is however remarked, that what 
 is produced from a clayey tenacious soil, 
 shrinks less in scalding; while such as is raised 
 
GINGER. 213 
 
 in richer black moulds, loses considerably in 
 that operation. The land intended for the 
 cultivation of it, is first well cleansed with the 
 hoe, then slightly trenched, and planted 
 about the month of March or April. It ob- 
 tains its full height, and flowers about August 
 or September, and fades about the close of 
 the year. When the stalk is entirely wi- 
 thered, the roots are in the proper state for 
 digging. This is generally performed in 
 the month of January and February. After 
 being dug, they are picked, cleansed, and 
 gradually seethed or scalded in boiling water ; 
 they are then spread out, and exposed every 
 day to the sun till sufficiently dried ; and 
 after being divided into parcels of about one 
 hundred each, they are packed up in bags 
 for the market : this is called the black gin- 
 ger. The manner of scalding the roots is as 
 follows : a large pot or copper is fixed in the 
 field, or some convenient place, which is kept 
 full of boiling water ; the picked ginger, being 
 divided into small parcels, is laid in baskets, 
 and plunged alternately in the water, where 
 it is suffered to stay for the space of ten or 
 fifteen minutes ; it is then spread on a plat- 
 form for drying; but care is taken, during the 
 process, to change the water as soon as it 
 
214 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 becomes much impregnated with the juice of 
 the root. 
 
 " The white sort differs but little from the 
 black roots. The difference arises wholly 
 from the methods of curing them. The white 
 is never scalded ; but instead of this easy 
 process, they are picked, scraped, and wash- 
 ed, one at a time, and then dried ; all which 
 requires too much pains and time for any 
 real advantage to be gained in the properties ; 
 though, being made more agreeable to the 
 eye, the price of the white is much higher at 
 market. 
 
 " When roots are intended for sugar-pre- 
 serve, they are dug while tender and full of 
 juice ; the stems at this time rarely exceed 
 five or six inches in height ; the root is care- 
 fully picked, washed, and afterwards scalded 
 till it is sufficiently tender ; it is then put 
 in cold water, and peeled and scraped gra- 
 dually. This operation may last three or 
 four days, during which it is commonly kept 
 in water, and the water frequently shifted, as 
 well for cleanliness as to extract more of the 
 native acrimony. After this preparation it is 
 laid in unglazed jars, and covered with a thin 
 syrup, which in two or three days is shifted, 
 and a richer put in : this is sorftetimes again 
 
GINGER. 215 
 
 removed for a third, or fourth; but more than 
 three are seldom requisite. The shifted sy- 
 rups are not lost ; for, in Jamaica, they are di- 
 luted with water, and fermented into a plea- 
 sant liquor, called cool drink, with some mix- 
 ture of the chaw-stick, lignum vitce, and sugar. 
 
 " This root, however, either in its natural 
 state or candied, is esteemed a good remedy 
 against the cholic, loosenesses of the belly, and 
 windy disorders. It strengthens the stomach, 
 Kelps digestion, and is often added as a cor- 
 rector to purges ; its use in culinary prepara- 
 tions is well known." * 
 
 The roots of ginger appear to be much less 
 liable to heat the constitution than might be 
 expected from its penetrating warmth and 
 pungency of taste. It gives out the whole of 
 its virtue to rectified spirit, and great part of 
 it to water. The spiritous tincture, inspis- 
 sated, yields a fiery extract, smelling mode- 
 rately of the ginger. A syrup made from an 
 infusion of three or four ounces of the root, 
 in three pints of boiling water, is kept in the 
 shops. The cases in which ginger is more 
 immediately serviceable, are flatulent cholics, 
 debility and laxity of the system, and in tor- 
 
 # Long, p. 700. 
 
216 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 pid and phlegmatic constitutions, to excite a 
 brisker action of the vessels. 
 
 A limpid red transparent oil, swimming 
 on water, is by simple distillation, got out of 
 these roots, agreeing in smell and taste with 
 ginger, only more mild. Dr. Wright says, 
 that ginger is good in baths and fomenta- 
 tions ; in complaints of the viscera, pleurisies, 
 and obstinate continued fevers. Infused in 
 rum or wine, with filings of steel, it is also 
 said to be useful in obstructions. 
 
 Ginger tea has been recommended in 
 gouty cases. The mode of making it is by 
 pounding the dried roots in a mortar. Begin 
 with a heaped tea-spoonful, taken in boiled 
 milk, either for supper or breakfast ; the 
 quantity may be increased to two, or even 
 three drachms. These directions were given 
 by Dr. Wright, to whom Sir Joseph Banks 
 gave the following account of its effects 
 upon himself, in 1784 : "I have taken two 
 tea-spoonfuls heaped up of ginger powdered, 
 in a pint of milk, boiled with bread and 
 sweetened with sugar, for breakfast, for more 
 than a year past. The weight of the ginger 
 is between two and three drachms. At first, 
 this quantity is difficult to swallow, if the 
 ginger is good. I was guided in the quantity 
 
GINGER. 217 
 
 by the effect it had on my stomach ; if it 
 made me hiccup, the dose was too large. I 
 found occasionally, that it produced ardor 
 urince ; but this went off without any ill con- 
 sequences whatever. I have not yet found 
 it necessary to increase the dose ; but I use 
 rather a coarser powder than I did at first 
 which mixes more easily with the milk, and 
 probably produces rather more effect than 
 the fine." 
 
 " The late Lord Rivers took ginger in 
 large doses, for more than thirty years, and 
 at eighty was an upright and healthy old man. 
 
 " I have, since I used the ginger, had one 
 fit of the gout ; but it was confined entirely 
 to my extremities, and never assailed either 
 my head, my loins, or my stomach, and lasted 
 only seventeen or eighteen days ; but the 
 last fit I had before I took the ginger, 
 affected my head, my stomach, and my loins, 
 and lasted, with intervals, from the end of 
 October to January."* 
 
 The roots preserved or candied are an ex- 
 cellent stomachic, and comforting ; boiled in 
 wine, with a little cummin seed, ginger eases 
 the pain of the stomach, and causes sweat ; 
 
 * Sinclair's Code of Health, vol. i. page 233. 
 
218 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 outwardly applied, mixed with cocoa-nut oil, 
 draws out poisons in wounds ; and rubbed 
 upon the stomach, comforts it, and eases 
 pains arising from a cold cause.* 
 
 The Indians, as well as the Chinese, eat 
 the root when green by way of salad, chop- 
 ping it small, and mixing it with herbs. Well 
 made ginger-bread is both agreeable and 
 wholesome, and many excellent receipts may 
 be found for making it, in the Domestic 
 Cookery, and other receipt-books, as well as 
 for making ginger-beer and ginger-wine — 
 drinks which have lately been very properly 
 introduced for the warm season of the year. 
 
 Green ginger, preserved with sugar, is 
 proper for old persons, and those of cold 
 and phlegmatic constitutions, especially when 
 it is new ; it is also good for viscid phlegm in 
 the lungs.-f* 
 
 Ginger is good for the stomach, thorax, 
 and the other viscera; restores lost appetite, 
 and resists the putrefaction and malignity of 
 the humours, j 
 
 Ginger absterges and dissipates infrac- 
 tions of the stomach and lungs, by consum- 
 ing the superfluous humours, and comforts 
 
 # Barham, p. 63. f James. % Dale; 
 
GINGER. 219 
 
 and strengthens the brain and memory : it is 
 also of service in dulness of sight, proceed- 
 ing from humidity. 
 
 " This root," says Dr. 11. James, " as well as 
 pepper, is more used in culinary than medi- 
 cinal preparations ; because, among all spices, 
 these two have very much of an acrimonious, 
 and but little of an aromatic quality." Galen 
 infers, that ginger is not of so fine parts as 
 pepper, because its heat, though equally 
 strong, is not so soon felt, but lasts longer ; 
 hence, he concludes ginger to be of a grosser 
 and more humid or aqueous substance. 
 
CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 HEMP.— CANNABIS. 
 
 Natural order, Scabridce. A genus of the 
 Diozcia Peniandria class. 
 
 The Latin name of this plant is the same 
 as the Greek KavvacCis, from KclvclGqi, because 
 it prospers best near watery places. 
 
 That this fibrous plant is indigenous to 
 most of the European countries, as well as 
 to Asia Minor, we have the authority of an- 
 cient authors, in opposition to the statements 
 of some of our modern botanists, that it is a 
 native plant of India only. Some of our 
 Encyclopaedias state, that the ancients used 
 hemp only medicinally. Pliny is cited as 
 their authority. In his 19th book, chap- 
 ter 9- however, he informs us that hemp is 
 equally good for making cordage ; that the 
 best for the purpose of making nets, and 
 snares for wild beasts, was grown in Alabanda; 
 and that the second in quality grew near 
 Mylasium, both towns of Caria. 
 
HEMP. c 2'2 1 
 
 As a Phoenician colony settled there, it is 
 probable that these people, so celebrated for 
 their achievements in navigation, were the 
 first who discovered the use of hemp in form- 
 ing cables and tackle for their ships. They 
 were in ancient times what the Britons are at 
 present. Isaiah calls their country " the 
 merchant city, the mart of nations, whose 
 merchants are princes, whose traffickers are 
 the honourables of the earth." 
 
 Pliny states, that the hemp which grew in 
 some parts of Italy, and near Rosea in the 
 Sabines' country, grew as high as shrubs ; 
 that it originally grew there in the very 
 woods, without even sowing. It appears by 
 the account of this author, that the Romans 
 gathered the seed before the stalks, as lie 
 says the seed should be sown in February, 
 and that the thicker it is sown, the finer the 
 hemp grows. When the seed ripened in the 
 autumn, it was rubbed out and dried in the 
 sun, the wind, or in smoke, and the stalks 
 were not plucked out of the earth, until after 
 the vintage. " It is then," continues he, 
 " the work of the husbandman to peel and 
 cleanse it, which these people do in the 
 evening by candle-light." It appears to have 
 been diligently sorted ; as this great observer 
 
222 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 of natural productions says, the worst part 
 of hemp is next to the bark or rind ; the 
 principal part, and that of the best quality, 
 was called Mesa. 
 
 Although we do not produce lawn or lace 
 from the fibres of hemp, yet it is a plant of 
 great importance to Britons, as it forms the 
 sails and tackle of our vessels, from the huge 
 cable of a ship of war, to the more humble, 
 but not less profitable net of the herring- 
 boat. 
 
 The sails and cordage of a first-rate man- 
 of-war, require 180,000 pounds of rough 
 hemp for their construction ; and it is said to 
 average five acres of land to produce a ton 
 of hemp : thus one of those monstrous towers 
 of human ingenuity, that 
 
 '* Stems the vast main, and bears tremendous war 
 To distant nations, or with sovereign sway 
 Awes the divided world to peace and love/' 
 
 consumes a year's produce of 424 acres of 
 land to furnish its necessary tackle. 
 
 From this calculation it will be seen that 
 Great Britain could not furnish itself with 
 a sufficient quantity of hemp of her own 
 growth to supply the immense demands of 
 our shipping. 
 
HEMP. 223 
 
 In the year 1763, we imported 11,000 tons 
 from Russia ; and Sir John Sinclair informs 
 us, that in the year 1785, the quantity ex- 
 ported from St. Petersburg, in British ships, 
 amounted to 17,695 tons, which would be 
 the produce of 88,475 acres of land. In the 
 year 1788, we imported from Russia 58,464 
 tons, the produce of nearly 300,000 acres, 
 which at 20/. per ton, would net the Rus- 
 sians 1,269,280/. In the year 1783, France 
 consumed 200,000 tons of hemp, of which 
 more than one third was imported. 
 
 An act strongly demonstrating the folly 
 of laying prohibitions on articles of com- 
 merce, (which often strengthens those whom 
 it intends to disable,) was committed by the 
 Russians, in the year 1718, when they en- 
 tered into a combination with the Swedes 
 to deprive England of naval stores ; and 
 would suffer none to be exported out of 
 their own dominions, but in their own ships, 
 and at their own exorbitant prices ; which 
 instead of ruining our trade and navigation, 
 turned our attention to our colonies, and 
 induced us to procure from North America 
 not only a sufficient supply for the use of 
 Great Britain, but a large surplus for ex- 
 portation. 
 
224 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Our government, fully aware of the im- 
 portant uses of hemp, has made several 
 salutary laws, to render its culture an object 
 of attention. In the year 1787, a bounty of 
 three pence per stone, was allowed on all 
 hemp raised in England, and duties have 
 been laid on all that is imported. 
 
 China is celebrated for its abundance of 
 hemp, particularly in the province of Xensi ; 
 but flax is not known to grow in that empire. 
 The excellence of the Chinese hemp was 
 noticed by Nievhoff, who attended the em- 
 bassy which the Dutch East India Company, 
 sent to Pekin in 1655 and 6. From this em- 
 bassy more information is obtained on the 
 policy and natural history of China, than 
 from any accounts since published of our 
 own embassies : whether this is owing to the 
 limited observation of our naturalists, or 
 to the jealous restrictions of the Chinese, 
 we cannot decide. 
 
 The late Mr. Elliot sent some seeds of 
 the Chinese hemp to Mr. Fitzgerald, vice- 
 president of the Society for Encouragement 
 of Arts : which being sown, produced plants 
 fourteen feet high, and nearly seven inches 
 in circumference. This induced Mr. Fitz- 
 gerald to apply to the Directors of the India 
 

 HEMP. 225 
 
 Company, to obtain some of the seeds 
 from China, which were procured in 1785; 
 but few of the plants ripened their seed 
 in this country. Dr. Hinton made a more 
 successful trial of raising the Chinese hemp 
 in 1787, which produced one-third more 
 of marketable hemp than the best English 
 hemp was ever known to yield on the same 
 quantity of ground. Few of the hemp-seeds 
 will vegetate if two years old; to this cir- 
 cumstance may be attributed the failure 
 of many attempts to raise this new variety 
 of hemp. 
 
 The English hemp is much superior in 
 strength to that which grows in any other 
 country. Suffolk is the principal county 
 where hemp is grown and manufactured ; 
 this is seldom or ever used for cordage. The 
 cloth made from this hemp is more durable 
 than the flaxen linen, as well as warmer ; 
 and has the advantage of becoming whiter 
 by age and use than that made from flax, 
 which will not maintain its bleached white- 
 ness. 
 
 We import a considerable quantity of 
 sheeting from Russia, which has this great 
 advantage over our own hempen cloth, that, 
 being drawn from the distaff* the fibres are 
 
 VOL. 1. Q 
 
226 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES, 
 
 longer and less crossed than those in the 
 thread made by machinery. 
 
 Tusser gave this valuable hint to the far- 
 mers in Queen Mary's time : 
 
 " Where plots full of nettels be noisom to eie, 
 
 sow thereupon hemp-seed, and nettels wil die." 
 
 We cannot but observe, that with all the 
 improvements in the cultivation of this coun- 
 try since the days of that author, there are 
 still to be seen many wide hedgerows that 
 are the nursery of thistles and other impo- 
 verishing weeds, which might turn to good 
 account if sown with hemp, particularly if 
 they were allowed to be planted by the poor 
 cottagers, either with this valuable vegetable 
 or the more necessary root of the potatoe. 
 These poor parishioners would then have an 
 interest in keeping off depredators, and in 
 protecting the fences instead of destroying 
 them ; their leisure would be spent in their 
 own little territory instead of the ale-house, 
 and their children would acquire early habits 
 of industry in tilling a plot for themselves. 
 
 It is observed by the Rev. Thomas Rad- 
 cliff, in his Report on the Agriculture of 
 Eastern and Western Flanders, " that each 
 day-labourer has, in most cases, a small quan- 
 
HEMP. 227 
 
 tity of land, from a rood to half an acre, for 
 his own cultivation." He adds, " Their com- 
 fortable supply of linen is remarkable ; there 
 are few of the labouring classes without many 
 changes. In riding with a landed proprietor 
 through a part of the country in which his 
 property was situated, a neat cottage pre- 
 sented itself : the clipped hedge which sur- 
 rounded the garden, covered with linen, very 
 white, suggested an inquiry, ' whether it did 
 not belong to a washerwoman ?' The answer 
 was, that it was occupied by a labourer and 
 his family, and that the linen was all their 
 own. In common times a beggar is scarcely 
 to be seen, except in the towns, and but few 
 there." 
 
 Every circumstance that is connected with 
 the comforts of the lower classes, and every 
 device that can be invented to keep them 
 from receiving parochial relief, should be 
 adopted ; for when once they have become 
 familiar to this aid, their natural pride for- 
 sakes them, and few are the instances of their 
 ever endeavouring to become independent of* 
 the agriculturist, on whom they now weigh so 
 heavily as to endanger the prosperity of their 
 support. 
 
 Frugality disappears the moment the la- 
 
 y 2 
 
228 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 bourer cannot obtain a living on his own per- 
 sonal exertions; and to economize, when they 
 once use the public purse, seems against the 
 nature of their mortified spirit. 
 
 Hemp is said to possess a property which 
 renders it almost invaluable to the farmer as 
 well as the gardener : viz. that of driving 
 away all insects that feed upon other vege- 
 tables. It is a common practice in many 
 parts of the Continent to sow a belt of hemp 
 round their gardens, or any particular spot 
 where they wish to preserve their crops from 
 the mischievous attacks of flies or caterpil- 
 lars. We would wish this experiment to be 
 frequently made in turnip fields ; for, should 
 it succeed in protecting those crops from the 
 ravages of flies, as well as the cabbages from 
 the caterpillar, it would accomplish a most 
 desirable end. 
 
 It is presumed that Tusser made his ob- 
 servation, that, where nettles will grow, hemp 
 will thrive and destroy the nettle, from the 
 opinion of the ancients as to assimilated 
 juices, an opinion really not deserving the 
 contempt it is generally treated with by plan- 
 ters. Plants requiring the same nourish- 
 ment never thrive in neighbourhood, and the 
 hemp is nearly allied to the nettle ; from the 
 
HEMP. !!{) 
 
 latter plant a tolerably good linen may be 
 made. 
 
 It will generally be observed, that nettles 
 occupy a good soil, which might be advan- 
 tageously metamorphosed into plots and 
 banks of hemp. 
 
 A Sussex manufacturer, who wrote on this 
 article in the Annals of Agriculture, informs 
 us, that hemp may be raised for many years 
 successively on the same ground, provided it 
 be well manured. The quantity of seed re- 
 quired to sow an acre of ground, varies from 
 nine to twelve pecks, according to the nature 
 of the soil ; the quality of the hemp also 
 differs with the soil. The common height 
 of the plant is from five to six feet. Mr. 
 Arthur Young informs us, that in his tour 
 through Catalonia in Spain, he saw extraor- 
 dinary crops of hemp, where the land was 
 well watered, and that these plants were 
 seven feet high. The hemp that is culti- 
 vated near Bischwiller, in Alsace, is often 
 more than twelve feet high, and upwards of 
 three inches in circumference. 
 
 From the class in which this plant is ar- 
 ranged in botany, it will be observed, that 
 the same seeds produce both male and fe- 
 male plants promiscuously : this is one of 
 
230 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 i 
 
 the secrets, in the work of Nature, which 
 cannot be accounted for. The Date has the 
 same peculiar quality ; for, when we plant 
 the kernel of this fruit, it is uncertain whe- 
 ther the offspring will be a male or female 
 palm-tree. 
 
 The flowers of the fruitful hemp are her- 
 maphrodital, and, like the lofty palm tree, or 
 some of the lowly strawberry plants, produce 
 abortive seed, without the aid of the farina 
 of the barren plant. It is a curious misap- 
 pellation of the cultivators of hemp, who call 
 the fruitful plants male, and those that are 
 barren female; we are more surprised that 
 botanical writers should fall into the error, 
 or, rather, copy this blunder from one work 
 into another for so many ages, without cor- 
 recting a mistake that inverts the order of 
 Nature. 
 
 The unfruitful plants are forwarder than 
 the fruitful ones by a month : this is ascer- 
 tained by the fading of the blossoms, the 
 falling of the farina fecundans, and the stalks 
 becoming of a yellowish cast. These plants 
 should be drawn out and worked, if possible, 
 while green, the hemp being then finer than 
 that which is previously dried. The Abb6 
 Bralle, in a Treatise upon the Culture and 
 
HEMP. 231 
 
 Management of Hemp, directs, that little 
 paths should be made lengthways through 
 the fields, at about seven feet distance from 
 each other, to allow a passage for the person 
 who pulls up the unfruitful hemp from 
 among the other, which requires to stand 
 more than a month after the barren plants 
 to ripen its seed. The fibres of the hemp 
 are prepared for spinning, by a similar pro- 
 cess to that of preparing flax. The beating 
 of hemp, which was formerly performed by 
 hand, is now done by a water-mill, which 
 raises heavy beaters, and only requires the 
 assistance of a boy to keep it turned. This 
 laborious work was formerly imposed as a 
 punishment for vice, in the houses of correc- 
 tion. Hogarth has noticed this circumstance 
 in one of his celebrated pictures. 
 
 It is a duty incumbent on society, not to 
 allow hempen rags, or even old ropes, to be 
 destroyed. They are carefully sorted by the 
 paper-maker, the finest being reserved for 
 the purposes of literature and correspon- 
 dence, while inferior sorts are selected for 
 the various purposes of packages and paper- 
 hangings. 
 
 The seed of hemp, being boiled in milk 
 till it cracks, is accounted good for old 
 
232 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 
 coughs, and a specific for the jaundice.* 
 Dodoens says, that, in his day, the hemp- 
 seed, stamped and taken in white wine, was 
 highly commended as a remedy for the jaun- 
 dice and complaints of the liver. 
 
 The juice of the green plant, instilled into 
 the ears, mitigates the pains therein. -f* 
 
 Coles, in his excellent History of Plants, 
 notices the virtues of hemp thus laconically : 
 " By this cordage ships are guided, bells are 
 rung, beds are corded, and rogues are kept 
 in awe." 
 
 * Miller's Bot. Off. f Dioscorides, lib. iii. cap. 165. 
 
233 
 
 HOP.— HUMULUS. 
 
 Natural order, Scabridce. A genus of the 
 Dicecia Pentandria class. 
 
 " Lo, on auxiliary poles, the hops 
 Ascending spiral, ranged in meet array." 
 
 Phillips's Cider. 
 
 The generic name of this plant is derived 
 from humus, moist earth or ground, because 
 the plant thrives best in such soil, but this 
 word is of modern origin, as is the Greek 
 word (ipuov, and fipvwvioc, Bryonia, Bryony, 
 from the form of the leaves and running of 
 the branches, which somewhat resemble this 
 latter plant. It seems to have been un- 
 known to the ancient Greeks, as it is unno- 
 ticed by their authors ; and Pliny is the first 
 of the Romans who makes mention of this 
 plant. He calls it Lupulus Salictarius, as is 
 supposed, from its climbing upon sallows and 
 other trees. This author informs us, that the 
 ancients made no use of the flowers, except- 
 ing to ornament their gardens; but that the 
 
234 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Romans in his time ate the young tops as 
 a vegetable, which are, says he, more palata- 
 ble than nutritious. 
 
 Lobel called this plant Vitis Septentriona- 
 lium, the Vine of the northern regions, be- 
 cause we put hops in our malt drink. 
 
 The hop, of which there is but one species 
 discovered, is an indigenous plant of this 
 country, although it is generally stated to 
 have been first brought to this kingdom 
 from the Netherlands, in the year 1524. It 
 is probable that the Dutch gardeners, who 
 came to England in the reign of Henry the 
 Eighth, might have brought over some hop- 
 plants, with other roots and seeds, and that 
 we availed ourselves of their manner of cul- 
 tivating this bitter herb. From them, it ap- 
 pears, we also derived the name, which, in 
 High Dutch, is Hopffen ; and Hoppe, Hop, 
 and Hopcruyt in Dutch. 
 
 The first English treatise written express- 
 ly on the culture of hops, was by Reynolde 
 Scot, printed in 1574, in 63 pages, black 
 letter, entitled, " A perfite platforme of a 
 Hoppe Garden." He complains that * the 
 Flemmings envie our practice herin, who 
 altogither tende their owne profite, seeking 
 to impownde us in the ignorance of our com- 
 
hop. 235 
 
 nodities, to cramme us with the wares and 
 ruites of their countrie, and to doe anye 
 hing that myght put impediment to this 
 mrpose, dazeling us with the discommenda- 
 ion of our soyle, obscuring and falsifying 
 he order of this mysterie, sending us into 
 ^launders as farre as Poppering, for that 
 diich we may flnde at home in our own 
 mnksides." 
 
 Tusser, who resided in Essex during the 
 eigns of Henry the Eighth and his three 
 :hildren, has left us a faithful account of the 
 nanner of treating the hop in his day ; his 
 rerse for the month of June, says 
 
 f Whom fansie perswadeth, among other crops, 
 to have for his spending, sufficient of hops : 
 Must willingly follow, of choises to choose, 
 such lessons approued, or skilful do vse. 
 
 Ground grauellie, sandie, and mixed with claie, 
 is naughty for hops, any manner of waie : 
 
 Or if it be mingled with rubbish and stone, 
 for driness and barrenness, let it alone. 
 
 Choose soile for the hop, of the rottenest mould, 
 well doonged and wrought, as a garden plot should : 
 
 Not far from the water, (but not ouerflowne) 
 this lesson well noted, is meet to be knowne. 
 
 The sun in the south, or else southlie and west, 
 is joy to the hop, as welcommed ghest : 
 
 But wind in the north, or else northerly east, 
 to hop is as ill, as a fray in a feast. 
 
236 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Meet plot for a hopyard, once found as is told, 
 make thereof account, as of jewel of gold : 
 
 Now dig it and leave it, the sun for to burne, 
 and afterwards fense it, to serue for that turne. 
 
 The hop for his profit, I thus do exalt, 
 
 it strengthened drinke, and fauoureth malt : 
 
 And being wel breued, long kep it will last, 
 and drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast. 
 
 For January. 
 
 If hopyard or orchard, ye mind for to haue, 
 for hop poles and crotches, in lopping go saue : 
 
 Which husbandly saued, may serve at a push, 
 and stop by so hauing, two gapes with a bush. 
 
 Remember thy hopyard, if season be drie, 
 Now dig it and weed it, and so let it lie : 
 
 More fennie the laier, the better his lust, 
 
 more apt to bear hops, when it crumbles like dust. 
 
 For March. 
 
 In March at the furthest, drie season or wet, 
 hop roots so wel chosen, let skilful go set : 
 
 The goeler and yonger, the better I loue, 
 
 wel gutted and pared, the better they proue. 
 
 Some laieth them crossewise, along in the ground, 
 as high as the knee, they do couer up round : 
 
 Some pricke vp a sticke, in the midst of the same, 
 that little round hillocke,the better to frame. 
 
 Some maketh a hollowness halfe a foot deepe, 
 with fower sets in it, set slantwise asleepe : 
 
 One foote from another, in order to lie, 
 and thereon a hillocke, as round as a pie. 
 
hop. 237 
 
 Fiue foot from another, ech hillocke would stand 
 as straight as a leuelled line with the hand : 
 
 Let euery hillocke be fower foot wide, 
 the better to come to on euery side. 
 
 By willowes that groweth, thy hopyard without, 
 and also by hedges, thy meadowes about ; 
 
 Good hop hath a pleasure to climb and to spread, 
 if sunne may haue passage, to comfort hirhead. 
 
 For the month of April the same author 
 continues, 
 
 Get into thy hopyard, with plentie of poles, 
 
 amongst the same hillocks, diuide them by doles : 
 
 Three poles to a hillocke (I pass not how long) 
 shall yield thee more profit, set deeply and strong. 
 
 For May. 
 
 Get into thy hopyard, for now it is time 
 
 to teach Robin hop on his pole how to clime : 
 
 To follow the sunne, as his property is, 
 
 and weed him and trim him, if aught go amis. 
 
 For August. 
 
 If hops do look brownish, then are ye too slow, 
 if longer ye suffer those hops for to grow : 
 
 Now sooner ye gather, more profit is found, 
 if weather be fair, and dew off the ground. 
 
 Not breake off, but cut off, from hop the hop string, 
 leaue growing a little, again for the spring: 
 
 Whose hil about pared, and therewith new clad, 
 shal nourish more sets, against March to be had. 
 
238 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Hop hillock discharged of euery let, 
 
 see then without breaking each pole ye out get : 
 
 Which being intangled aboue in the tops, 
 go carrie to such as are plucking of hops. 
 
 Take soutage or hair (that covers the kel) 
 
 set like to a manger, and fastened wel : 
 With poles vpon crotches, as hie as the brest, 
 
 for sauing and riddance, is husbandry best. 
 
 Some skilfullie drieth their hops on a kel, 
 and some on a soller, of turning them wel ; 
 
 Kel dried wil abide foul weather and faire, 
 where drying and lying in loft doo despaire. 
 
 Some close them vp drie, in a hogshead or fat, 
 yet canuas or soutage, is better than that: 
 
 By drying and laying, they quickly be spilt, 
 
 thus much haue I shewed, do now as thow wilt. 
 
 Gerard, who wrote on this plant in 1596, 
 says, " It ioyeth in a fat and fruitful ground : 
 it prospereth the better by manuring. The 
 flowers of hops are gathered in August and 
 September, and reserued to be vsed in beere. 
 The manifold virtues in hops do manifestly 
 argue the holsomnesse of beere above ale ; 
 for the hops rather make it phisicall drinke 
 to keepe the body in health, than an ordina- 
 rie drinke for the quenching of our thirst." 
 He adds, " The flowers are vsed to season 
 beere or ale with, and overmany do cause 
 bitterness thereof, and are ill for the head. 
 
hop. 239 
 
 The flowers make bread light, and the lunipe 
 to be sooner and easilier leuened, if the meal 
 be tempored with liquor, wherein they 
 haue beene boiled. The buds or first sprouts 
 which come foorth in the spring, are vsed to 
 be eaten in sallads, yet are they more tooth- 
 some than nourishing." 
 
 The earliest writer who speaks fully on 
 this plant, is D. Rembert Dodoens, professor 
 at Leyden, and physician to Charles the 
 Fifth, who, when he had resigned his Impe- 
 rial honours, endeavoured to quiet his mind 
 by cultivating his garden, in the monastery 
 of St. Juste, on the borders of Castile. 
 Dodoens's Herbal mentions the two varieties 
 of hops; " the wild hedge hop, and the 
 manured, the bells or bunches (flowers) of 
 which, when ripe, have a very strong smell, 
 and are collected by the brewers of ale and 
 beer, who keep them together, to give a good 
 relish and pleasant taste to their drink. The 
 cultivated hop, he says, is planted in gar- 
 dens and places fit for the purpose, where 
 it windeth itself about poles ; the wild hop 
 groweth in fields, and in herb gardens, as 
 its tender shoots, before they produce leaves, 
 are eaten in salads, and are a good and whole- 
 some meat." This physician says, "the tie- 
 
240 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 coction of hops, when drunk, opens the 
 stoppings of the Ever, the spleen or milt, 
 and purgeth the blood from all corrupt 
 humours, principally by urine ; it is therefore 
 good for those of gross scorbutic habits." 
 He adds, " that the young shoots, eaten as 
 salad in the month of March, have the same 
 virtues, and that the juice of hops is a great 
 purifier of the blood." 
 
 Haller, from Isidorus, says, that the first 
 experiment of putting hops into beer, was 
 made in Italy. It does not appear that they 
 were used by the English, in the composition 
 of malt liquor, until after Henry the Eighth's 
 expedition against Tournay, about the year 
 1524. We therefore conclude, that the art 
 was learnt during that enterprise. In the 
 following reign, hops are first mentioned in 
 our statute book, viz. in the year 1552 (5 
 and 6 Edward the Sixth, cap. 5.), and by an 
 Act of Parliament of 1603, the first year of 
 James the First (cap. 18), it appears, that 
 hops were then produced in considerable 
 quantity in England. But this vegetable- 
 bitter has been subject to caprice, as well as 
 other plants ; for, an opinion prevailing that 
 hops possessed deleterious qualities, the City 
 of London petitioned Parliament, to prevent 
 
hop. c 241 
 
 their being put into beer.* The use of them 
 was, therefore, forbidden bv an Act of Parlia- 
 ment, in the reign of James the First. This 
 act was little attended to, and, never having 
 been repealed, is strongly contrasted by the 
 Act 9 Anne, cap. 12, which inflicts a penalty 
 of twenty pounds on all brewers who shall 
 use any other bitter than that of hops in 
 their malt liquors ; and to prevent their being 
 adulterated by giving them scent or colour 
 by drugs, an Act was passed in the 6th of 
 George the Third, which makes it a forfeiture 
 of five pounds per hundred weight to use 
 this deception ; and by the same act, the ma- 
 liciously cutting hop-bines growing on poles 
 in any plantation is made felony, without 
 benefit of clergy. 
 
 The hop is the only native plant that is 
 under the control of the Excise. By 9 Anne, 
 cap. 12, a duty of one penny per pound was 
 laid on all hops growing in Great Britain and 
 
 * Walter Blith says, in his third edition of " English 
 Improver Improved" (1653), " It is not many years since 
 the famous city of London petitioned the Parliament of 
 England against two anusancies, and these were Newcastle 
 coals, in regard of their stench, &c. and hops, in regard 
 they would spoil the taste of drink, and endanger the 
 people." 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 made fit for use ; and all hop-grounds were 
 required to be entered, on pain of forty shil- 
 lings per acre. In the same act an additional 
 duty of three-pence per pound was laid on 
 all hops imported, over and above other 
 duties ; and hops landed before entry and 
 payment of duty, or without warrant for 
 landing, are, by that act, to be forfeited and 
 burnt ; the ship also to be confiscated, and 
 the person concerned in importing or landing, 
 to forfeit five pounds a hundred weight. 
 
 Hartlib, in his Complete Husbandman, 
 (1659,) says, " that in Queen Elizabeth's 
 time we had hopps from the Low Countries, 
 and that the Frenchman, who writes the 
 Treasure Politick, saith, that it's one of the 
 great deficiencies of England, that hopps will 
 not grow, whereas now it is known that they 
 are the best in the world." However, we 
 find that they were imported, occasionally, 
 as late as the year 1695 ; for 510 cwt. were 
 then brought from Flanders and Holland.* 
 
 Coles notices, in his Paradise of Plants, 
 (1657,) " That hops grow in great plenty in 
 Kent and Essex, where there be men of good 
 worth, whose estates consist in hop-grounds." 
 
 * Hought. 2. 458. 
 
hop. t } 4;3 
 
 Lord Bacon says, " The planting of hop- 
 yards is profitable for the planters, and con- 
 sequently for the kingdom." Mortimer ob- 
 serves, that in Kent they plant their hop- 
 gardens with apple-trees and cherry-trees 
 between. 
 
 The grower of hops is obliged to keep 
 scales and weights for the use of the Excise ; 
 and to remove them before being weighed, 
 subjects him to severe penalties : they must 
 also be packed in bags called pockets, and 
 the weight, with the planter's name and 
 abode, marked on them, with the date of the 
 year in which the hops were grown : to alter 
 or obliterate this mark, subjects the offender 
 to a fine of ten pounds : by application to 
 the Excise, they are allowed to be packed in 
 casks under the same regulation. 
 
 The cultivation of hops in this country is 
 nearly confined to the southern counties, of 
 which Kent is the principal ; although the 
 hops of Farnham in Surrey, bring the highest 
 price in the market, and next to them the 
 Sussex hops are generally esteemed ; the 
 former owe their superiority solely to the ex- 
 cellent mode of picking, and not to any phy- 
 sical advantages. The Worcester hops are 
 the mildest, and possess the peculiar pro- 
 
 R 2 
 
244 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 perty of bringing beer to maturity before 
 any other. 
 
 Hops seem the most uncertain and preca- 
 rious crop on which the husbandman bestows 
 his labour. The expense of planting and 
 manuring, added to that of the poles, the 
 gathering, and drying, is so considerable, 
 that the planter is only repaid by those oc- 
 casionally abundant crops which favourable 
 seasons produce. An extraordinarily good 
 crop returns to the planter about 100/. per 
 acre, of which must be deducted on the 
 average 50/. per acre for expense ; but when 
 the uncertainty of a crop, and the many 
 combinations that are required to produce so 
 good a one, are considered, it seldom happens 
 that the hop-planter is richer than his neigh- 
 bour, notwithstanding these brilliant returns, 
 that too often delude the unwary and un- 
 thinking speculator. 
 
 The plants are often injured by the 
 frost in the spring, and they are also sub- 
 ject to various other casualties. A kind of 
 mildew or blight, producing flies, frequently 
 destroys the fairest promise of this plant, 
 and from the height of the poles and the 
 sail they carry, a high wind occasions great 
 havock in the hop-gardens. We are not 
 
hop. 245 
 
 aware of the experiment having been made 
 of keeping them closer to the ground in the 
 manner of a vineyard, or by espaliers; but 
 by some observations which the author has 
 made on a few plants which he cultivated 
 for ornament, the flowers were found larger 
 and more abundant on the vines that were 
 trained horizontally, than on those which 
 climbed to a greater height ; and we notice, 
 that in all other fruits those nearest the 
 earth ripen the first, and the hop can obtain 
 no more sun at twenty feet from the ground 
 than it would at six feet. If the poles were 
 placed sloping, with horizontal and perpendi- 
 cular props, the vine could still extend itself 
 without being so subject to tempest. The 
 position of these ranges of trellis poles could 
 be so fixed as to admit the sun and air more 
 freely ; the tying and gathering would be 
 more easily accomplished; and it is a cu- 
 rious circumstance in the natural history of 
 this plant, that the vine always takes one 
 direction in winding itself round its pole, re- 
 gularly ascending from the right hand to the 
 left : this, in trellis work, would avoid confu- 
 sion or crossing of vines, which is injurious to 
 all plants. 
 
 To describe the present manner of culti- 
 
246 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 vating, gathering, drying and bagging of hops, 
 would be repeating what may be found in every 
 Encyclopedia, and work on agriculture, with- 
 out adding entertainment or information. 
 
 The hop plantations in Sussex have in- 
 creased from about 5400 to 9500 acres 
 within these last fourteen years, as appears 
 by a statement from the Board of Excise, 
 which was ordered by the House of Com- 
 mons to be printed in May, 1821. 
 
 In a country where malt-liquor forms the 
 general beverage of the greater portion of its 
 inhabitants, it becomes a matter of no small 
 importance to know, that the hop contains 
 an aperient, and diuretic bitter, which makes 
 our beer more salubrious, whilst its balsamic 
 flavour makes it more agreeable, and com- 
 bines with these advantages, that of pre- 
 serving the liquor by its agreeably odorifer- 
 ous principle, which prevents the necessary 
 fermentation from going beyond due bounds. 
 
 " The ale," (says Parkinson in his Thea- 
 trical Botanicum, published in 1640,) " which 
 our forefathers were accustomed only to 
 drink, being a kind of thicker drink than 
 beere, is now almost quite left off to be 
 made, the use of hoppes, to be put therein 
 altering the quality thereof, to be much more 
 
hop. 247 
 
 healthful, or rather physicall, to preserve the 
 body from the repletion of grosse humors, 
 which the ale engendered." 
 
 Ground Ivy, called Alehoof or Tun-hoof, 
 Glechoma hederacea, was generally used for 
 preserving beer, before the use of hops was 
 known. 
 
 Horehound and wormwood, &c. &c. have 
 been used as a succedaneum, when hops 
 have been dear. 
 
 Some authors recommend hops against 
 the stone ; others doubt their utility in that 
 complaint ; but it has been remarked, that 
 since hops have been more generally used, 
 fewer persons labour under that malady. 
 
 It is said that the perfume of hops is so 
 salutary, that when put between the outer 
 cover and the pillow, they will procure sleep 
 to those who are in delirious fevers. 
 
 The decoction of the flowers and syrups 
 thereof, are thought good against pestilential 
 fevers ; juleps and apozems are also pre- 
 pared with hops for hypochondriacal and hys- 
 terical affections. 
 
 " The hop," says Dr. James, " is bitter, 
 detersive, and gives no tincture of red to blue 
 paper. By the chemical analysis, a little 
 acid, a great deal of volatile concrete salt. 
 
248 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 and oil, are obtained from it ; which shews 
 it to contain some sal-ammoniac, mixed with 
 some sulphur and earth. 
 
 In Sweden, they make a strong cloth 
 from the fibres of the hop-vine, after it has 
 been dressed like flax. The Society for en- 
 couraging Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce 
 in London, offered premiums, in 1760, for 
 cloth made from hop-stalks. In the year 
 following Mr. Cooksey produced specimens. 
 In 1791, Mr. John Locket, of Donnington, 
 near Newbury, in Berkshire, had the premium 
 adjudged to him for cloth made from these 
 stalks. 
 
 In the months of March and April, while 
 the buds are tender, the country people dress 
 them as asparagus ; they are an agreeable ve- 
 getable, and esteemed good to purify the 
 blood in the scurvy, and most cutaneous 
 diseases. 
 
249 
 
 HOREHOUND.— MARRUBIUM. 
 
 Natural order, Verticillatce. A genus of the 
 Didynamia Gymnospermia class. 
 
 " If the prophet had bid thee do some great 
 thing, wouldest thou not have done it ? how 
 much rather then, when he saith to thee, 
 Wash, and be clean ? " 
 
 Naaman felt the justice of his servant's 
 rebuke, bathed, and recovered his flesh. 
 
 Horehound has been recommended to us 
 by medical writers of all ages and countries, 
 as a safe and simple remedy for complaints as 
 dangerous to our existence as the leprosy 
 was to the Syrian captain' s. Like him we 
 answer, that we have skilful physicians, and 
 drugs collected from the most distant quarters 
 of the globe ; shall we not apply to them for 
 cure, rather than to an herb that bears affinity 
 to the nettle ? 
 
 This medicinal plant is indigenous to most 
 parts of Europe, as well as to Britain ; and, 
 like many other herbs, the nearer it grows 
 
250 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 towards the south, the more powerful is its 
 scent. The English name having no resem- 
 blance to that of any other language, induces 
 us to conclude that it was called hore, or 
 hoar, from the white frosty-like appearance 
 of the leaves, and hound, from its likeness to 
 the herb now called hound' s-tongue, the 
 smell of which approaches so near to that of 
 a kennel of hounds. 
 
 Miller mentions fifteen species of the white 
 horehound. Aiton notices eleven in the 
 Hortus Kewensis, that are cultivated in this 
 country, all of which are European plants. 
 The leaves of the common white horehound 
 are considered to be attenuant and resolvent, 
 and are celebrated for the relief they give in 
 moist asthmas, and in most disorders of the 
 breast and lungs, of which a thick and vis- 
 cous matter is the cause. They are also of 
 great service in cachexies, and chronical dis- 
 orders, proceeding from a viscidity of the 
 fluids, and obstructions of the viscera. When 
 taken in infusion, a handful of fresh leaves, 
 or half a handful of dried ones, is considered 
 a dose. A dram of the dried leaves pow- 
 dered, and two or three ounces of the ex- 
 pressed juice, have each the like effect. 
 Lozenges made of the juice of this herb and 
 
HOREHOUND. 251 
 
 sugar, are esteemed good for colds that 
 affect the chest. 
 
 Among the ancient physicians who recom- 
 mended this herb, Castor directs an equal 
 portion of the juice of the white horehound 
 and honey, to be warmed in an egg-shell, 
 and used as an injection, not only to break 
 imposthumes, but to cleanse and heal them. 
 The same author prescribed a liniment made 
 of lard and horehound stamped, as a cure for 
 the bite of a mad dog, and for scrophulous 
 swellings. 
 
 Pliny informs us, in the twenty-second 
 chapter of his twentieth book, that the 
 Roman physicians thought horehound one of 
 the most valuable herbs used in medicine. 
 The leaves and seeds were pounded together 
 as a cure for the sting of serpents, pains of 
 the breast or sides, for old coughs, and com- 
 plaints of the lungs. No medicine was con- 
 sidered more efficacious in these complaints, 
 than the juice of horehound and fennel boiled 
 into a syrup with honey, to be taken fasting. 
 Stamped with vinegar, it was esteemed a cure 
 for the ring-worm. The juice was thought 
 to clear the eyesight, and mitigate the 
 jaundice ; and for all kinds of poison, says this 
 Roman author, few herbs are so effectual as 
 
252 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 horehound ; for without any addition, it 
 cleanses the stomach and breast, and brings 
 off all impurities. Dodoens recommends it 
 for most of these complaints, and says, that 
 the juice mixed with honey and wine is good 
 to clear the sight, if the eyes be washed with 
 it ; and that the juice drawn up the nostrils 
 clears the eyes of the yellow hue occasioned 
 by the jaundice. This physician particularly 
 commends it for ulcerated lungs, and spitting 
 of blood ; but cautions those not to use it 
 whose bladder or kidneys are affected. In 
 addition to these remarks, Gerard adds, that 
 the syrup made of the green leaves and sugar 
 is an excellent remedy against the wheezings 
 of the lungs, and for old coughs ; and that it 
 was particularly recommended by the London 
 College of Physicians in his time. 
 
 Dr. James observes, that this plant is hot 
 and dry, pectoral, and good to free the lungs 
 from hot viscid phlegm, and thereby to help 
 old coughs, especially in cold moist constitu- 
 tions ; the juice being made into a syrup, with 
 sugar or honey, it opens obstructions of the 
 liver and spleen, and is very serviceable 
 against the dropsy, jaundice, &c. ; and few 
 herbs go beyond it in relieving the diseases 
 incidental to the female sex. 
 
HOltEIIOUND. 253 
 
 The leaves of the white horehound uive 
 no tincture of red to blue paper : they are 
 very bitter, and have a penetrating smell. 
 The bitter natural salt of the earth, composed 
 of marine salt, sal-ammoniac, and nitre, seems 
 to be united in this plant, with a considerable 
 quantity of sulphur, phlegm, and terrestrial 
 parts. This plant, by the chemical analysis, 
 yields a great deal of acid phlegm, oil, and 
 earth ; a little urinous spirit; some concreted, 
 volatile, and fixed salt, and a little lixivium. 
 
 Thus it is no wonder that the white hore- 
 hound is a great dissolvent, and a good ape- 
 ritive ; and excellent for those who have the 
 asthma or jaundice. 
 
254 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 HORSE-RADISH.— COCHLEARIA. 
 
 Natural order, Siliquosce. A genus of the 
 Tetr adynamia Siliculosa class. 
 
 This plant was called Raphanus rusticanus 
 by the old herbalists ; but it will be observed 
 that it is of a distinct family from the Radish, 
 and has therefore been placed in the order 
 of plants to which it belongs. It is a native 
 of this country, and has long been cultivated 
 in our gardens, as we learn from Gerard, who 
 says, " Horse-radish for the most part grow- 
 eth, and is planted in gardens, yet haue I 
 found it wilde in sundrie places, as at 
 Namptwich in Cheshire, in a place called the 
 Milne eye, and also at a small village neere 
 London, called Hogsdon, in the field next 
 vnto a farm-house leading to Kingsland, 
 where my verie good friend Master Bredwell, 
 practitioner in phisick, a learned and diligent 
 sercher of symples, and Master William 
 Martin, one of the fellowship of Barbers and 
 Chirurgians, my deere and louing friende, in 
 
HORSE-RADISH. 255 
 
 company with him, found it, and gaue me 
 knowledge of the place where it flourishes to 
 this day." It was then called Mountain- 
 Radish and Great Raifort, as well as Horse- 
 radish. In the North of England it was 
 called Red Cole. 
 
 Gerard adds, " Horse radish stamped, with 
 a little vinegar put thereto, is commonly 
 vsed among the Germanes for sauce to eat 
 fish with, and such like meates, as we do 
 mustard ; but this kinde of sauce doth heate 
 the stomacke better, and causeth better 
 digestion than mustard." From this account 
 it appears, that horse-radish had not found 
 its way to the English table in 1597, but was 
 planted for its efficacy in medicine, of which 
 Gerard and other old writers give ample 
 commendation. 
 
 In 1657, Coles observes, " The root is 
 commonly used among the Germans, and 
 sometimes by gentlemen with us also, for 
 sauce to eat fish with, and other meats, as 
 mustard is, and so it heateth the stomach 
 more, and causes better digestion than mus- 
 tard." This author adds, " Of all things 
 that are given to children for the worms, 
 horse reddish is not the least effectual!, for it 
 killeth and expelleth them." 
 
256 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 When this plant is calcined, very little or 
 no salts can be extracted from the ashes, 
 these being naturally volatile.* " The ex- 
 pressed juice, being suffered to putrefy, 
 affords an alcaline volatile salt, which is 
 the reason why it is so beneficial in the arid 
 scurvy. In the other kind of scurvy, it is 
 very pernicious ; in which case I have known 
 it to procure a rupture in the liver. But 
 where there is a defect of heat, and a cold- 
 ness and viscidity of the juices, it is very 
 proper. In a scurvy attended with a hot 
 fever and a putridness, it would destroy the 
 patient.^- " 
 
 Fernel, who was physician to Henry the 
 Second of France, discovered in the juice of 
 this root, a vomit of the safest kind, and a 
 friend to the stomach. We learn from more 
 modern physicians, that if it be infused in 
 w T ater, and a portion of the infusion be taken 
 with a large draught of warm water, it rea- 
 dily proves emetic, and may either be em- 
 ployed to excite vomiting, or to assist the 
 operation of emetics. 
 
 Horse radish root has a quick pungent 
 smell, and a penetrating acrid taste ; it 
 
 # James. f Boerh. Hist. Plant, p. 419. 
 
HORSE-RADISH. 25? 
 
 nevertheless contains in certain vessels a 
 sweet juice, which sometimes exudes on the 
 surface. By drying, it loses all its acrimony, 
 becoming first sweetish, and then almost 
 insipid: if kept in a cool place in sand, it 
 retains its qualities for a considerable time. 
 Its medicinal effects are, to stimulate the 
 solids, attenuate the juices, and promote the 
 fluid secretions. It seems to extend its 
 action through the whole habit, and to affect 
 the minutest glands. It scours the cutaneous 
 glands, and breaks through such little stop- 
 pages there, as occasion deformities, and all 
 the symptoms of the scurvy. This root is 
 also powerfully diuretic, but most so when 
 joined with acids. Its great activity and 
 warmth also make it good in all such nervous 
 cases as arise from cold and viscid juices ; and 
 induce heaviness of the senses, or inaptitude 
 to motion ; in the same manner as mustard 
 and all such stimuli. 
 
 Sydenham, who has been called the father 
 of physic among the moderns, recommends 
 it likewise in dropsies, particularly those 
 which follow intermitting fevers. It is also 
 extolled in cases of the stone. Thomas 
 Bartholin affirms, that the juice of horse- 
 radish dissolved a calculus, or stony con- 
 
 VOL. I. S 
 
258 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 cretion, that was taken out of a human 
 
 body. 
 
 Both water and rectified spirits extract the 
 virtues of this root, by infusion, and imbibe 
 the whole taste and pungency of the plant. 
 
 Boerhaave, who was so justly celebrated 
 through Europe as professor of physic and 
 botany, says it is one of those plants whose 
 virtues are the least equivocal: its aperient, 
 antiscorbutic, and resolvent qualities purify 
 the blood, agree with colds, and above all, 
 cure dry hard coughs, and the extinction 
 of the voice. 
 
 Dr. Cullen says, " The root externally ap- 
 plied readily inflames the skin, and proves a 
 rubifacient that may be employed with ad- 
 vantage in palsy and rheumatism ; and if its 
 application be long continued, it produces 
 blisters." 
 
 The German authors give many examples 
 of its being an excellent remedy, as well in- 
 ternally as for the exterior, in cases of the 
 dropsy and rheumatism. 
 
 One drachm of the root, fresh scraped 
 down, is enough for four ounces of water, 
 to be infused in a close vessel for two 
 hours, and made into a syrup, with double 
 
HORSE-RADISH. 259 
 
 its weight of sugar ; a tea-spoonful of which 
 swallowed leisurely, or at least repeated 
 two or three times, has often been found 
 very suddenly effectual in relieving hoarse- 
 ness. 
 
 This volatile root, when received into the 
 stomach, both creates appetite, and assists 
 digestion ; and is therefore properly em- 
 ployed as a condiment with animal food. 
 
 M. Haller, a Swiss physician, informs us, 
 that in Sweden they cultivate the Chinese 
 horse-radish, from which they draw abundance 
 of oil. Horse-radish scraped and infused in 
 cold milk, makes one of the best and safest 
 cosmetics. 
 
 Horse-radish possesses the same peculiar 
 property of propagating itself as the ginger ; 
 for a small piece of the root, if buried in the 
 earth, will form a new root and a perfect plant, 
 which produces seed. In vain do we look 
 into the pores of this root, to discover by 
 what wonderful means Nature has endowed 
 it with this gift ; and we may justly exclaim 
 with David, "Such knowledge is too won- 
 derful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain 
 unto it/' 
 
 It loves a moist deep soil; and we see 
 
 s 2 
 
260 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 many acres of ground on the borders of 
 the Thames, east of London, covered with 
 this plant, which brings a price in the me- 
 tropolitan market that rewards the culti- 
 vator for the time it requires to mature the 
 root. 
 
 
 iii 
 
261 
 
 HOUSELEEK.- SEMPERVIVUM. 
 
 Natural arder, Succulent ce. A genus of the 
 Dodecandria Dodecagynia class. 
 
 It is often called Sengreen, from the old 
 herbalists having mistaken this plant and the 
 stone-crop, for a species of the sengreen or 
 Saxifraga grandulata; or because the Greeks 
 comprised all these plants under the name of 
 'Ai'£w«y, on account of their being always fresh 
 and green. 
 
 Nature, whose slightest works cannot be 
 viewed without instruction, has given a lesson 
 in this plant, worthy of the deepest reflection. 
 It teaches us, by selecting the bare rock and 
 the sloping roofs of houses, as situations fa- 
 vourable to the growth of this vegetable, not 
 to repine at our lot, or complain of the 
 soil in which we are thrown ; for the house- 
 leek gathers its nourishment where other 
 plants would find none, and maintains the 
 cooling qualities of its pulpy leaves on the 
 burning tiles of our buildings. The lesson 
 
262 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 is as applicable to the agriculturist as to the 
 moralist. It tells him to seek vegetation 
 suitable to his soil, rather than complain of 
 the earth he cannot change. The heavy 
 clay that produces such excellent wheat, 
 would yield a watery potatoe, a root more 
 delicious when grown in sandy ground, where 
 bread corn would fail of coming to perfection 
 for want of nourishment. 
 
 " Find out the nature of the mould with care, 
 And what is proper for each soil to bear." 
 
 Virgil's Georgics. 
 
 From the prevailing indifference with re- 
 spect to the virtues of those plants that do 
 not immediately contribute to the gratifica- 
 tion of our appetite, it might be supposed, 
 that our infirmities and diseases had left us ; 
 or, that having let out our bodies to surgeons 
 on repairing leases, we were no longer at 
 liberty to extract a thorn, or assuage pains 
 given by the sting of a wasp, without com- 
 mitting a trespass. 
 
 Liberal minds will remunerate the stu- 
 dents in physic for their skill, and not for 
 their medicines ; for the least costly of the 
 latter, with good advice, will often remove 
 serious maladies. 
 
 The houseleek forms a domestic external 
 
IIOUSELEEK. 263 
 
 remedy for many troublesome complaints, be- 
 neath the attention of physicians, whose time 
 is required in dangerous disorders ; and, as 
 every cottager who has a cover for his head, 
 has a bed for this plant, he ought to know, that 
 after it is once planted in mud, strong earth, 
 or cow dung, and placed on a wall, or the 
 shelving of his dwelling, it will thrive without 
 farther trouble. It will increase rapidly by 
 offsets, each of which forms a kind of green 
 rose, and throws out, at maturity, a stem re- 
 sembling a palm-tree in miniature, from the 
 summit of which spring star-shaped flowers, 
 worthy the inspection of either the florist or 
 the botanist. 
 
 The houseleek is cooling and restringent, 
 and, though not often given inwardly, is com- 
 mended by some as good to quench thirst 
 in fevers, when mixed with posset drink, as 
 also for heat and sharpness of urine. Exter- 
 nally, it is useful against burns and scalds, 
 St. Anthony's fire, and the shingles.* 
 
 It is an excellent remedy for chapped 
 hands, or scrofulous eruptions, and is the 
 safest cosmetic, for removing sun-burns, that 
 our fair countrywomen can use. 
 
 * Miller's Bot. Off. 
 
26*4 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Dodoens recommends the expressed juice 
 to be dropped into the eye, as good against 
 inflammation ; or the leaf to be peeled and 
 laid on that organ. He says also that it re- 
 lieves the pains of the gout when brought 
 on by hot humours. Gerard says, " The 
 iuice of housleeke taketh away cornes from 
 the toes and feete, if they be washed and 
 bathed therewith euery day and night, as it 
 were implaistered with the skin of the same 
 housleeke, which certainly taketh them away 
 without incision or such like, as hath beene 
 experimented by my very good friend M. 
 Nicholas Belson, a man painfull and curious 
 in searching forth the secrets of Nature." 
 
 It is customary, with us, among the com- 
 mon sort, says Schroder, to give the ex- 
 pressed juice of houseleek and sugar, in 
 fevers, and hot diseases. 
 
 Dr. Tancred Robinson says, he has known 
 it exhibited with good success in fevers, and 
 especially in those of the erysipetalous and 
 hectic kinds ; for this plant abounds with a 
 medicinal alcaline salt. 
 
 Tragus states, that linen cloths moistened 
 with the juice or distilled water, and applied 
 to inflammations in any part of the body, 
 
HOUSKLEEK. 265 
 
 and especially in phrensies, are of extra- 
 ordinary service; as they are, also, in inflam- 
 mations and redness of the eyes. 
 
 The leaves of the houseleek, stripped of 
 their outer membrane, and put into pure 
 water, or rose-water, and every now and then 
 applied to the tongue, when dry or chapped, 
 in fevers, and renewed frequently, are re- 
 markably lenient and serviceable in such a 
 
 case.* 
 
 This plant being analysed, yields a good 
 deal of acid and earth, and a very little con- 
 crete volatile salt. It probably contains a 
 salt resembling alum, mixed with a little 
 sal-ammoniac; for the juice of this plant 
 evaporated to one half emits an urinous 
 smell. For foundered horses, nothing is 
 better than to make them drink a pint of 
 the juice of this plant. *f* 
 
 Lewis gives the following chemical de- 
 scription of this species of sempervivum : 
 " The leaves of houseleek, of no remarkable 
 smell, discover to the taste a mild, subacid 
 austerity ; their expressed juice, of a pale 
 yellowish hue when filtered, yields on inspis- 
 
 * Raii. Hist. Plant. 
 t Martyn's Tournefort. 
 
266 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 sation a deep yellow, tenacious, mucilaginous 
 mass, considerably acidulous and acerb : from 
 whence it may be presumed, that this herb 
 has some claim to the refrigerant and restrin- 
 gent virtues that have been ascribed to it. 
 
 It is observable that the filtered juice, on 
 the addition of an equal quantity of rectified 
 spirit of wine, forms a light white coagulum, 
 like cream of fine pomatum, of a weak but 
 penetrating taste. This, freed from the fluid 
 part, and exposed to the air, almost totally 
 exhales. From this experiment it is con- 
 cluded by some, that houseleek contains a 
 volatile alkaline salt; but the juice coagu- 
 lates also with fixed alkalis. Acids produce 
 no coagulation." 
 
 The Romans took great pleasure in the 
 houseleek, and planted it in vases which were 
 set before the windows of their houses. It 
 was called Buphthalmon, Zoophthalmon, and 
 Stergethron, being considered one of the love 
 medicines. It was also named Hypogesan, 
 from its growing under the eaves of dwell- 
 ings ; and it was often called Ambrosia, Ame- 
 rimnos, and Sedum. 
 
 The juice of the leaves was used by the 
 ancients for all humours and inflammations of 
 the eyes, as also to bathe the temples for the 
 
HOUSELEEK. f 2()'( 
 
 
 
 head-ache, and to draw off inflammation oc- 
 casioned by the bite of venomous spiders. 
 It was likewise said to be an effectual antidote 
 against the deadly poison of wolfs-bane or 
 aconitum* 
 
 Its use is also recommended by Pliny for 
 the red gout, erysipelas, and scrofulous swell- 
 ings ; and it was thought to procure sleep 
 to those who were in restless fevers, being 
 placed in black cloth and put under the 
 pillow of the patient. It was also thought 
 that those who carried houseleek on their 
 persons, were never molested by the terrible 
 sting of the poisonous scorpions. 
 
 Dioscorides and Galen direct the applica- 
 tion of the juice with vinegar, instead of an 
 epithem, to an erysipelas, which no physi- 
 cian, says Caspar Hoffman, in our times, 
 would venture to prescribe. 
 
 This hardy plant is erroneously stated to 
 be a native of Britain only. It is doubtful 
 whether it is even an aboriginal of our soil ; 
 and from the early mention of it by the Greek 
 and Roman herbalists, we consider it, as well 
 as the tree houseleek, to be indigenous to the 
 Greek islands. 
 
 # Plin. book xxv. chap. 13. 
 
268 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Aiton mentions twelve species of the Sem- 
 pervivum as being cultivated by the curious 
 in this country. 
 
 The Dutch cultivate the yellow stone-crop 
 Seclum reflemm, which they mix amongst their 
 salads. It has a subastringent taste. 
 
269 
 
 HYSSOP.— HYSSOPUS. 
 
 Natural order, Verticillatce. A genus of the 
 Didynamia Gymnospermia class. 
 
 Hyssop bears nearly the same name in 
 most of the European languages, and is de- 
 rived from the Hebrew ItfK Ezeb, signify- 
 ing a holy herb, or herb for purifying holy 
 places. 
 
 When the Passover was instituted, Moses 
 commanded the Israelites to take a bunch of 
 hyssop, and dip it in the blood of a lamb, 
 and to sprinkle the lintel and the door-posts, 
 after which none were to pass out until the 
 morning.* 
 
 It was also used by the priest at the cleans- 
 ing of persons afflicted with leprosy, as well 
 as for purifying the house of the Icpcivj- 
 
 David also mentions this herb in the 
 
 * Exodus, chap. xii. verse 22. 
 t Leviticus, c. xiv. 4, 49 and 52. 
 
270 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 beautiful prayer he made after being rebuked 
 by Nathan's parable : " Purge me with hys- 
 sop, and I shall be clean."* 
 
 St. John informs us, that at the crucifix- 
 ion of our Saviour, " there was set a vessel 
 full of vinegar : and they filled a spunge 
 with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and 
 put it to his mouth/'-t' 
 
 From these customs of the Hebrews we 
 may conclude, that hyssop grew naturally 
 both in Egypt and in Syria. 
 
 Some authors have surmised, that the hys- 
 sop of scripture is the shrub we call Winter 
 Savory ; but Pliny has not only described the 
 savory distinctly, but he says also, that the 
 best hyssop grows on Mount Taurus in 
 Cilicia, and next to that is the hyssop of 
 Pamphylia, both in Asia Minor. It grew also 
 in Smyrna. 
 
 This author says, it is an herb not 
 friendly to the stomach. The Romans used 
 it with figs as a purgative, and with honey as 
 an emetic ; and a plaster was formed of it 
 for the sting of serpents. 
 
 Pliny gives the following simple receipt, 
 as an excellent drink to discharge the chest 
 
 * Psalm li. 7. f Chap. xix. 29. 
 
HYSSOP. 271 
 
 of phlegm: five sprigs of hyssop, two Bprigs 
 of rue, boiled with three figs.* 
 
 Aiton notices three species of hyssop, and 
 four varieties of the common sort, the earli- 
 est of which was cultivated in this country in 
 1548. The same author mentions four spe- 
 cies of hedge hyssop, Gratiola, all of which 
 are exotics ; but Gerard informs us, that he 
 found the broad-leafed hedge hyssop grow- 
 ing wild as early as the year 1590 ; and as it 
 was upon an interesting occasion to the citi- 
 zens of London, I shall give his own words. 
 
 " It groweth in moist places. I found it 
 growing vpon the bog or marrish ground, at 
 the further end of Hampsteed Heath, and vpon 
 the same heath towards London, neere vnto 
 the head of the springs that were digged for 
 water to be conueied to London, 1590, at- 
 tempted by that careful citizen, Sir John Hart, 
 Knight, Lord Maior of the Citie of London: 
 at which time myselfe was in his lordship' s 
 company, and viewing for my pleasure the 
 same goodly springs. I found the said plant 
 not heretofore remembered." The same au- 
 thor says, he " experimented this herb," and 
 found it a powerful purgative." 
 
 # Book xxvi. c. (5. 
 
272 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Dodoens wrote much on the medicinal 
 virtues of hyssop, and says, " the decoction 
 of this plant with figs, rue, and honey, boiled 
 together, is good for the complaints of the 
 chest, shortness of breath, and hard dry 
 coughs. He recommends it to be given 
 to children with figs to destroy worms, as 
 also to be used as a gargle to break tumours 
 in the mouth and throat. He states also, 
 that hyssop boiled in vinegar, and held in 
 the mouth, eases the tooth-ache ; and that 
 the decoction removes congealed blood oc- 
 casioned by bruises, and takes off the black 
 or blue marks. 
 
 Later authors have greatly commended 
 it in cases of bruises from falls, blows, &c, 
 either by way of cataplasm, or only a little 
 bundle of the plant put into a linen rag, and 
 applied to the part. Ray gives an account 
 from Mr. Boyle, of a violent contusion of 
 the thigh, from a kick of a horse, which was 
 happily cured by this herb, boiled and ap- 
 plied as a cataplasm. He tells us, the vio- 
 lent pain was almost instantly removed, and 
 the very mark and blackness taken off in a 
 few hours. 
 
 The leaves and flowers are of a warm 
 pungent taste, and of an agreeable aromatic 
 
HYSSOP. 275 
 
 smell : therefore, the tops and blossoms are 
 sometimes reduced to powder, and used with 
 cold salad herbs, having a comforting and 
 strengthening virtue; they are salutary against 
 melancholy and phlegm. Besides the gene- 
 ral virtues of aromatics, hyssop is greatly 
 recommended in humoral asthmas, coughs, 
 and other disorders of the breast and lungs; 
 and is said to promote expectoration. The 
 leaves infused in the manner of tea and 
 sweetened with sugar or honey, have been 
 found good in diseases of the breast and 
 lungs, being of a detergent, attenuant, ex- 
 pectorant, and corroborant quality. 
 
 This exotic may be raised either by seed 
 or cuttings. It thrives best in a poor dry 
 soil, and will also bear the severities of win- 
 ter much better in such soil, than where its 
 pores are filled with moisture in a richer 
 soil. 
 
 The hedge hyssop is said to be good in 
 dropsical cases, but it is so powerful a medi- 
 cine, and its operations are so violent, that it 
 can only be given to persons of robust consti- 
 tutions, although it is rendered more mild by 
 being boiled in milk. 
 
 M. Geoffroy, a French physician, who 
 studied in England about the end of the 17Ui 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 century, says, a purgative of powerful virtues 
 may be extracted from the Gratiola in a dry 
 state, which operates in a small dose, and 
 without any disagreeable taste. 
 
 Dr. James says, hyssop is healing, opening, 
 and attenuating ; good to cleanse the lungs 
 of tartarous humours, and helpful against 
 coughs, asthmas, difficulty of breathing, and 
 cold distempers of the lungs ; it is also reck- 
 oned a cephalic, and good for diseases of 
 the head and nerves. 
 
 Of the efficacy of hyssop, in sugillations 
 of the eyes, we learn an instance from Rio- 
 lanus the elder : I found by experience," 
 says that physician, " the truth of what Ar- 
 chigenes affirms, in Galen, which is, that if 
 the tops of hyssop be tied up in a cloth, and 
 boiled in water, and the cloth afterwards ap- 
 plied warm to the livid eye, the blood will 
 be attracted by the hyssop to such a degree, 
 as to stain the linen. Upon this authority 
 I have, several times, prescribed a decoction 
 of hyssop against sugillations, even of the 
 eyes ; only, instead of water, I sometimes 
 ordered the bag to be boiled in wine ; and, 
 directing the application of it, somewhat 
 warm, to the eye-lids, when the patient went 
 
HYSSOP. 275 
 
 to bed, his eyes being shut, the lividness 
 was removed as well as I could wish.* 
 
 Hyssop, in surgery, has its use in heating 
 and ripening, &c. The vapour removes 
 ringing in the ears, when introduced into 
 them. 
 
 * Simon Paulli. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES, 
 
 INDIGO.— INDIGOFERA. 
 
 Natural order, Papilionacece. A genus of 
 the Diadelphia Decandria class. 
 
 Before we describe this plant, which the 
 ingenuity of man has made important, rather 
 by adding to our luxury, than from any real 
 use or addition to our comfort, it may not 
 be irrelevant to the subject to notice what 
 gave rise to this artificial want. 
 
 Instinct, which directs the ox to the pas- , 
 ture, the bee to the flower, and the bird to 
 the seed, would first instruct man to satisfy 
 and provide for the necessary nourishment of 
 his frame : when wants were supplied, com- 
 forts would next be sought. The protection 
 of the body from the sun, or the inclemency 
 of the weather, would form the second con- 
 sideration ; and as the human species in- 
 creased, some mark of distinction would be 
 called for, to bestow on objects of reverence, 
 love, or power. 
 
indigo. 277 
 
 This love of distinction and ornament 
 seems inherent in our nature, since we find 
 that barbarians who had neither learnt to cul- 
 tivate the fruits of the earth, nor to raise 
 themselves a shelter from the weather, would 
 adorn their naked bodies by staining them of 
 various colours, and often render themselves 
 conspicuous by painful operations. 
 
 Pliny says, the women of Britain, both 
 wives and virgins, went without clothing to 
 the feasts and sacrifices, except that they 
 coloured their bodies with an herb which 
 they got from Gaul. This ancient custom 
 had nearly been revived in the present cen- 
 tury ; but the modesty and good taste of the 
 British fair soon discarded a fashion so re- 
 pugnant to the character of the English 
 nation. 
 
 The eastern part of the world, where man 
 was first created, gave birth also to the arts. 
 The Scriptures as well as the writings of the 
 Heathens, inform us, that the art of dyeing 
 was invented on the coast of Syria. 
 
 The city of Sidon is supposed to have been 
 so called after the eldest son of Canaan. 
 The patriarch Jacob mentions this city as 
 being on the coast ; " Zebulun shall dwell 
 at the haven of the sea ; and he shall be for 
 
278 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 an haven of ships : and his border shall be 
 unto Zidon." # 
 
 Tyre, which was called the daughter of 
 Sidon, was built on an island near the coast. 
 These cities were inhabited by the Phoeni- 
 cians, whose kingdom was small, and soil 
 sterile ; Nature had, however, favoured them 
 with commodious harbours; and the forest of 
 Lebanon being within their territories, fur- 
 nished them with timber for constructing 
 vessels. " They have made all thy shipboards 
 of fir trees of Senir : they have taken cedars 
 from Lebanon to make masts for thee."-j~ 
 With these natural advantages, and the want 
 of those necessaries of subsistence which 
 their own barren soil would not supply, they 
 turned their attention to commerce, for 
 which their situation was peculiarly favour- 
 able. Intercourse with mankind naturally 
 opens and extends the mind. From trading 
 in articles of necessity, those of luxury would 
 follow. From these art would spring, and 
 manufactories arise. 
 
 Idmon, the father of Arachne, is said to 
 have been the inventor of dyeing, and it 
 is related, that the discovery of the purple 
 
 # Gen. chap. xlix. 3. f Ezek. chap, xxvii. 5. 
 
INDIGO. '27^ 
 
 dye was owing to a dog, which, having 
 caught one of the purple fishes among the 
 rocks, in eating it, stained his mouth and 
 beard with the precious liquor; the hue thus 
 acquired, struck the fancy of a Tyrian nymph 
 so strongly, that she refused her lover Her- 
 cule sany favours till he had brought her a 
 mantle of the same colour. 
 
 The dye of Tyre became celebrated in all 
 nations ; and this city appears to have kept 
 the art within its own walls for many ages. 
 It was esteemed as precious as pure gold, 
 and seldom used but by kings and princes, 
 or in the vestures of the priests. Private 
 persons were forbidden by the laws of most 
 countries to wear the least scrap of it. 
 
 The hangings of the Tabernacle were made 
 of blue, and purple, and scarlet ; the holy 
 garments of Aaron were also ornamented 
 with these colours. 
 
 " King Solomon made himself a chariot of 
 the wood of Lebanon, he made the pillars 
 thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, 
 the covering of purple." 
 
 Ezekiel mentions the purple dye among 
 the rich merchandize of Tyre. " Syria was 
 thy merchant by reason of the multitude of 
 the wares of thy making : they occupied in 
 
280 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES, 
 
 thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered 
 work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate." * 
 
 That purple and scarlet were only used by 
 sovereigns and rulers, we learn by the words 
 of Belshazzar king of Babylon, when he ad- 
 dressed the prophet Daniel. " If thou canst 
 read the writing, and make known to me the 
 interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed 
 with scarlet (or purple), and have a chain of 
 gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third 
 ruler in the kingdom-f." Again we read in 
 the tenth chapter of the 1st book of Macca- 
 bees, that when Jonathan's accusers saw that 
 he was honoured and clothed in purple, they 
 fled all away." 
 
 The soldiers, when they mocked Christ, 
 put on him a purple robe. 
 
 " I find in the ancient chronicles," says 
 Pliny X, " that purple has been worn in Rome 
 from its first foundation. However," says this 
 author, " king Romulus only wore it in his 
 royal garment, or mantle of majesty. Tullus 
 Hostilius was the first Roman king who put 
 on the long purple robe, and the cassock 
 bordered with scarlet." Cornelius Nepos 
 
 * Chap, xxvii. 16. t f Chap. v. v. 16. 
 
 J Book ix. 39. 
 
INDIGO. 281 
 
 says, a pound of the Tyrian purple could 
 not be bought for less than 1000 denarii, 
 (31/. os.) He says, " that when P. Lentulus 
 Spinther was vEdile, he wore in the chair a 
 long embroidered robe, for which he was 
 both blamed and checked, but now-a-days it 
 is thought nothing to hang our dining-cham- 
 bers with this purple dye, as well as to carpet 
 our floors, our cushions, and our cupboards, 
 with this double-dyed purple of Tyre." 
 
 The Tyrians obtained this fine colour from 
 shell-fishes called Purpura, and those taken 
 from the deepest water produced the finest 
 purple. These were therefore called Pela- 
 gice (fish of the deep sea). These fish have 
 a tongue of about a finger in length, of so 
 hard and sharp a nature, that they pierce 
 through the shell of other fish, and thus 
 draw their nourishment from their victim. 
 From this observation the Phoenicians in- 
 vented a method of catching them, both 
 simple and curious. They procured cockles, 
 which were kept dry until they were 
 nearly exhausted, and then put into small 
 nets and let down to the bottom of the water. 
 Here they naturally would open, to revive, 
 and receive the benefit of their element, 
 which being perceived by the purples, they 
 
282 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 darted their tongues into the cockles, who, 
 feeling the intrusion, instantly closed their 
 shells, and by this means their enemies were 
 drawn up by their tongues.* 
 
 The beautiful dye of the ancients was a 
 liquid contained in a small white vein in the 
 mouth and throat of the purpura. 
 
 This fish was principally taken in the 
 spring of the year, as at that time it was 
 found to possses this precious liquid in the 
 greatest perfection. The veins were laid in 
 salt, and then boiled with much nicety for 
 ten days before the colour was perfect. It 
 gave a scarlet or a purple dye, according to 
 the state of boiling, or in all probability by 
 some slight addition. These colours were 
 both called the Tyrian dye, which accounts 
 for the different term used by the Evan- 
 gelists; St. Matthew writes, that the soldiers, 
 when they stripped Christ, put on a scarlet 
 robe, whereas St. Mark and St. John men- 
 tion a purple robe. 
 
 Till the time of Alexander the Great, we 
 find no other sort of dye than purple, blue, 
 and scarlet. It was under the successors of 
 
 * It is to be regretted that a similar trap has not been 
 invented for the reptile slanderer, whose cutting tongue 
 often injures the fairest reputation. 
 
indigo. 283 
 
 that monarch, that the Greeks applied them- 
 selves to the forming of other colours, and 
 which in all probability they learned in their 
 excursions into India, where yellow is consi- 
 dered the oldest colour known in dyeing. 
 
 It required three hundred of the purple 
 fishes to dye one pound of wool, and as they 
 cast up this valuable stain if suffered to die, 
 we cannot be surprised at the high price the 
 Tyrian colour bore. Thus was derived that 
 glorious purple, so full of state and majesty, 
 that the Roman lictors, with their rods, hal- 
 berds, and axes, made way for. These little 
 fish were drawn from the bottom of the sea 
 by their tongues, to make distinction between 
 a knight and a counsellor of state, to give 
 splendour to the victorious generals in their 
 triumphs, and to add reverence to the priest 
 when offering sacrifice. 
 
 " The Gauls," says Pliny, " were the first 
 who invented the means of counterfeiting 
 the purple and scarlet of Tyre, and all other 
 colours, by the means of vegetable juice." 
 The modern French, are celebrated for many 
 colours in dyeing, in which they excel all 
 Europe. 
 
 The English being now, like the Phoeni- 
 cians of old, a commercial people, with few 
 
284 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 natural productions in their country that are 
 not to be found in other parts of the world, 
 have followed the course of the sons of 
 Canaan : 
 
 " For stormy seas they quit the pleasing plain, 
 Plant woods in waves, and dwell amidst the main." 
 
 Arist^us. 
 
 The Phoenicians, by planting colonies in 
 various parts of the Mediterranean, were 
 able to collect all the rarities of the then 
 known world to their city, and thus rendered 
 Tyre " the mart of nations ;" and as long as 
 the justice and good policy of our nation 
 cherish its colonial children with the care 
 of a fond parent, so long will Britons be 
 the envy of nations, and their indigo be as 
 profitable as the purple of Tyre. 
 
 The art of extracting this blue dye from 
 the indigo plant was discovered by the na- 
 tives of the East Indies; and its first intro- 
 duction to Europe was at a time when in- 
 genuity had carried luxury to the highest 
 pitch at Rome. Pliny, who died in the 
 year 79 a.d. says*, " It is not long since they 
 began to bring from India a blue colour, from 
 thence called Indico, which sells from seven- 
 
 # Book xxxiii. chap. 13. 
 
INDIGO. 285 
 
 teen to twenty denarii the pound, and an- 
 swers well for painters to form shadows from 
 lights in their works." In the sixth chapter 
 of his 35th book, he says, Indico is one of 
 the colours which the masters deliver to the 
 painter by weight and measure, on account 
 of its costliness ; and although it is so much 
 esteemed, it is only a slimy mud, cleaving to 
 the foam that is gathered about canes and 
 reeds : it looks black while pounding, but, 
 when dissolved, it produces a lovely colour, 
 between purple and azure. 
 
 It appears from this account, that the In- 
 dians had not then manufactured indigo, but 
 that it was formed by the plants falling into 
 water, where the colour, being discharged by 
 fermentation, clung to the canes and reeds as 
 described. 
 
 We should find that there are but few 
 arts which do not owe their discovery to 
 simple causes, could we trace their origin. 
 
 " Thy art of building from the bee receive ; 
 
 Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave. 
 
 Learn of the little nautilus to sail, 
 
 Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale." 
 
 The finest indigo is brought from Java ; 
 it is likewise made on the coast of Coroman- 
 
286 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 del, Pondicherry, Agra, &c. &c. Pompet 
 says, the Indians of the village of Sarquesse, 
 near Amadabar, use only the leaves of the 
 indigo, and throw away the plant and 
 branches ; this may be one of the causes 
 why their indigo is so superior to that of the 
 western world. 
 
 The seed of indigo, which is small, and in 
 appearance like coarse gunpowder, is sown 
 in drills at a distance of about a foot from 
 each other. It soon makes its appearance, 
 and is, when young, hardly to be distin- 
 guished from lucern grass ; but when come 
 to maturity, it has more the appearance of 
 fern. It generally grows to the height of 
 two feet in about eight weeks, when it be- 
 gins to blossom. The flowers are like those 
 of the pea, and of a reddish colour, but des- 
 titute of smell. The pistil changes into 
 a long crooked pod, resembling a sickle, 
 wherein the seed is contained. The leaves 
 are ranged in pairs around the stalk, ending 
 in a single lobe, and are of an oval form, of a 
 dark brownish green on the upper side, and 
 of silver-grey beneath. These leaves are 
 covered with a fine farina or meal when the 
 plant is in blossom, at which time it is cut 
 with pruning knives, and carried with care, 
 
INDIGO. 287 
 
 lest the powder should be shaken off, on 
 which the beauty and value of the indigo de- 
 pend. The cutting is repeated in about six 
 weeks, and is performed a third time if the 
 weather is favourable. The plant is suffered 
 to remain two years in the ground, when it is 
 found to have exhausted the juices necessary 
 for its nourishment. It is a plant that re- 
 quires to be kept quite free from weeds and 
 worms, on which account it employs about 
 twenty-five negroes to manage a plantation 
 of fifty acres, allowing them time to provide 
 their own necessary subsistence. Good land 
 will yield from sixty to seventy pounds weight 
 of indigo per acre; at a medium the produce 
 is about fifty pounds. 
 
 The indigo plantation is as subject to ca- 
 sualties as that of rice or other crops. Some- 
 times the plant becomes dry, and is destroyed 
 by an insect that frequents this herb. At 
 other times, the whole of the leaves, which 
 are the valuable part of the plant, are de- 
 voured in the space of twenty-four hours by 
 caterpillars. This has given rise to the say- 
 ing, " that the indigo planter goes to bed 
 rich, and rises in the morning totally ruined. 
 
 In Carolina the wild native indigo is found 
 to answer the best, on account of its hardi- 
 
288 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 ness, the ease with which it may be cul- 
 tivated, and the quantity of its produce, 
 although it is not esteemed of the finest 
 quality. 
 
 As this vegetable dye is in demand, from 
 the imperial robe to the peasant's stocking, 
 and forms alike the delicate white of the 
 muslin dress, and the dark blue of the gar- 
 dener's apron, we shall enter into the process 
 of making this colour, so much in request in 
 our manufactures, from the carpet to the 
 crape in wool, and in like proportion in silk, 
 flax, and hemp, following the two latter even 
 into paper. 
 
 The apparatus for indigo works, though 
 large, are not very expensive ; the whole con- 
 sisting of a pump, vats, and tubs. As soon 
 as the plant is cut, it is put into a steeping 
 vat of about twelve feet long and four deep, 
 to the height of about fourteen inches. The 
 vessel is then filled with water, and the plants 
 left to macerate about twelve or fourteen 
 hours, when they undergo a fermentation, 
 and begin to rise and grow sensibly warm. 
 Spars of wood are then laid across, to prevent 
 the indigo from rising too much, and a mark 
 is set to denote the highest pitch of its ascent. 
 In about twenty-four hours, the fermentation 
 
INDIGO. 289 
 
 having attained its due pitch, and beginning 
 to abate, the operator lets off the liquor by 
 a cock into another vat, called the beater, the 
 mortar, or the pounding-tub. The gross 
 matter is taken for manure, and the steeping- 
 vat cleansed for the reception of fresh plants, 
 as long as the harvest continues. 
 
 The liquor that has run into the beating- 
 tub is found strongly impregnated with a 
 very subtile earth, which alone constitutes 
 the blue substance required. To separate 
 this from the useless salt of the plant, which 
 makes it float on the surface, the liquor is 
 agitated by incessant beating with bottomless 
 buckets full of holes and fixed to long han- 
 dles, until it heats, froths, and rises above the 
 rim of the vessel which contains it. To allay 
 this violent fermentation, oil is thrown in, 
 which instantly causes it to subside. This 
 part of the process requires the greatest pre- 
 caution, for if the agitation be discontinued 
 too soon, the part that is used in dyeing, not 
 being sufficiently separated from the salt, 
 would be lost. If, on the contrary, the dye 
 were to be agitated too long after the com- 
 plete separation, the parts would be brought 
 together again and form a new combination; 
 and the salt re-acting on the dregs would ex- 
 
 VOL. I. U 
 
2£K) CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 cite a second fermentation, that would alter 
 the dye, spoil its colour, and make what is 
 called burnt indigo. 
 
 To prevent these accidents, a close atten- 
 tion is paid to the least alteration the dye 
 undergoes, by taking up some of the liquor 
 in a glass from time to time. When it is 
 perceived that the blue particles collect by 
 separating from the rest of the liquor, they 
 leave off shaking the buckets, and pour lime- 
 water into it, and gently stir the whole. The 
 blue dregs precipitate to the bottom of the 
 tub, where they are left to settle till the wa- 
 ter is quite clear, when it is let off by taps 
 or holes one below the other, until nothing 
 remains at the bottom but the blue dregs, 
 which are then put into coarse linen bags : 
 these are hung up until the moisture is en- 
 tirely drained off. To complete the drying, 
 this muddy substance is worked upon boards 
 of some porous wood, with a wooden spatula, 
 and it is frequently exposed to the morning 
 and evening sun, though but for a short time 
 only, and then being put into boxes or frames, 
 is again exposed to the sun, in the same cau- 
 tious manner, until it is made fit for market. 
 
 It is much to be regretted, that no sooner 
 has one man learnt to manufacture a useful 
 
INDIGO. 291 
 
 article, than others employ their ingenuity 
 to adulterate it, or substitute for it some 
 base imitation. Indigo had no sooner found 
 its way into Rome, than spurious drugs were 
 coloured and substituted ; and, although 
 they were ingenious, we deem it better to 
 avoid the mention, and make known the 
 most simple means of detecting frauds when 
 practised in indigo. The best is of a dark 
 blue inclining to violet, bright and sparkling 
 when broken, and will float on water. It 
 may be tried by dissolving a little in a glass 
 of water, when, if pure, it will mix equally 
 with the liquor ; but if otherwise, will sepa- 
 rate, and fall to the bottom. Indigo may 
 also be tried in fire, where it will burn en- 
 tirely away if good, but the adulterations 
 remain unconsumed. Mr. Wynne says in 
 his History of the British Empire in Ame- 
 rica, " Perhaps in no branch of manufacture 
 can so large a profit be made upon so mode- 
 rate a capital, as in that of indigo ; nor can 
 the manufacture be carried on in any country 
 with greater advantages than in Carolina, 
 where the climate is healthy, provisions plen- 
 tiful and cheap, and every thing necessary 
 for the purpose procured with the greatest 
 facility. 
 
 u2 
 

 292 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The indigo plant has been cultivated in 
 our green-houses since 1731, and many va- 
 rieties have been introduced since that pe- 
 riod, by the curious in exotic plants. 
 
 Hellot suspects that such a blue faecula 
 as is procured from indigo and woad, is 
 procurable from many other vegetables. He 
 supposes the natural greens of vegetables 
 to be compounded of blue and yellow, and 
 that blue is oftentimes the most perma- 
 nent, so as to remain entire after the pu- 
 trefaction or destruction of the yellow. The 
 theory is specious, and perhaps, on trial, [ 
 may be found just; at all events it is well 
 to give this idea to the world. 
 
 Probably, blue has been selected as the 
 most appropriate colour for the dress of our 
 brave sailors, from its having been anciently 
 used as the symbol of the sea, for which 
 reason the combatants who performed in the 
 NaumachicB, at the Circensian games at Rome, 
 were clad in blue ; and those who had dis- 
 tinguished themselves by any notable exploit : u 
 at sea, were rewarded with a blue ensign. |tk 
 
 Notwithstanding the Dyers' Company of , r 
 London was incorporated so long back as the i v 
 reign of Henry the Sixth, yet the dyeing and 
 dressing of woollen cloths was very imper- 
 
 ii 
 i 
 
indigo. 293 
 
 fectly understood in England, in the year 
 1608 ; before which period, they were sent 
 white into Holland, where they were dyed and 
 dressed, and from thence brought back for 
 sale. In that year, Sir William Cockrayne, 
 an alderman of London, obtained a patent 
 for dyeing and dressing cloths at home ; but 
 great confusion arising from this grant, it was 
 revoked in 1615. But in 1667, workmen came 
 over from the Netherlands, under whose 
 direction the art was brought to a consider- 
 able degree of perfection ; but there is even 
 at the present time great room for improve- 
 ment in our dyeing, many of our colours 
 being inferior to those of our Continental 
 neighbours. 
 
 The Romans used indigo to assuage swell- 
 ings and inflammations, and to dry tumours. 
 
 In the Hortus Indus Malabaricus, it is 
 stated, that a decoction of the indigo root 
 is an excellent remedy in nephritic colics. 
 
 Some physicians recommend indigo in the 
 quantity of *a dram, while others condemn 
 the practice, and look on it as a poison. The 
 internal use of indigo is prohibited by law in 
 Saxony. 
 
294 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES 
 
 JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 
 
 A genus of the Syngenesia Folygamia fras- 
 
 tranea class. 
 
 The Jerusalem Artichoke, is a tuberous 
 rooted species of the Helianthus, Sunflower, 
 or Turnsol ; the Italians called it Girasol, 
 which we have ignorantly corrupted into 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Pelleterius calls it Heliotr opium Indicum 
 tuberosum. Parkinson, in whose time these 
 plants were first introduced, mentions them 
 under the title Bat tat as de Canada, the French 
 Battatas, or Hierusalem Artichokes. Coles 
 also, whose work was printed only 40 years 
 after they were known in this country, calls 
 them the Potatoes of Canada; but we are in- 
 formed in Martyn's edition of Miller, " that 
 they were so called because the French 
 brought them first out of Canada into these 
 parts ; not that Canada is their original 
 
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. JO.) 
 
 country, for they are unquestionably the pro- 
 duce of a hot climate, being natives of Brazil." 
 
 This root, which is more agreeable than 
 profitable, was first planted in England 
 during the reign of James the First, as we 
 are informed that in the year 1617, Mr. John 
 Goody er received two small roots from Mr. 
 Franquevill of London, no bigger than hen's 
 eggs ; the one he planted, and the other he 
 gave to a friend. His own brought him a 
 peck of roots, wherewith he stored Hamp- 
 shire. This note is dated the 17th of Octo- 
 ber, 1621 ; and it is added that he had them 
 upon their first arrival into England.* 
 
 If this were the era of the first introduc- 
 tion of the Jerusalem artichoke, it seems 
 surprising, even allowing for the facility with 
 which it is increased, that so soon as the year 
 1629, or even earlier, it should have become 
 so common in London, that even the most 
 vulgar began to despise it : whereas when 
 first received among us, it was, as Parkinson 
 says, a dainty for a queen. They were for- 
 merly baked in pies, with marrow, dates, 
 ginger, raisins, sack, &c. ; but the too fre- 
 quent use, especially being so plentiful and 
 
 * Miller. 
 
296 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 cheap, hath, says Parkinson (in 1629), rather 
 bred a loathing than a liking of them. 
 
 Coles observes in his History of Plants, 
 that " The potatoes of Canada, called by 
 ignorant people Jerusalem artichokes, were 
 of great account when they were first received 
 amongst us; but by reason of their great 
 increase they are become common, and con- 
 sequently despicable, especially by those 
 which think nothing good unless it be dear; 
 but if any one please to put them into boil- 
 ing water, they will quickly become tender, 
 so that, being peeled, sliced, and stewed with 
 butter, and a little wine, they will be as 
 pleasant as the bottom of an artichoke." 
 
 These roots seem to have been disesteemed 
 from their ventosity, and watery qualities ; 
 but when properly cooked, and eaten with 
 moderation, they may be considered as safe 
 as most other vegetables. The root near- 
 ly resembles the flavour of the artichoke 
 bottom, on which account they are as im- 
 properly called Artichokes, as they are ab- 
 surdly named Jerusalem. 
 
 This vegetable is propagated by planting 
 out the smaller roots, or pieces of the larger 
 which have buds to them, in the manner of 
 potatoes. The stem grows to a considerable 
 
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 297 
 
 height, having all the appearance of the sun- 
 flower, excepting that they do not blossom 
 in this temperate climate. The root spreads 
 immoderately, multiplies very quickly, and is 
 with difficulty cleared out of land where it 
 is once planted. The Jerusalem artichoke is 
 thought greatly to impoverish the earth. 
 
298 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 LAVENDER.—LAVENDULA, 
 
 OR THE ANCIENT SPIKENARD, FROM SPICA 
 
 NARDI.* 
 
 Natural order, Verticillatce. A genus of the 
 Didynamia Gymnospermia class. 
 
 Lavender is called "Ndofos, Nardus, in 
 Greek, from Naarda, a city of Syria, near 
 the Euphrates, and Nctp£oL<?<£%vs, quasi Nardi 
 Spica, which was the general name of the 
 Indian sort : also Nardus Indica, to put a 
 distinction between that and the Celtic and 
 mountain spikenard, -f 
 
 The plant takes its name a lavando, from 
 washing or bathing, because it was used in 
 baths, on account of its fragrancy; or because 
 all the species were ingredients in lyes, for the 
 purpose of giving a sweet smell to linen ; or 
 entered the composition of the best Lavacra, 
 or washes for the face, in order to render it 
 shining and fragrant. It is also called Spica, 
 
 * Todd's Edit, of Johnson's Diet. Hill, Mat. Med. 
 t Lobel. Cole. 
 
LAVENDER. 299 
 
 spike; because, among all the verticillated 
 plants, this alone bears a spike. Many call 
 it Nard ; and, perhaps, this is the true nard 
 of the ancients.* 
 
 This shrub, which is the pride both of our 
 aromatic gardens and of our perfumers' 
 shops, is a native of Languedoc, some parts 
 of Spain, Hungary, and Austria ; but the 
 most odoriferous lavender grew anciently 
 about the city Eporrhedia, and was so much 
 esteemed at the time when our Saviour was 
 upon earth, that it was sought after with the 
 greatest avidity and brought a revenue to 
 that city equal to a mine of the most precious 
 metal, f* 
 
 St. Mark mentions it as a thing of great 
 value ; for when Christ was in Bethany, 
 " in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat 
 at meat, there came a woman, having an ala- 
 baster box of ointment of spikenard, very 
 precious : and she brake the box, and poured 
 it on his head." They who were present 
 observed that " it might have been sold for 
 more than three hundred pence." J 
 
 Pliny, who flourished a little after this 
 
 * Historia Plantarum, ascribed to Boerhaave. 
 t Plin. book xxi. chap. 7. 
 J Chap. xiv. ver. 3 to 5. 
 
300 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 period, has described the lavender plant un- 
 der the name of Nardus. The blossom he 
 notices as forming a spike, and says there is 
 a spurious kind of nard, which is often sold 
 for the true spikenard. In the same chapter 
 he states that the most costly and precious 
 ointment was made from the aromatic leaves 
 of the nardus, and that the spikes (blossoms) 
 sold for 100 Roman denarii, (3/. 2s. 6d.) 
 a pound. 
 
 This exact naturalist has described the 
 varieties so minutely, that it cannot be mis- 
 taken for any other plant. " The Romans/' 
 says he, " esteem the leaves of the nardus 
 that is brought from Syria as the best; next 
 to that the Gallic lavender or nardus is in 
 estimation/' He also notices the spikenard 
 of Candia, and of India ; but he does not 
 even hint that the latter plant was used as 
 a perfume. What especially confirms this 
 opinion is, that Pliny, after having described 
 the same ointment mentioned by the Evan- 
 gelists, which he directs to be kept in pots 
 or vessels of alabaster, observes that the 
 flowers or spikes of the plant being laid in 
 wardrobes give a most agreeable perfume to 
 the garments. 
 
 Lavender, or Nardus, was likewise called 
 
LAVENDER. 301 
 
 Asarum by the Romans, on account of its 
 not being used in garlands or chaplets : the 
 leaves, says Pliny, were too small and brittle 
 to be woven into coronets. 
 
 It has often been asserted, that the spike- 
 nard ointment of the ancients was made from 
 the root of the Valeriana Jatamansi, which is 
 found growing only in India ; but this seems 
 highly improbable, as the scent of this root 
 differs very widely from our idea of agreeable 
 perfumes ; and we may presume, that the 
 opinions of the Romans at the commence- 
 ment of the Christian era, with respect to 
 odours, were similar to our own ; as we find, 
 besides the spikenard, they extracted their 
 favourite odours from roses, myrtle, violets, 
 marjoram, lilies, orris-root, and jonquils, &c, 
 to which they often added sweet spices and 
 aromatic gums. 
 
 The late Sir William Jones was of opinion, 
 that this celebrated ointment was procured 
 from the root of the Valerian of Nepal ; and 
 on this authority, Mr. Lambert tells us in his 
 illustration of the genus Cinchona, that the 
 Valeriana Jatamansi " is identical with the 
 spikenard of the ancients :" notwithstanding 
 the doubts expressed by Dr. Francis Hamil- 
 ton, in his account of Nepal, where he says. 
 
302 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 " As there can be no disputing about taste, 
 I cannot take upon myself to say how far the 
 encomiums bestowed on the spikenard are 
 applicable to the Valerian ; all I can say is, 
 that if this root was the spikenard of the 
 Roman ladies, their lovers must have had a 
 very different taste from the youth of modern 
 Europe. 
 
 The wild lavender, which grows so abun- 
 dantly in the south of France, is known to 
 be the bastard nard of the ancients. P. Po- 
 met, who was superintendant of the Mate- 
 ria Medica in the King s Gardens at Paris, in 
 1694, says, " Nous faisons venir, de plus, de 
 Languedoc et de la Provence, l'huile d'as- 
 pic, qui est tir6 des fleurs et des petites 
 feiiilles d'une plante que les Botanistes ap- 
 pellent Spica, she Lavendulamus, vel Nardus 
 Italica, a ut Tseudo-nardus, qui signifie Aspic, 
 ou Lavande male, ou Nard dTtalie, ou 
 Nard batard." 
 
 The antiquity of the use of odoriferous gums 
 and perfumes, in the eastern nations, defies 
 our researches into its origin ; but it was the 
 opinion of ancient writers, that they were 
 first brought out of Elam, the country now 
 called Persia, and formed one of the earliest 
 articles of commerce with the Egyptians. 
 
LAVENDER. 308 
 
 These people appear to have set great value 
 on aromatic drugs, which, on account of the 
 damp fogs arising from the Nile, they could 
 not obtain in so high a degree of perfection 
 from their native plants. The Ishmaelitish 
 merchants to whom Joseph was sold, were 
 going into Egypt with their camels laden 
 with " spices, and balm, and myrrh." * The 
 Israelites would, of course, become acquaint- 
 ed with the use of these luxuries during their 
 bondage in Egypt ; and particularly Moses, 
 from his having been bred up in Pharaohs 
 court. Among the offerings which the children 
 of Israel made for the Tabernacle, were spices 
 for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, •f In 
 the 30th chapter of Exodus, we learn that 
 Moses was commanded to make the holy 
 anointing oil, and a perfume of various aroma- 
 tic gums and vegetables, after the manner of 
 the apothecaries." 
 
 " Why need I name the sweet balsamic oil, 
 
 Which weeps from shrubs in Juda's fertile soil T 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 This precious balm, so often mentioned in 
 Scripture, was drawn from shrubs which 
 grew only in two places in Judea. These 
 
 # Gen. c. xliii. v. 11. t Exodus, c. xxv. v. G. 
 
304 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 were afterwards inclosed as parks or gar- 
 dens, and most religiously kept for the Kings 
 of Israel. The largest of these enclosures 
 contained about twenty acres : and both of 
 them were said to produce but seven gallons 
 of this valuable aromatic sap, in the most 
 favourable year. When fresh, it was of a 
 pale colour, and of the consistency of oil, 
 but, by keeping, it was converted into a red- 
 dish gum, clear and transparent. It was ob- 
 tained by making incisions in the shrubs; but 
 the most valuable was that which oozed 
 from the natural cracks in the bark. From 
 the pruning of the shrubs and leaves was 
 procured an inferior kind of balm. 
 
 When Alexander was in Judea, (332 years 
 b. c.) he limited the quantity of balm that 
 was to be taken from both these gardens, to 
 one spoonful per day. 
 
 Pompey boasted of having borne one of 
 these shrubs in his triumph ; and the Empe- 
 rors Vespasian, both father and son, brought 
 one of these balm-trees to Rome, where it 
 was publicly exhibited. 
 
 At the sacking and destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem, the Jews endeavoured to destroy these 
 sacred shrubs, in order to prevent their fall- 
 ing into the hands of the heathens ; but the 
 
LAVENDER. 305 
 
 Romans wishing to preserve them, a most 
 bloody battle ensued. The trees were pre- 
 served, indeed, but for the worshippers of 
 idols, though the Temple fell without being 
 polluted by heathen sacrifices. 
 
 These celebrated shrubs, and their bal- 
 samic liquor, were then placed under the 
 protection of the Roman empire. They are 
 now doomed to shed their tears for the gra- 
 tification of the Grand Signior's seraglio 
 only ; for even the balsam that so rarely 
 leaves Constantinople, in the shape of pre- 
 sents from the great men of the Porte, is 
 merely an extract from the prunings of the 
 plants. 
 
 The cultivation of these shrubs is now ex- 
 clusively in the hands of the Turkish Sove- 
 reign ; and is esteemed so precious as to form 
 a special part of his revenue. 
 
 Le Sieur Pierre Pomet, in his Histoire 
 G Sner ale des Drogues, 16'94, tells us, that the 
 Grand Signior had some of these shrubs 
 transplanted into his garden at Grand Cairo, 
 where they were so strictly guarded by the 
 Janizaries, that his friend could not by any 
 stratagem obtain a sight of the trees, except- 
 ing from the height of the wall. From the 
 drawing and description which this author 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
306 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 has furnished us with, the leaves of this shrub 
 are made to resemble those of rue, and the 
 white blossoms are of a star-like form, from 
 the centre of which grows a berry, pointed 
 at the extremity, containing a kernel or seed. 
 This author tells us, that Madame de Ville- 
 favin,had possessed herself of fourteen ounces 
 of this precious balm, which he saw, and that 
 it was of a bright gold colour, had the per- 
 fume of the citron, and was of a firm con- 
 sistency.* 
 
 " Indus alone can swarthy ebon boast, 
 As fragrant incense the Sabsean coast." 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 The sweet incense, or frankincense, which 
 was also used both in the worship of the true 
 God, and on the altars of the profane tem- 
 ples, was a produce of Arabia Felix, and was 
 drawn from trees in a manner similar to the 
 balm. 
 
 Pliny informs us, that, when Alexander 
 was but a child, he threw incense on the altar 
 so unsparingly at a sacrifice, that Leonidas, 
 his tutor, slightly checked him with this re- 
 proof, " Sire ! you should throw incense in 
 that manner, when you have conquered the 
 
 # Livre vii. chap. 44. 
 
LAVENDER. 301 
 
 country where it grows." The rebuke seem- 
 ed to have made deep impression on the 
 mind of the young prince, for when he had 
 conquered Arabia, he sent a ship laden witli 
 incense to Leonidas, with a charge to his 
 tutor to bestow it largely on the gods when 
 he sacrificed. 
 
 The incense trees grew only in that part 
 of Arabia that was inhabited by the Sabaeans, 
 and so strict were their laws respecting them, 
 that no persons were permitted even to see 
 the trees, excepting those who had the charge 
 of them. The valley where they grew was 
 surrounded by mountains, and was situated 
 about eight days journey from Sabota (now 
 Sanaa) the capital, whither the incense was 
 conveyed on camels ; and it was forbidden, 
 on pain of death, to enter the city with this 
 drug, except at one particular gate, where 
 the priests took a tenth part for their god 
 Sabis, and no person could either buy or sell 
 it until this duty was discharged. The Ge- 
 banites were the only people allowed to 
 carry it out of the country. They also paid 
 a toll to their sovereign. It was taxed again 
 at Gaza, and by the time that the kings, the 
 priests, the secretaries, the wardens of the 
 temples, and the various officers, had levied 
 
 x2 
 
308 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 contributions on this drug, but little was left 
 to pay the great charge of bringing it to the 
 coast ; "and here," says Pliny, "the publicans 
 and officers of the customs belonging to the 
 empire must have a fleece, which raises it to 
 so high a price in Rome."* 
 
 At the time when this frankincense was 
 taken to Alexandria, to be tried, refined, and 
 made up for sale, the workmen were naked, 
 excepting short trowsers, which were sowed 
 up and sealed, to prevent the possibility of 
 their concealing any portion of this valuable 
 drug. Their heads were fixed in a mask or 
 caul, lest they should secrete the smallest 
 portion either in their mouths or ears. They 
 were not even suffered to depart after all 
 these precautions, till they were examined 
 when quite uncovered. 
 
 Perfumes were evidently known to the 
 Greeks in the time of Homer, who seems 
 quite at home at the toilet, for, in decorating 
 Juno for her Imperial husband, he says 
 
 a 
 
 Swift to her bright apartment she repairs, 
 Sacred to dress, and Beauty's pleasing cares : 
 
 $fc $F TT $fc *W* W -Tf* 
 
 Here first she bathes ; and round her body pours 
 Soft oils of fragrance, and ambrosial showers : 
 
 * Book xiv. c. 12. 
 
LAVENDER. 30f) 
 
 The winds perfumed, the balmy gale convey 
 
 Through heaven, through earth, and all th' aerial way ; 
 
 Spirit divine ! whose exhalation greets 
 
 The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets." 
 
 lli<ul, 14/// book. 
 
 The Greeks appear to have learnt the 
 more common use of perfumes from the Per- 
 sians ; for when Alexander took the camp of 
 Darius, he found among the royal treasures 
 a great quantity of rich perfumes and costly 
 ointments. From Greece this effeminate 
 practice was carried to Rome, where its abuse 
 became so excessive, that Nero, that com- 
 pound of folly and vice, had his feet anointed 
 with the most expensive odours ; and he is 
 said to have burnt more incense at the 
 funeral pile of his wife Poppa?a than the 
 whole of Arabia produced in a year. 
 
 " I cannot ascertain," says Pliny, " when 
 this enormity first entered Rome ; but it ap- 
 pears upon record, that after the subduing 
 Antiochus, and the conquest of Asia, P. Liei- 
 nius Crassus, and L. Julius Caesar, the Cen- 
 sors, published an edict, prohibiting the sale 
 of foreign ointments in Rome. But in these 
 days, it has entered into our very camps, and 
 the old standards and ensigns and eagles are 
 anointed and perfumed, as if it were to re- 
 ward them for conquering the world. Men 
 
310 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 are now so wanton and delicate, that not- 
 withstanding they are besmeared in every 
 part of their bodies with odorous ointments, 
 yet they cannot take their wine unless it be 
 spiced and aromatized with balms : so as 
 they get sweet smells, they care not for the 
 bitter taste, or the treasure they expend." 
 
 When L. Plotius was banished, and pro- 
 claimed an outlaw, by a decree of the trium- 
 viri, (Antony, Lepidus, and Octavius,) he 
 would have escaped, being closely hid in a 
 cave at Salernum, but was discovered by the 
 smell of the precious ointment on his person. 
 
 As we digress to please, we hope for par- 
 don, and return to lavender, under the name 
 which it appears to have borne with the 
 prince of the Latin poets, who, in describing 
 a situation for the hive, says, 
 
 " Hsec circum Casia virides, et olentia late 
 Serpilla, et graviter spirantis copia thymbrae." 
 
 Virgil's Georgics, 4.th book. 
 
 " The verdant lavender must there abound, 
 There savory shed its pleasant sweets around ; 
 There buds of purple violets should bloom, 
 And fragrant thyme the ambient air perfume. 
 
 Lauderdale. 
 
 Theophrastus, in earlier days, seems to 
 have mentioned this plant under the title of 
 Cneorus Albus. 
 
LAVENDER. .) 1 I 
 
 D. Rembert Dodoens, who wrote his Her- 
 bal in the time of Henry the Eighth, says, 
 "the English call it Spike, and Lavender ;" 
 
 which is also a proof that it was then culti- 
 vated in this country. 
 
 Gerard notices six varieties that were cul- 
 tivated in our gardens as early as the reign 
 of Elizabeth : one of these species, the cut- 
 leaved, (multifield, ) he says is called in Eng- 
 lish, Cassidonia, which seems to be derived 
 from the Casiae of Virgil. 
 
 It does not appear that the English were 
 addicted to the use of perfumes in the time of 
 Henry the Eighth, or in the reign of Elizabeth ; 
 but both Dodoens and Gerard recommend 
 those who have the palsy or apoplexy to wash 
 themselves with lavender-water, or anoint 
 their limbs with the oil made from its flowers ; 
 though the latter author condemns the prac- 
 tice of " unskilful apothecaries and foolish 
 women," who give this and other hot com- 
 positions inwardly to all constitutions and for 
 all diseases. Conserves of lavender were 
 much used in the time of Gerard for various 
 complaints. 
 
 It is far from our intention to condemn 
 the moderate use of perfumes, as it would 
 be extremely hard to debar those who reside 
 
312 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 in crowded cities from partaking of the 
 sweets of nature; but we would recommend 
 the old practice of laying clean linen in la- 
 vender, in preference to throwing the extract 
 of it on dirty clothes. 
 
 Lavender is in a very eminent degree ce- 
 phalic and nervine, and may be safely em- 
 ployed to sweeten the air of sick rooms, 
 when the state of the patient, or the atmo- 
 sphere, will not admit of purer circulation. 
 It is the chief of all the cephalic plants, be- 
 ing very comfortable and reviving, under 
 faintings and languishments of the brain and 
 heart; whence it is very proper in lethargies, 
 apoplexy, palsy, and epilepsy. Lavender, 
 given in a phrensy proceeding from an in- 
 flammation, infallibly destroys the patient ; 
 but it is good for vertiginous old persons, 
 and distempers owing to dulness, and want 
 of spirits.* 
 
 The spirit of lavender is still esteemed in 
 palsies, vertigoes, lethargies, tremours, &c. 
 The oil is particularly celebrated for destroy- 
 ing the pediculi mguinales, and other cuta- 
 neous insects. Geoffroy says, if soft spungy 
 paper, dipped in the oil, be applied at night 
 
 # Dr. R. James. 
 
LAVENDER. S18 
 
 to the parts affected, the insects will certainly 
 be found dead in the morning. 
 
 Lord Bacon says, sweet odours contribute 
 to health by refreshing the spirits, and caus- 
 ing cheerfulness. This should induce us to 
 plant lavender more abundantly in our gar- 
 dens and shrubberies, where its bluish leaves 
 form a pleasing variety, and its aromatic 
 spikes give an agreeable odour. We would 
 wish to see this fragrant shrub occupying 
 many banks in parks and plantations, where 
 the common passenger might imbibe good 
 humour from this reviving plant. It is easily 
 propagated either by seeds, cuttings, or slips; 
 and as the shrub gets older, the flowers be- 
 come more fragrant, on the same principle 
 that the fruit of an old tree is the most deli- 
 cious, or the wine made from old vines, the 
 richest and most agreeable. 
 
 The lavender blossom has given name to 
 a colour, that is the gayest worn by our fair 
 young quakers, who are as attractive in their 
 neatness, as the Egyptian Queen in her robes 
 of Tyrian dye. 
 
 It is as luxurious as it is ingenious to 
 have our desserts brought to table on a ser- 
 vice of lavender spikes, and it is equally 
 pleasing to see young females thus embellish- 
 
314 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 ing those rooms of which they are the greatest 
 ornament. 
 
 There are lavender gardens of consider- 
 able extent in the neighbourhood of London, 
 and the lavender-water of British distillation 
 is now generally preferred to that of France. 
 
 The oil made of this plant is called oil 
 of spike; but the shops generally make it with 
 turpentine, impregnated with the flowers ; 
 and the turpentine has indeed the smell, but 
 not all the virtues of the flowers commu- 
 nicated to it. The true oil of spike should 
 be made only of the flowers with water.* 
 
 * James. 
 
315 
 
 LETTUCE.-LACTUCA. 
 
 Natural order, Compositce. A genus of the 
 Syngenesia Polygamia /Equalis class. 
 
 The Latins gave this plant the name of 
 Lactuca from Lac, on account of the milky 
 juice with which it abounds. The French, 
 for the same reason, call it Laitue ; the Eng- 
 lish name Lettuce is a corruption of either 
 the Latin or French word, and in all proba- 
 bility originated from the former, as several 
 of our old authors spell it Lectuce. 
 
 That this vegetable was in early times es- 
 teemed of the first rank among pot-herbs and 
 salads, we learn from an anecdote related 
 by Herodotus, and which also proves that 
 lettuces were served in their natural state at 
 the royal tables of the Persian kings at least 
 550 years before the Christian era. Cam- 
 byses, son of Cyrus the Great, had his brother 
 Smerdis killed from mere suspicion, and, con- 
 trary to the laws, married his sister : this 
 princess being at table with Cambyses, she 
 
316 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 stripped a headed lettuce of its leaves ; when, 
 the king observing that the plant was not so 
 beautiful as when it had all its leaves, " It is 
 the same with our family," replied the prin- 
 cess, " since you have cut off a precious shoot." 
 This indiscreet allusion cost her her own life. 
 Pliny tells us, that the ancient Romans 
 knew but one kind of lettuce, which was a 
 black variety, that yielded a great quantity 
 of milky juice which caused sleep, therefore 
 it was called Lactuca. 
 
 It is reported, adds this author, that An- 
 tonius Musa, a physician, cured the emperor 
 Augustus Caesar of a dangerous disease by 
 means of the lettuce. Other authors notice 
 that Augustus was eased of the violence of 
 his disease by the use of this plant ; which 
 circumstance seems to have brought the let- 
 tuce into esteem at Rome ; as Pliny says, 
 after that time there was no doubt about 
 eating them, and men began to devise means 
 of growing them at all seasons of the year, 
 and even preserving them, for they were used 
 in pottage as well as in salads. 
 Columella notices the qualities of this plant, 
 
 " And now let lettuce, with its healthful sleep, 
 Make haste, which of a tedious long disease 
 The painful loathings cures." 
 
LETTUCE. .il/ 
 
 Athenaeus and Constantino Caesar sav, 
 that the Pythagoreans called this plant the 
 Eunuch ; and the ancients fabled, that after 
 the death of Adonis, Venus lay upon a bed 
 of lettuce ; which evidently shews that they 
 were acquainted with the cooling and opiate 
 nature of this vegetable, which is still thought 
 more salutary for those whose religious pro- 
 fession enjoins them a life of celibacy, than 
 for settlers in new colonies. 
 
 We learn also from Pliny, that the Greek 
 lettuce was a variety that grew both high and 
 large, and that the Romans, in his day, culti- 
 vated the purple lettuce with a large root 
 that was called Cceciliana. They had likewise 
 the Egyptian, Cilician, and Cappadocian 
 lettuce, besides the A sty Us, or the chaste 
 lettuce, which, he says, was often called 
 Eunuchion, because it was thought less favour- 
 able to Venus than other plants. This natu- 
 ralist adds, they were all considered cooling, 
 therefore eaten principally in the summer. 
 Great pains were used to make them cab- 
 bage: they were earthed up with sea-sand, 
 to blanch them and give them heart. The 
 white lettuce was noticed, in that mild cli- 
 mate, to be the least able to endure cold. 
 
 The Romans esteemed this vegetable as a 
 
318 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 clearer of the senses. They were anciently 
 eaten at the conclusion of their supper; but 
 in the time of Domitian, they changed this 
 order, and served them with the first entries 
 at their feasts. 
 
 Martial notices this change in his verse. 
 
 " Claudere quae coenas Lactuca solebat avorum, 
 Die mihi, cur nostras inchoat ilia dapes V 
 
 The wild lettuce as well as the cultivated, 
 was used medicinally by the Romans ; and 
 Palladius, a Greek physician, notices their 
 culture in his treatise on fevers. 
 
 We find no attempt made to cultivate the 
 lettuce in this country, until the fourth year 
 of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 1562 ; but in 
 1597, Gerard gives us an account of eight 
 kinds of lettuce, that were then cultivated 
 in England. He says, * Lettuce maketh a 
 pleasant sallade, being eaten rawe with 
 vinegar, oil, and a little salt : but if it be 
 boiled, it is sooner digested, and nourisheth 
 more." He adds, " It is served in these 
 daies, and in these countries, at the begin- 
 ning of supper, and eaten first before any 
 other meat ; but notwithstanding, it may now 
 and then be eaten at both those times to the 
 health of the bodie : for being taken before 
 
LETTUCE. 31<) 
 
 meate, it doth many times stir vp appetite : 
 and eaten after supper, it keepeth away 
 drunkenness which cometh by the wine; and 
 that is by reason that it staieth the vapors 
 from rising vp into the head." He says, 
 " Lettuce cooleth a hot stomake, called the 
 heart-burning," &c. &c. 
 
 We now cultivate, in the neighbourhood 
 of London, thirty varieties of this plant, all 
 of which are esteemed in salads. Some of 
 them are natives of Egypt ; others have 
 been procured from Aleppo, Cos, Holland, 
 Marseilles, Silesia, Savoy, South America, 
 Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Germany, and the 
 East Indies ; the latter can only be grown 
 in a hot-house. 
 
 It should be remarked, that none are so 
 good to boil or stew, or to thicken soup, hodge- 
 podge, &c, as the Roman or cabbage lettuce. 
 
 The young leaves of garden lettuce are 
 emollient, cooling, and in some small degree 
 laxative and aperient, easy of digestion but of 
 little nourishment ; salubrious in hot bilious 
 indispositions, but less proper in cold phleg- 
 matic temperaments. In some cases they 
 tend to promote sleep, by virtue of their re- 
 frigerating and demulcient quality.* 
 
 * Lewis. 
 
320 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Galen says, " In the decline of age, which 
 is naturally wakeful, I suffered very much 
 by want of sleep ; for which disorder, I used 
 in the evening to eat a lettuce, which was 
 my sovereign and only remedy. Many boil 
 this tender herb in water, before it produces 
 stalks ; as I myself now do, since my teeth 
 begin to fail me." 
 
 Dr. Aston tells us, that the milk of the 
 common garden lettuce is hypnotic, while 
 the root of the plant is cooling, diluent, and 
 nourishing. 
 
 This plant is cooling, and causes an incli- 
 nation to sleep, upon which account it pro- 
 cures ease in pains, both taken inwardly, and 
 externally applied. 
 
 Schroder was of opinion, that it afforded 
 considerable nourishment, and much in- 
 creases milk when eaten by nurses. 
 
 The Historia Plant arum states that no 
 herb more powerfully resolves, and brings 
 away the black bile. 
 
 Lettuces are said to render the chyle easily 
 condited; and are recommended to young 
 people on account of their cooling nature. 
 
 M. Bourgeois observes, that the different 
 kinds of lettuce, although very good for per- 
 sons of strong stomach and good digestion, 
 
LETTUCE. 21 
 
 are very injurious to cold weak stomachs, as 
 they pass undigested ; they disagree very 
 much with hypochondriac persons, and fe- 
 males who are troubled with hysterics. 
 
 Turned lettuce, when dried and put on 
 the fire or on hot coals, sparkles like nitre. 
 
 Young lettuce may be raised in forty-eight 
 hours, by first steeping the seed in brandy, 
 and then sowing it in a hot-house. 
 
 The seeds of this plant are of an emollient 
 nature. 
 
 ENDIVE.— CICHORIUM. 
 
 This plant is a species of succory, and is 
 arranged under the same class and order as 
 the lettuce. 
 
 Modern botanical writers state, that the 
 common garden endive is a native of the 
 East Indies, without noticing what the an- 
 cient European authors have said of it. 
 
 Ovid mentions it in his tale of Philemon 
 and Baucis : 
 
 A garden salad was the third supply, 
 Of endive, radishes, and succory." 
 
 Columella thus notices this vegetable, 
 
 " And endives, which the blunted palate please." 
 
 VOL. I. Y 
 
322 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 This plant was eaten both as a pot-herb 
 and a salad by the Romans. Pliny notices it 
 in the 8th chapter of his 20th book, and in- 
 forms us that the endive, or garden succory, 
 furnishes many effectual properties in medi- 
 cine ; that the juice of this plant, mingled 
 with rose-oil and vinegar, was used to allay 
 pains in the head; and that when mixed with 
 wine it was thought good for complaints of 
 the liver. 
 
 Some of our writers (says this author) name 
 the wild endive A mbubeia ; and in Egypt 
 they call wild endive dehor him, and the cul- 
 tivated, Seris. 
 
 Horace notices this plant under the name 
 of Cicorea. 
 
 " Me pascunt olivae, 
 
 Me Cicorea, levesque malvse."* 
 
 It is one of the plants with which the magi- 
 cians, in credulous ages, used to endeavour to 
 impose on their too easily seduced believers. 
 They affirmed, that if persons anointed their 
 bodies all over with the juice of this herb 
 mixed with oil, it would make them appear, 
 not only so amiable that they would win the 
 good will and favour of all men, but that 
 
 * Lib. i. Ode 31. 
 
 
LETTUCE. 323 
 
 they would easily obtain whatever they set 
 their hearts upon. We can match this cre- 
 dulity in modern times, by that of the disci- 
 ples of Johanna Southcot. 
 
 The garden-endive appears to have been 
 first cultivated in England in the reign of 
 Edward the Sixth, 1548; but the wild endive 
 or succory, Intubus, being indigenous to the 
 soil, was sown in all probability at a much 
 earlier period, both as a pot-herb and as a 
 salad, as Old Gerard informs us, that " the 
 leaves of these wilde herbes are boiled in 
 pottage or broths for sicke and feeble persons 
 that haue hot, weake, and feeble stomacks, 
 to strengthen the same." This early and ex- 
 cellent English herbalist notices that the 
 wild endives " do growe wilde in sundry 
 places in Englande, vpon wilde and vntilled 
 barren grounds, especially in chalkie and 
 stonie places." He also gives an account of 
 the manner by which the garden-endive was 
 preserved for winter use in the time of Queen 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 " Endiue being sown in July, it remaineth 
 till winter, at which time it is taken vp by the 
 rootes, and laide in the sunne or aire for the 
 space of two houres ; then will the leaues be 
 tough, and easily endure to be wrapped vpon 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 an heape, and buried in the earth with the 
 rootes vpwards, where no earth can get within 
 it, which, if it did, would cause rottenness ; 
 the which, so couered, may be taken vp at 
 times conuenient, and vsed in sallades all the 
 winter, as in London and other places is to be 
 seene ; and then it is called white endiue." 
 He adds, " these herbes eaten in sallades or 
 otherwise, especially the white endiue, doth 
 comfort the weake and feeble stomacke, and 
 cooleth and refresheth the stomacke ouer- 
 much heated." 
 
 Galen, who wrote in the second century, 
 mentions this plant as an excellent medicine 
 for a heated liver. Many of the Romans at- 
 tributed the astonishing cures performed by 
 that physician to magic, and thought that 
 he had obtained all his knowledge by en- 
 chantment. Galen, however, confessed him- 
 self indebted for his medical knowledge to 
 the writings of Hippocrates, which had then 
 been preserved 550 years : this should be 
 an inducement for us rather to learn the 
 opinions of the ancients, than to condemn 
 them unknown. 
 
 Endive is now cultivated in this country 
 more as a winter and spring salad than for 
 any other purpose; although it is excellent 
 
LETTUCE. 325 
 
 in pottage and soups. Modern physicians 
 begin to discountenance the use of raw ve- 
 getables, and reason tells us, that too free a 
 use of salads in the winter season cannot be 
 beneficial to the generality of constitutions 
 in this country ; yet we find our late adven- 
 turers to the North found it desirable to grow 
 green salads in their ships, for the benefit of 
 the sick, when they were within a few de- 
 grees of the North Pole. 
 
 We now cultivate eight varieties of endive. 
 
 DANDELION.— LEONTODON. 
 
 This despised vegetable, although an ex- 
 cellent salad herb, belongs to the family of 
 the succory and endive, and is botanically 
 arranged under the same order and class as 
 the lettuce. 
 
 We find the Romans named most plants 
 from their similarity to some well-known ob- 
 ject, or in allusion to some virtue which they 
 were supposed to possess; on examining the 
 leaves of the dandelion, they will be found 
 cut or jagged, like the teeth of a lion, and 
 which is expressed by the name Leontodon. 
 The French name this plant Dent de Lyon, 
 from Dens Leonis, lion's tooth, from which 
 
326 
 
 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 the English name of Dandelion is a corrup- 
 tion. The French eat the stalks and tender 
 leaves of this plant with bread and butter. 
 
 Children that eat of the dandelion in the 
 evening experience its diuretic effects in the 
 night ; from which cause, other European 
 nations, as well as the English, have bes- 
 towed on it a more vulgar name. Notwith- 
 standing this uninviting appellation, we have 
 always found it desirable to have some plants 
 taken from the pastures or road sides, and 
 planted in our garden to blanch for the 
 spring, as it is then an agreeable herb to mix 
 with other salads, and may be procured when 
 lettuce or endive are not easily obtained. 
 
 We are told that when a swarm of locusts 
 had destroyed the harvest in the island of 
 Minorca, many of the inhabitants subsisted 
 upon this plant, without any ill effect. 
 
 Goats are fond of the dandelion, and swine 
 devour it greedily ; sheep and cows are not 
 fond of it, and horses refuse it. Small birds 
 hunt for the seed, which they seem to relish. 
 
 Boerhaave greatly recommended the use 
 of this vegetable in most chronical dis- 
 tempers, and held it capable of resolving all 
 kinds of coagulations, and the most obstinate 
 
LETTUCE. 327 
 
 obstructions of the viscera, if it were duly 
 continued. 
 
 The dandelion is cooling and aperitive, 
 and a diuretic that is good to cleanse the 
 kidneys and bladder. It is boiled in posset 
 drink, and frequently used in all kinds of 
 fevers.* 
 
 Parkinson recommends a decoction of the 
 leaves and roots in wine or broth for a con- 
 sumption, or any ill habit of body. The 
 leaves, as they get old, are very bitter, and 
 give a faint tincture of red to blue paper ; 
 the roots give it much deeper : they are 
 bitter, styptic, and detersive. Tragus pre- 
 scribed the water of this herb in internal 
 inflammations; and Barbette advised the juice 
 to be taken for the same complaint. 
 
 # James. 
 
328 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES 
 
 MARIGOLD.— CALDULENA. 
 
 Natural order, Composite. A genus of the 
 Syngenesia Polygamic/, Necessaria class. 
 
 The generic name of Calendula is thought 
 to have originated from its having been ob- 
 served to flower most about the calends of 
 every month. 
 
 " Fair is the Marygold, for pottage meet." Gay. 
 
 The common Marigold, or Calendula offi- 
 cinalis, is a native of the south of Europe, and 
 is said to have been cultivated in this country 
 prior to 1573. Dodoens, whose Herbal was 
 written previous to this date, says the Eng- 
 lish call them Marigolds and Ruds : he ob- 
 serves, they grow in every garden where they 
 have once been sown, as they yearly spring 
 up from the fallen seed. 
 
 We have often seen this plant in situations 
 that have called to mind those lines of 
 Goldsmith, 
 
 u Where once the garden smiled, 
 
 And still where many a garden flower grows wild.' 
 
MARIGOLD. 329 
 
 Gerard describes several species and va- 
 rieties of marigolds that were grown in our 
 gardens previously to 1597 ; and the species 
 now alluded to, Calendula sativa, he says, 
 was so much used in Holland, that " the 
 yellow leaves of the flowers are dried and 
 kept throughout Dutchland against winter, to 
 put into broths, in phisicall potions, and for 
 diuers other purposes, in such quantities, that 
 in some grocers or sellers of spices houses 
 are to be found barrels filled with them, and 
 retailed by the pennie, more or lesse, in so 
 much that no broths are well made without 
 dried marigolds." 
 
 Most of the old physicians recommend the 
 conserves made with the leaves of this flower 
 and sugar, to be taken as a preventive against 
 the plague or other pestilential diseases. 
 They also state that these preparations cure 
 the palpitation of the heart. Marigold tea 
 was one of the domestic medicines given in 
 agues, and often with success. We cannot 
 avoid noticing how much less frequent this 
 disorder has become within these last twenty- 
 five years ; and we attribute it principally to 
 the improved state of the cultivation of our 
 lands. The rapid advance in price of every 
 agricultural production at the commencement 
 
330 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 of the war occasioned by the French Revolu- 
 tion, induced the farmers to drain their lands 
 where formerly waters were suffered to con- 
 gregate and become stagnated, and where 
 vegetable matter would naturally putrefy and 
 corrupt the air. In justice to the age we 
 live in, it must be remarked that the lower 
 orders of the country people were never 
 better , fed or clothed than during the late 
 war, notwithstanding the high price provi- 
 sions bore, which circumstance also proved 
 a powerful defence against this autumnal 
 complaint. 
 
 The ancient authors make but slight men- 
 tion of the marigold ; Columella notices it in 
 his 10th book, under the name of Calthce. 
 
 " Candida Leucoia et flaventia lumina Calthae." 
 
 Stock gilliflowers exceeding white, 
 
 And marygolds most yellow bright. Gerard. 
 
 Virgil notices the flower in the second 
 Eclogue of his Bucolicks. 
 
 " Cassia and Dill are added to the store, 
 With cowslips, marigolds, and many more 
 In order wove, a garland to complete, 
 Adorn'd with every flower and every sweet." 
 
 Gay, in his burlesque Pastorals, gives this 
 riddle : 
 
MARIGOLD. )1 
 
 " What flower is that which bears the Virgin's mum , 
 
 The richest metal joined with the same?" 
 
 The flowers of the common marigold are 
 thought to be aperient and attenuating, as 
 well as cardiac, alexipharmac, and sudorific ; 
 they are greatly esteemed in uterine obstruc- 
 tions, and the jaundice, as also for throwing 
 out the small pox and measles. The leaves of 
 the plant are said to be antiscorbutic, and are 
 of a stimulating and aperient nature. The 
 young leaves were formerly eaten as a salad, 
 and they are said to be a proper food for 
 those that have any scorbutic taint in their 
 constitution, 
 
 The leaves of the plant appear to be 
 of greater virtue than the flowers : their ex- 
 pressed juice has been given, in doses of two 
 or three ounces or more, as an aperient; and 
 is said to loosen the stomach, and promote 
 the natural secretions in general.* 
 
 The petals are of an aromatic smell, and 
 when chewed, exert a penetrating and almost 
 burning acrimony : hence they derive their 
 sudorific virtues; in which, says Dr. James, 
 they are scarce inferior to saffron itself. For 
 this reason, the flowers of the marigold have 
 merited a place among the catalogue of alexi- 
 
 * Lewis. 
 

 332 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 pharmacs ; and, according to Schulzius, in 
 his Prcelectiones, have had uncommon ef- 
 ficacy ascribed to them by some very cele- 
 brated physicians, in the cure of malignant 
 and pestilential fevers. Velschius informs 
 us, that upon the breaking out of a pestilen- 
 tial fever, Le Fevre prescribed the juice of 
 the marigold, to be taken in white wine as a 
 vehicle ; by which most of the patients who 
 used it recovered ; and that this same medi- 
 cine was the celebrated arcanum of Veslin- 
 gius.* Ray says, " The flowers may pro- 
 perly be prescribed wherever stimulating 
 medicines are necessary ; and by reason of 
 their resolvent and aperient qualities, they 
 are used in decoctions for the cure of the 
 jaundice. 
 
 This plant has been called Verrucaria, on 
 account of its efficacy in extirpating warts. 
 Some have called it Solsequia, or Solsequium, 
 and Sponsa Soils ; because its flower opens 
 at the rising, and shuts at the setting of the 
 sun. 
 
 It was an old practice with dairy-women, 
 to churn the petals of the marigold with 
 their cream, to give their butter a yellow 
 colour. 
 
 * Eph. N. C. D. 1. a. 4. 
 
 
MILLET.— MILIUM. 
 
 Natural order, Gramina. A genus of the 
 Triandria Digynia class. 
 
 It is supposed to have derived the name 
 of Milium from mille, a thousand, because of 
 its numerous seeds. 
 
 " To every land great Nature hath assign'd 
 A certain lot, which laws eternal bind." 
 
 Virgil, Georg. book i. 
 
 The Ethiopians inhabiting that part of 
 Africa now called Abyssinia, knew no other 
 bread or gruel than that which was made 
 from millet or barley ; yet they were com- 
 plimented by Homer, who styled them the 
 favourite of the gods, and the justest of men ; 
 and it is a singular fact, that their country 
 has never been invaded by a foreign enemy. 
 
 Millet is alss a native grain of Tartary, 
 and, when mixed with mares milk or horses 
 blood, (which was obtained by opening a vein 
 in the leg of this useful animal,) it formed the 
 
334 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 principal food of those savage Sarmatians 
 whose hordes destroyed the Roman empire, 
 and whose barbarism nearly extinguished 
 civilization in Europe. 
 
 This grain was cultivated in Italy in the 
 time of Columella, who mentions it as grow- 
 ing abundantly in Campania. Virgil also 
 notices it in his Georgics : 
 
 " Sow beans and cinquefoil in a mellow soil, 
 And millet, springing from your annual toil." 
 
 Pliny notices, that the inhabitants of Cam- 
 pania very much esteemed their millet, with 
 which they made a white pottage or gruel, 
 and also bread of a savoury and sweet taste. 
 This author says, no good husbandman will 
 sow millet in his vineyard, or among fruit- 
 trees, as it destroys the very heart of the 
 ground. 
 
 The variety producing a black seed is not 
 a native of France, as stated in the Hortus 
 Kewensis, and other botanical works ; as 
 Pliny tells us*, that it was first brought out 
 of India into Italy, about ten years before he 
 wrote his Natural History. He observes, 
 that it was the most fruitful of all grain, as 
 
 * Book xviii. chap. 7. 
 
MILLET. 335 
 
 one seed would give an increase of three sex- 
 tans or quarts, if sown in a moist soil. 
 
 Millet was used by the Romans in all cases 
 where hot fomentations were applied ; as it 
 retains the heat longer than any other grain. 
 The meal of this seed, mixed with tar, was 
 esteemed a good plaster for those who had 
 been stung by serpents, or pricked by the 
 multipede. 
 
 That Italy was not free from the most ab- 
 surd superstition, even in the most enlight- 
 ened days of the Roman empire, we have an 
 instance in the manner of their cultivating 
 millet. Sparrows and other small birds are 
 apt to make great havock in fields of millet ; 
 to prevent which the Roman farmers carried 
 a toad round the field after it was sown and 
 before it was harrowed. The reptile was 
 then put in an earthen pot, and buried in the 
 middle of the field. This, they were as- 
 sured, would protect the roots from the 
 worm, and the seed from birds. The toad 
 was always dug up before the millet was cut, 
 the neglect of which, they believed, would 
 cause the seed to be bitter.* 
 
 Botanists name five species of this grain. 
 
 * Pliny, book xviii. chap. 17. 
 
336 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Those described are varieties of the pani- 
 cum, or common millet. We are principally 
 supplied from India, although it is sometimes 
 sown in this country for feeding of poultry. 
 Puddings made from this seed are much ad- 
 mired by many persons, and esteemed a pro- 
 per diet for the nursery. The seed should 
 be sown in April, on a warm dry soil. 
 
 Millet is diuretic and astringent ; the seeds 
 are said to be of extraordinary service in dis- 
 eases of the lungs, and exulce rations of the 
 kidneys : made into a cataplasm, they are 
 anodyne and resolvent/ 
 
 According to Miller, it is cooling, drying, 
 and binding, and not easily digested ; a strong 
 decoction of it with figs and raisins, mixed 
 with wine, and drunk warm in bed, is a very 
 good sudorific. 
 
 Among the Italians, says C.Bauhine, loaves 
 are made of millet, which are yellow, and 
 eaten hot by many, not out of necessity, but 
 for their sweetness ; but when this bread is 
 grown hard, it is quite black. Of the fine 
 flour of millet the Italians make cakes also, 
 which must be eaten as soon as dressed, or 
 else they become glutinous, and unpleasant 
 to the taste. 
 
 # Hist. Plant, adscript. Boerhaave. 
 
337 
 
 MARJORAM.— ORIGANUM. 
 
 Natural order, Verticillatce. A genus of the 
 Didynamia Gymno&permia class. 
 
 This plant is a native of Cyprus and 
 Candia, and is found also in Italy, Spain, 
 and Portugal. From the latter country the 
 English first obtained the seed of the sweet 
 or knotted marjoram, in the year 1573. The 
 Candia marjoram, Dictamnus, had been in- 
 troduced in 1551 : this species of origanum 
 is the Dittany of Crete, so much celebrated 
 by the ancient poets. It is the plant which 
 Venus is said to have brought for the cure of 
 her son iEneas. 
 
 " A branch of healing dittany she brought, 
 Which in the Cretan fields with care she sought, 
 (Rough is the stem, which woolly leaves Burround; 
 The leaves with flowers, the flowers with purple 
 
 crown'd,) 
 Well known to wounded goats ; a sure relief 
 To draw the pointed steel, and ease the <j;nef." 
 
 Virgil, Mn . book x i i . 
 
 VOL. 1. Z 
 
338 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 We are told that the use of this plant was 
 taught to man by the harts ; for that, when 
 these animals were wounded with arrows, 
 they ate plentifully of dittany, which had 
 the effect of discharging the darts out again. 
 The ancient traditionary tale on this plant 
 shews how far the sycophants of kings would 
 formerly venture. The flatterers of Cinyras, 
 King of Cyprus, to please his humour, and 
 console him for the death of his son Amara- 
 cus, assured him that this youth, while car- 
 rying a box of fragrant ointment through the 
 fields of herbs, by accident spilt it on this 
 shrub, which from thence received its excel- 
 lent savour. The prince mourning for the 
 loss of his ointment, the Gods in conside- 
 ration of his parentage and merit, changed 
 him into that herb, which was from that time 
 called, after his name, Amaracus. 
 
 Catullus, in the epithalamium of Julia and 
 Manlius, notices this plant : 
 
 " Cinge tempora floribus 
 Suave olentis Amaraci." 
 
 Bind your brows with the flowers of sweet- 
 smelling marjoram. 
 
 Majorana, the sweet or knotted marjoram, 
 the leaves or tops of which have a pleasant 
 
MARJORAM. 33f) 
 
 smell, and a moderately warm aromatic bit- 
 terish taste, is mixed in food, not onlv to 
 make it more savoury, but to assist digestion 
 and correct flatulencies. 
 
 This plant is accounted cephalic, and use- 
 ful in nervous complaints. In its recent state, 
 we are told, it has been successfully applied 
 to schirrous tumours of the breast.* 
 
 M. Bourgeois says, it is a specific for 
 apoplexia and paralysis, the infusion being 
 taken in the form of tea; and it is em- 
 ployed in wine to foment paralysed limbs, 
 which it strengthens. 
 
 Hartman assures us, that it restores the 
 sense of smelling, when lost. It is also re- 
 commended for sneezing disorders. 
 
 There is no plant more celebrated by Hip- 
 pocrates, than Origanum: he recommends it 
 in diseases which require heating, dissolving, 
 and stimulating; whence it is beneficial in 
 exulcerations of the lungs, being boiled in 
 wine, and then sweetened with honey, and 
 drunk hot. Thus prepared, it is said to be a 
 good medicine for expectorating phlegm. It 
 was also esteemed for diseases of the kidneys ; 
 for it is aperient, dissolvent, and balsamic. 
 
 * Woodville. 
 
 z2 
 
340 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 A tea of the leaves is effectual in the asth- 
 ma, violent coughs, and indigestion ; and, in 
 baths, the leaves are used for the hysteric 
 passions, chlorosis, and palsy. Origanum 
 provokes sweat, and is proper in soporous, 
 hysteric, and catarrhous disorders.* 
 
 The sweet marjoram yields a considerable 
 quantity of essential oil, which, when long 
 kept, assumes a solid form, and was formerly 
 much esteemed for anointing stiff joints, for 
 the palsy, &c. 
 
 In the time of Queen Elizabeth, the leaves 
 were much used in broths and meats, as well 
 as in wafer cakes, ointments, &c. 
 
 Gerard says, the leaves boiled in water, 
 and the decoction drunk, is good for those 
 who are breeding dropsy. 
 
 Miller enumerates thirteen species, and 
 Linnaeus eleven. The Hortus Kewensis 
 mentions ten kinds of marjoram, one variety 
 of which, Vulgare, is a native of this country, 
 and is often found growing wild on our 
 chalky hills, and in gravelly soils. 
 
 The sweet marjoram seldom ripens its seed 
 in England. 
 
 The pot-marjoram, Onitcs, is a native of 
 
 * Hist. Plant. 
 
 
 
MARJORAM. 341 
 
 Sicily; it grows plentifully in Syracuse 1 , and 
 also in some parts of Greece; it was first 
 cultivated in Britain in 1759. It lias the 
 same qualities as the common varieties, but 
 is more woody. 
 
342 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES, 
 
 MINT.-MENTHA. 
 
 Natural order, Verticillatce. A genus of the 
 Didynamia Gymnospermia class. 
 
 The Greeks called this herb Mivftv, and 
 the ancient poets tell us it was so named 
 from one of Plutus's minions, whom he 
 turned into this plant. 
 
 Miller enumerates eighteen species of mint, 
 two thirds, at least, of which are natives of 
 this country. 
 
 The use of this refreshing herb did not 
 escape the notice of the ancients. Man 
 would naturally be induced to seek reviving 
 and stimulating plants for the sick and feeble; 
 and we are told that balm and mint were 
 among the earliest medicines thus selected. 
 We may conclude that those simples were 
 more efficacious when the body was less ac- 
 customed to the luxurious and complicated 
 diet which art has introduced, and which 
 has made it necessary for the students of 
 medicine to extend their research for more 
 
MINT. 343 
 
 powerful remedies. We are informed, thai 
 
 a boy who was found in a forest, where his 
 diet must have been very simple and his 
 exercise strong, had a most acute sense of 
 smell, by which he could distinguish all herbs 
 and plants ; but this delicacy soon wore off 
 when he lived and fed like other men. 
 
 It appears by Ovid's story of Baucis and 
 Philemon, that rustics perfumed or scoured 
 their tables with this herb before serving 
 their suppers. 
 
 " Then rubb'd it o'er with newly gather'd mint, 
 A wholesome herb, that breathed a grateful scent." 
 
 Pliny says, " You will not see a husband- 
 man's board in the country, but all the meats 
 from one end to the other, are seasoned witli 
 mint. As for the garden mint," says this 
 author, " the very smell of it alone recovers 
 and refreshes the spirits, as the taste stirs up 
 the appetite for meat, which is the cause 4 that 
 it is so general in our acid sauces, wherein 
 we are accustomed to dip our meat." 
 
 The Romans were well acquainted witli 
 its medicinal virtues, as the same writer in- 
 forms us, that mint being put into milk would 
 keep it from turning sour, or curdling; and 
 for this reason, he says, "those \n!h> gene- 
 
344 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 rally drink milk, take mint with it, for fear it 
 should coagulate or curdle in their stomachs. 
 
 The most useful kind of garden-mint is the 
 Viridis (green), commonly called spear-mint, 
 on account of its leaf being narrower, and 
 more like a spike or spear, than the other 
 varieties. M. Valmont Bomare, calls it Eng- 
 lish mint, and says it originally grew in this 
 country only. 
 
 The leaves and tops of spear-mint are used 
 in spring salads, as also in acid sauce with 
 roasted lamb, &c. It is boiled with green 
 peas, and generally used in pea soup on ac- 
 count of its carminative quality : it has the 
 virtue also of being a warm stomachic. In 
 loss of appetite, nausea, and continual retch- 
 ing, there are few simples of equal efficacy 
 to this. In colic pains, to which children 
 are subject, this plant is found of great ser- 
 vice: it likewise proves beneficial in many 
 hysteric cases. For some purposes, such as 
 languors, &c. an infusion of the dried herb 
 is better than the green, or extract prepared 
 with rectified spirits : the former possesses 
 the whole virtues of the mint ; the essential 
 oil and distilled water contain only the 
 aromatic part ; the expressed juice, only the 
 
mint. 345 
 
 astringency and bitterness, together with the 
 mucilaginous substance common to all vege- 
 tables. 
 
 It should be cut for drying, just when it is 
 in flower, and on a fine day ; for, if cut in 
 damp weather, the leaves will turn black. 
 It should be tied in small bunches, and 
 dried in a shady place out of the wind; but, 
 to retain its natural virtues more effectually, 
 it has been found better to place the mint 
 in a screen, and to dry it quickly before a 
 fire, so that it may be powdered, and im- 
 mediately put into glass bottles and kept 
 well stopped. Parsley, thyme, sage, and 
 other herbs, retain their full fragrance when 
 thus prepared, and are by this mode secured 
 from dust, and always ready to the hand of 
 the cook. 
 
 A conserve made of mint is grateful, and 
 the distilled waters, both simple andspiritous, 
 are much esteemed. The juice of spear-mint 
 drunk in vinegar, often stops the hiccup. 
 Lewis observes, what has before been noticed 
 by Pliny, that mint prevents the coagulation 
 of milk, and hence is recommended in milk 
 diets. When dry, and digested in rectified 
 spirits of wine, it gives out a tincture which 
 
346 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 appears by day-light of a fine dark green, but 
 by candle-light of a bright red colour; a 
 small quantity is green by day-light or can- 
 dle-light ; a large quantity seems imper- 
 vious to day-light, but when held between 
 the eye and the candle, or between the eye 
 and the sun, it appears red. If put into a 
 flat bottle, it appears green sideways ; but 
 when viewed edgeways, red. 
 
 According to Turner, the smell of mint 
 corroborates the brain, and not only pre- 
 serves, but also increases the memory. 
 
 PEPPERMINT.— PIPERITA. 
 
 This species of mint is also indigenous to 
 Britain, and is said by the French botanists 
 to have been found only in this country. The 
 peppermint has a smooth purple stalk, and 
 cannot be mistaken, from its penetrating 
 smell, and more pungent glowing taste ; sink- 
 ing, as it were, on the tongue, which is fol- 
 lowed by a sensation of coldness that is very 
 agreeable. It is still much cultivated, for 
 medicinal purposes, as well as for distillation. 
 A cordial is made from this plant, much ad- 
 mired by country people. 
 
MINT. 41 
 
 This mint is esteemed by some to be an 
 excellent remedy for the stone and gravel ; 
 which seems to be very probable, for, be- 
 sides its heat and biting, it has also a very 
 discernible nitrous taste.* 
 
 Its stomachic, antispasmodic, and carmi- 
 native qualities render it useful in flatulent 
 colics, hysteric affections, retchings, and other 
 dyspeptic symptoms, in which it acts as a 
 cordial, often affording immediate relief. 
 The essence of peppermint was formerly 
 thought an elegant medicine. 
 
 Bergamot mint, Odorata, is only cultivated 
 for pleasure. 
 
 The mint, Mentha aquatica, growing in 
 watery places, is said to relieve the head-ache, 
 if the leaves are applied to the forehead ; as 
 also the sting of bees and wasps. Mints of 
 all kinds are thought destructive to worms. 
 It is a common practice to rub the inside of 
 bee-hives with mint and honey, or sugar, be- 
 fore the swarm is covered with it, as it is 
 supposed to attach them to the new hive. 
 
 * Miller, Bot. Off. 
 
348 CULTIVATED VEGETABLE^ 
 
 PENNYROYAL.— PULEGIUM. 
 
 This favourite mint of the ancients was 
 called by the Greeks rxv%pr 9 and BAw^wr, 
 from jSArf^w, balatus, either because the heat 
 of the plant caused sheep and goats to bleat 
 when they ate of it, or, according to Pena, 
 from its virtue in expelling thick phlegm 
 from the lungs. 
 
 This plant was formerly called Pudding- 
 grass, from the old custom of using it in 
 hogs puddings ; it was also named Run by the 
 ground, and Lurk in ditch, from its creeping 
 nature, and loving a damp soil : it is gene- 
 rally found in the neighbourhood of holes 
 and ponds, on damp or swampy commons, 
 where the soil is more inclined to clay than 
 peat. 
 
 Gerard says, it grew in great abundance on 
 a common near London, called Miles-end, 
 from whence it was brought to market in 
 great abundance, in the time of Queen Eliza- 
 beth. We have not been able to discover 
 by what accident this native mint or aquatic 
 thyme was called Pennyroyal ; it was pre- 
 viously called Puliall royall. 
 
MINT. 349 
 
 •J 
 
 Coles notices six varieties of* the penny- 
 royal ; but Miller enumerates only three. 
 
 Its qualities are nearly the same as those 
 of other mints, except that, being milder, it 
 is not so efficacious. It has been greatly 
 recommended in dropsies, jaundice, and other 
 chronic distempers. 
 
 Pliny tells us, that several physicians met 
 in his chamber to consult on the virtues of 
 this herb, and that they all agreed, that a 
 chaplet of pennyroyal was, without compari- 
 son, far better for the giddiness and swim- 
 ming of the head than one of roses ; and 
 that they were of opinion, that if a garland 
 of pennyroyal were worn, it would not only 
 ease the head from pain, but that it would 
 preserve the brain from disorders, which are 
 brought on by either heat or cold. 
 
 Xenocrates relates, that pennyroyal wrap- 
 ped in wool, was given to those to smell who 
 had the ague, and that it was put under the 
 coverings of the beds of those who suffered 
 under that disease. 
 
 Dodona?us informs us, that this herb, when 
 fresh and in blossom, will, by its perfume, 
 keep flies out of a room. The same author 
 states, that when necessity obliges us to 
 drink corrupt, stinking, or saltish water, wo 
 
350 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 may improve it, by throwing into the water 
 either fresh or dried pennyroyal. 
 
 Coles makes the same remark; and Gerard 
 says, " if this herb be dried, and taken to sea, 
 it will purify corrupt water without hurting 
 those who drink of it." He adds that, " pen- 
 nie royall taken with honie, cleanseth the 
 lungs, and cleareth the breast from all grosse 
 and thick humours." 
 
 This plant, which is very bitter, acrid, and 
 of a penetrating smell, gives a deep tincture 
 of red to blue paper ; so that, it is probable, 
 it contains a volatile, aromatic, and oily salt, 
 loaded with acid : whereas, in the artificial, 
 volatile, oily salt, this acid is detained by 
 the salt of tartar. Thus this plant is aperient, 
 hysteric, and good for the diseases of the 
 stomach and breast ; since it expels those 
 glutinous sordes which fill part of the bron- 
 chia, and vesicles of the lungs, especially if it 
 is boiled with honey and aloes ; for then it 
 purges, and procures expectoration.* 
 
 # Dioscorides, James. 
 
351 
 
 MOSS — MUSCUS, 
 And LIVERWORT, LICHEN. 
 
 Linn^us arranged these species of vege- 
 tables in the twenty-fourth class of his arti- 
 ficial System, under the name of Crijpto- 
 gamia, which signifies concealed marriage >s ; 
 and it was intended to comprehend all those 
 plants whose fructification is concealed, or 
 at least too minute to be observed by the 
 naked eye. 
 
 In the Linnsean system mosses are divided 
 into nine genera: viz. Lijcopodium, Porella, 
 Sphagnum, Phascinn, Polytricum, Mnium, Hyp- 
 ?iu?n, Fo?itinalis, and Buxbaumia. As we now 
 reckon more than 360 species of mosses and 
 liverworts, the greater part of which are na- 
 tives of Britain, their particular description 
 must be reserved for a separate volume; but, 
 as many of the mosses are deserving of more 
 general notice than they have hitherto ob- 
 tained, we trust that the few pages we shall 
 
352 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 offer on this subject will not be thought irre- 
 levant in a history of cultivated vegetables. 
 
 Mosses, in general, were originally thought 
 imperfect plants, until the year 1719, when 
 the seed of some of the varieties was disco- 
 vered; and in 1741 this circumstance was 
 made more extensively known amongst bota- 
 nists by Dillen Linnaeus. 
 
 The generic name Muscus is a word that 
 signifies an herb composed of hairs or threads 
 instead of leaves. 
 
 " Each moss, 
 
 
 Each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank 
 Important in the plan of Him who formM 
 This scale of beings ; holds a rank, which lost 
 Would break the chain, and leave a gap 
 That Nature's self would rue !" 
 
 The superficial observer of the works of Na- 
 ture may pass this species of plants without 
 even knowing that they are as perfectly 
 formed as the roses of the garden, or the 
 more majestic oaks of the forest. 
 
 The mosses have roots, flowers, and seeds, 
 like other plants. M. Valmont Bomare says, 
 some think mosses are to vegetables, what 
 flies are to animals, and that the word 
 Mousse in French was derived from the Latin 
 word Musca for fly, which in French is 
 
moss. 353 
 
 Mouche. The English name Moss, we con- 
 clude, is a corruption of the French word 
 Mousse, as we find that it was formerly 
 spelt Mosse. 
 
 Mosses seem to require little othei nutri- 
 ment than a moist atmosphere, and are so 
 tenacious of life, that they will revive and 
 vegetate on receiving moisture, although in 
 appearance quite dead through being dried 
 by heat. They generally seek situations that 
 are shaded from the sun ; and although mi- 
 nute, they are extremely beautiful, and many 
 of them of so hardy a nature, that they both 
 blossom and seed during the winter months, 
 when the sap of most other plants is retired 
 or congealed, in which state their vegetation 
 rests, awaiting the reviving and powerful 
 influence of the sun, again to draw it bub- 
 bling forth, and as it forces through the pores 
 of branch and bud, it forms its leaves and 
 flowers, which human art cannot imitate, or 
 the mind of man contemplate without ac- 
 knowledging it to be the work of Him, 
 
 " Who only does great wonders. " 
 
 Mosses, although diminutive, grow rapidly: 
 for nothing in nature is allowed to remain 
 stationary, idle, or useless; nor is there any 
 
 VOL. I. 2 A 
 
354 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 thing wanting to complete the mighty de- 
 sign, for however inconsiderable the agents 
 may appear to us, they are in the hands of 
 Divine Providence irresistible ; and those 
 things which we may think superfluous, are 
 still necessary and consistent with the great 
 and harmonious scheme. 
 
 Philosophers tell us, that the mighty moun- 
 tains, whose adamantine sides have bid defi- 
 ance to ages, have at last been rent by the aid 
 of the smallest moss; and without its assistance 
 the ash, the cedar, the juniper, the palm, or 
 even the thistle, could have found no crevice 
 for their seeds. Rocks of all kinds, when 
 exposed to the air, are soon covered with a 
 velvet kind of moss, which imbibes the moist 
 atmosphere, and collects the passing dust, 
 until it has raised its little feathers, like a 
 miniature forest of pines, out of the earth of 
 its own collecting : this receives the seeds of 
 a larger species of lichen, that usurps the 
 soil of the first occupier, and drives it farther 
 upwards. The second variety collects more 
 rapidly both soil and moisture, until its curl- 
 ing leaves, entangle and cherish the seeds of 
 other plants, which by their more vigorous 
 growth destroy their nurse for their own 
 nourishment : these in their turn receive the 
 
MOSS. .;:>;> 
 
 seed of other plants or shrubs, each of which 
 strives for mastery. Thus the* moss creeps 
 onwards, the lichen follows, the thistle, the 
 bramble, and the creepers succeed, until 
 every crevice is lost in vegetation ; and their 
 decay alone enables more powerful plants to 
 succeed, until the seed of the ash, and even 
 the acorn, find a receptacle in the rock, where 
 the germ sends forth its fibres, running be- 
 neath decayed and living plants, and, finding 
 crevices, forces its thready roots into every 
 vein. There it sucks and swells, until it be- 
 comes so powerful that it exercises dominion 
 over the fossil world ; for by the aid of the 
 winds it dislodges large rocks, and manures 
 the hollows with their crumbling stones. 
 Among these, fresh seeds are lodged, until 
 the whole becomes a towering forest. Thus 
 every thing shews infinity of power, conduct- 
 ed by infinite wisdom and goodness in Him, 
 " who maketh the grass to grow upon the 
 mountains, and herbs for the use of men. "* 
 
 Of the early use of moss, Ovid has made 
 mention in his silver age : 
 
 " Houses then were caves, or homely sheds, 
 
 With twinino- osier fenced, and moss their beds." 
 
 * Psalm cxlvii. 8. 
 2 a 2 
 
356 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The northern inhabitants still make couches 
 and beds of one kind of moss, which Dillen 
 calls Sphagnoji ; and the variety which he 
 names FontinaUs antipyretica, they use in 
 their hearths to prevent accidents, as, being 
 antipyretic, it will neither burn nor commu- 
 nicate fire. 
 
 The common moss, Muscus terrestris vul- 
 garis, which is generally found in shady lawns, 
 or woods, and in other humid soils, is said 
 to be astringent, and excellent for stopping 
 haemorrhages. Gerard says, this moss made 
 into powder is good to stop the bleeding 
 of fresh wounds, and also conduces to the 
 cure of cuts, &c. J. Bauhin states, that the 
 empirics learnt this art from the bears, who, 
 when wounded, stop the blood by rolling 
 themselves in this moss. 
 
 It is used by the ship-builders in France, to 
 calk their vessels ; and by all nurserymen, 
 to preserve the roots of trees and plants 
 which they transport from one place to 
 another, as it keeps them moist. It is also 
 used in pleasure-grounds, to form rustic ar- 
 bours, as it effectually excludes both the 
 heat and the wind. 
 
 The moss called Wolf's Foot, Pes Lupi, 
 or Lycopodion, is very beautiful, producing 
 
MOSS. S&) 
 
 flowers like the catkins of the hazel-tree. 
 This species, according to Hieronymus 'Tra- 
 gus, is diuretic, and good for the stone, which 
 it dissolves and discharges. 
 
 The Arabian physicians rank mosses and 
 lichens among their cordial medicines, to 
 strengthen the stomach, and to allay vomits. 
 
 In Lapland, one species of moss or lichen 
 constitutes the sole winter subsistence of that 
 useful animal the rein-deer, and which is 
 thus noticed by Mrs. Rowden : 
 
 " On Lapland's breast by stormy tempests toss'd, 
 'Mid night's drear winter and eternal frost, 
 Soon as the llhen-deer moss erects her head, 
 The modest emblem of her snowy bed ! 
 Fleet as the wind, the hardy Rhen-deer bounds 
 Across the dreary waste and frozen grounds ; 
 Crops with vermilion lips the icy flower, 
 Or sips, from crystal cups, the fleecy shower." 
 
 In Iceland the inhabitants use it for food : 
 they collect a quantity of lichen, which is 
 then chopped small, and boiled in three or 
 four successive portions of water to take off 
 its natural bitterness. It is then boiled lor 
 an hour or two in milk ; when cold it becomes 
 a jelly, which, being eaten with cream or 
 milk, makes a very palatable and wholesome 
 dish. 
 
358 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 The English name of this species of vege- 
 table, Liverwort, evinces the good opinion 
 our ancestors entertained of the lichens 
 virtue in all complaints of the liver. It 
 however, went entirely out of use until a few 
 years back, when it was again introduced 
 from Iceland, and was so generally recom- 
 mended by the faculty, that, during the 
 height of this medicinal fashion, Iceland- 
 moss became an article of considerable com- 
 merce ; and we are told, that vast quantities 
 of lichen were brought from the mountains 
 of Wales and Scotland, and sold in the me- 
 tropolis for the more northerly production ; 
 but the deception appears only to have af- 
 fected the purchaser in regard to price, as its 
 properties are nearly the same. It is said to 
 strengthen the lungs and create appetite, and 
 is recommended particularly after the hoop- 
 ing-cough. It was formerly given in inflam- 
 matory fevers, &c. The ancients recommend- 
 ed it as a remedy against lassitude, and used 
 it in baths and ointments. The grey ground 
 lichen was thought effectual against the bite 
 of a mad dog. It makes the basis of the 
 pulvis antilyssus, and it is the principal in- 
 gredient in Dr. Mead's receipt for the bite of 
 mad dogs. In the west of England it was 
 
moss. 359 
 
 formerly used as a drink lor those who had 
 cancers, of which it was thought to assist 
 the cure. This species of moss was at one 
 time called Cheese-renning, from its pro- 
 perty of coagulating or curdling fresh milk; 
 and by a dry distillation it yields a manifest 
 acid. 
 
 As mosses have in some degree regained 
 their ancient celebrity, we shall briefly state 
 what notices of their virtues appear in the 
 old writers. 
 
 Muscus arbor ens, or Lichen arbor urn, is the 
 kind which is found growing on trees, and 
 which Gerard and other old medical writers 
 call Liverwoort and Lungwoort, either from 
 its figure, or, as already remarked, from the 
 use then made of it in medicine. Gerard 
 says this " lungwoort is much commended of 
 the learned phisitions of our time against the 
 diseases of the lungs, especially for the in- 
 flammations and ulcers of the same, being 
 brought into powder, and drunk with water." 
 
 M. Bourgeois informs us, that this kind of 
 moss growing; on the oak is a good remedy 
 for the hooping-cough, when powdered; from 
 twenty to thirty grains to be given, according 
 to age. Dioscorides affirms, that it staunches 
 bleeding, removes all inflammation, and cures 
 
360 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 the ringworm. Taken internally, he says, it is 
 a remedy for the jaundice ; even that which 
 is occasioned by the inflammation of the liver. 
 
 Lord Bacon mentions a sweet moss that 
 grew upon apple-trees, and which, he says, 
 bore a high price in the shops of the per- 
 fumers. As we do not meet with it in the 
 herbals of his day, we conclude that the 
 learned chancellor copied the account from 
 Pliny, with whose works he seems to have 
 been perfectly acquainted, and to have made 
 ample use of them in his Natural History. 
 Pliny notices the sweet moss *, and says the 
 best is found in the province of Cyrene,* the 
 next in Cyprus, the third in Phoenicia : it 
 grows also, says this author, in Egypt and in 
 Gaul. It was used by the Roman ladies in 
 their baths. When stamped with juniper, 
 and drunk in wine, it was esteemed good in 
 dropsical complaints. *f 
 
 The species of moss called by Tournefort, 
 Muscus squamosas abietiformis, of which Dillen 
 gives the figure under the name of Selago, 
 is a purgative and an emetic as violent as the 
 hellebore. The greatest part of mosses are 
 relaxing, destroy worms, and promote perspi- 
 ration. 
 
 * Book xii, c.23. t Book xxiv. c. 6. 
 
MOSS. 361 
 
 There is a kind of lichen which L'Obeliua 
 entitles Muscus pyxidatos, and to which Ge- 
 
 rard gave the English name of Cup or Chalice 
 moss, on account of the little cup-like leaves 
 which it produces. It is found in dry, gravelly, 
 and barren banks, of a yellowish white : this 
 was formerly given to children for the chin- 
 cough. 
 
 There is a great number of aquatic mosses, 
 all of which, as well as the marine moss, have 
 their various uses in medicine. The spe- 
 cies called Sea oak, Quercus marinus, is used 
 with success to assuage scrofulous swellings : 
 it is found on most parts of the coast, but 
 particularly in the neighbourhood of Wor- 
 thing, where immense banks of it are washed 
 on shore in the autumn. It may be known 
 by the little bladders on its leaves, which are 
 similar to the blight on oak leaves ; and from 
 thence, we surmise, its name originated. 
 Laver bread is a sort of food made of the sea 
 liver-wort, or oister, green Ulvce ; it is much 
 used in Glamorgan and other parts of Wales, 
 from whence it is often sent to London in 
 earthen pots. It is gently opening, and an- 
 tiscorbutic. 
 
362 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 MUSHROOM.— FUNGUS. 
 
 Natural order, Hepaticai. Limwus has ar- 
 ranged it in his artificial system, Cryptogamia. 
 
 The generic name of this class of vegeta- 
 bles, Fungus, is derived from ^iroyyoQ, on ac- 
 count of its spungy nature. The English 
 word Mushroom is in all probability a cor- 
 ruption of Mousseron, the French name of a 
 variety of the Fungus, called Champignon. 
 
 " Tis but apart we see, and not a whole." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 The Mushroom tribe has, therefore, afforded 
 a wide field for speculation to the na- 
 turalists of every age, who have disputed 
 whether it consists of perfect or imperfect 
 plants. 
 
 Vegetable nature appears in such a diver- 
 sity of habits, and propagates its species in 
 such a variety of forms, that we can neither 
 view them, nor inquire into their nature, with- 
 out being impressed with the most sublime 
 
MUSHROOM. 363 
 
 sentiments of the wisdom displayed in cre- 
 ation. 
 
 This class of plants, which the botanists 
 rank as the lowest order of vegetables, has 
 been supposed to assimilate more closely 
 to the animal creation than any other class 
 of the vegetable world. 
 
 The ingenious authoress of Sketches of the 
 Physiology of Vegetable Life, observes, "The 
 Fungi resemble animals in some of their 
 species, in growing vigorously without light ; 
 as is shewn by those found in dark cellars, 
 and by the truffle, which lives and vegetates 
 under ground." She adds, " The animal fla- 
 vour of the esculent mushroom, and the 
 odour of any kind of Fungus, when burned, 
 resembling that of burning feathers, added 
 to the putrefaction to which the whole tribe 
 are subject, and the scent emitted by them 
 in that state, do not exclude them from the 
 vegetable kind, but afford additional analo- 
 gical evidence of the affinity between the 
 two kingdoms." 
 
 We have still much to learn on the subject 
 of these singular species of plants, which, 
 although they bear so close an analogy to 
 animal life, are evidently vegetables, and pro- 
 duce seed, by which they have been propa- 
 
364 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 gated ; but this does not disprove their being 
 produced likewise by putrefaction, of which 
 we have continual instances, and in situations 
 where mushroom seed or dust could not 
 reach. The embryo plants are discovered 
 under the form of a white mouldy, fibrous 
 substance, called spawn, and which is caused 
 by certain particles in particular kinds of 
 dung being excluded from light and air. 
 The mouldiness on stale wine or beer, as also 
 on bread and other moist substances, as well 
 as on liquids kept in an open vessel that is ex- 
 cluded from free air, appears like mushrooms, 
 when viewed through a microscope. The 
 dust of this mould will communicate itself 
 rapidly to other substances within its reach \ 
 thus appearing, like the mushroom, to owe 
 its origin both to seed and to putrefaction. 
 
 In 1729, Micheli first announced his dis- 
 covery, that different kinds of mushrooms 
 had flowers and seeds ; and this having been 
 confirmed in 1753 by M. Gleditsch, and in 
 1755 by M. Battarra, they have therefore 
 divided them into two classes, one of which 
 they suppose to have only seed, the other 
 both flowers and seed. The author has never 
 been able to discover what to him would 
 satisfactorily prove the flowers of this curious 
 
MUSHROOMS. -i()J 
 
 plant ; and concludes that what others haw 
 taken for the blossoms, are only the organs 
 of fructification, as he deems the whole 
 mushroom to be but one flower : for though 
 all plants vary in their shape and number of 
 leaves or stalks, &c, yet the blossoms of 
 each species are always regularly the same, 
 even in the most minute parts, unless by 
 some accident they become imperfect ; flower 
 buds are always observed to come out of the 
 earth, or out of the stalks of plants, closed 
 with a thin film, or by the petals folding so 
 closely and exactly over each other that the 
 moist air is perfectly excluded, until the 
 stigma and stamina have acquired their 
 proper size, when the petals or blossoms un- 
 fold themselves, that the pollen may be ri- 
 pened by the sun or air, and the impregna- 
 tion may take place ; after which the petals 
 fall off, or the flower gradually decays. 
 
 The mushroom always comes out of the 
 earth as a bud, which closely protects the 
 interior with a thin skin (the veil), until it 
 has reached its size and the state proper for 
 fructification ; when it expands precisely in 
 the same manner as other flowers, the interior 
 of which uniformly exhibits the same regular 
 arrangement of laminae, or gills, which seem 
 
366 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 to be intended for the purpose of separating 
 the channels of seed : for we find nothing 
 superfluous in nature,— each part necessarily 
 combines to form the whole ; nor is there any 
 thing wanting to complete the admirable 
 formation of vegetables, which by their pecu- 
 liar actions produce such modifications and 
 substances as must lead us to say, with 
 Thomson, 
 
 " Tis surely God, 
 
 Whose unremitting energy pervades, 
 Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole; 
 He ceaseless works alone ; and yet alone 
 Seems not to work, with such perfection framed 
 Is this complex, stupendous scheme of things." 
 
 Having given our opinion of the mushroom, 
 rather to induce a stricter scrutiny of its 
 formation, than to shew a desire of deviating 
 from other writers, we conclude it will be 
 somewhat interesting to ascertain the opi- 
 nions of the ancients with respect to this 
 curious vegetable ; for, notwithstanding their 
 fondness for mushrooms, they had not dis- 
 covered the art of propagating them. 
 
 Pliny says, mushrooms were thought one 
 of the wonders of nature, that they should 
 live and grow without a root, or even small 
 strings to fix them to the earth, and that 
 
mushroom. ;]67 
 
 they should escape from the soil without the 
 appearance of any chink or crevice from 
 whence they spring. He deemed them an 
 imperfection of the earth, and that they came 
 neither by setting nor sowing. 
 
 In superstitious days, the Fungus tribe 
 was imagined to be the work of fairies, 
 
 " You demy puppets, that 
 
 By moonshine do the green sward ringlets make, 
 
 Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you, whose pastime 
 
 Is to make midnight mushrooms." 
 
 Tempest. 
 
 Mrs. Rowden makes the same allusion : 
 
 " In-wrought with varied hues from Fancy's loom, 
 The fairies rear their temporary dome ; 
 Beneath the fretted roof, in secret state, 
 The mimic tribe on Agarica wait." 
 
 In the eighth chapter of the sixteenth book 
 of Pliny's Natural History, he says, the last 
 device of our epicures to sharpen their appe- 
 tites and tempt them to eat inordinately, is 
 the cooking of mushrooms; and in the twenty- 
 third chapter of his twenty-second book he 
 adds, there are some dainty wantons of such 
 fine taste, and who study their appetite to 
 such an excess, that they dress mushrooms 
 with their own hands, that they may feed on 
 
368 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 the odour during the time they are handling 
 and preparing this food, with their fine amber 
 knives, and silver vessels about them. He 
 also observes, that mushrooms are eaten with 
 some danger, although they have so delicate 
 and pleasant a taste. This food was brought 
 into discredit by Agrippina, who poisoned 
 her husband, the Emperor Tiberius Clau- 
 dius, by the aid of this vegetable. 
 
 It is related by Pliny*, that a whole house- 
 hold in Rome died by eating mushrooms ; 
 and, in another instance, all the company at 
 a feast, who ate at the same table, perished 
 by this poisonous vegetable ; also, that An- 
 naeus Serenus, captain of Nero's guard, with 
 several other officers, died from eating of this 
 dish at one dinner. 
 
 Horace *f notices mushrooms as a dange- 
 rous food : 
 
 " Pratensibus optima fungis 
 
 Natura est : aliis male creditur." 
 
 and which is thus translated by an old herb- 
 alist : 
 
 " The meadow mushrooms are in kind the best : 
 It is but ill-trusting to any of the rest." 
 
 None but the peasants who gather them, 
 
 * Book xxii. chap. 23. + Lib. ii. Sat. 4. 
 
MUSHROOM. 3(jy 
 
 says Pliny, can tell the true kind, however 
 curious they may be. The Roman naturalist 
 then proceeds to describe the safe kind, as 
 distinguished from the dangerous, with this 
 preface : " Although I dislike the indulgence 
 of such hazardous gluttony, yet will I endea- 
 vour to guard them against the poisonous 
 kind, which may be known by their mouldy 
 hue, their leaden and wan colour within, as 
 also by their edges being of a pale yellow. 
 The true mushrooms," he adds, " when they 
 first appear have a kind of thin skin, which 
 covers them as the yolk of an egg is covered 
 with the white, and these," he says, " are a 
 good food, but even these are safest when 
 stewed with animal food." 
 
 The ancients used various antidotes against 
 the venom of mushrooms : some took leeks 
 to counteract the poison ; others recom- 
 mended the eating of pears or radishes, or 
 drinking perry, when they suspected danger- 
 ous mushrooms to have been eaten. Apol- 
 lodorus prescribed the juice or seed of cab- 
 bage to be taken. Nicander recommended 
 the seed of nettles ; others chewed rue, or 
 took mustard-seed. Lily roots, or myrtle 
 leaves, pounded and drunk in wine, were also 
 esteemed good in this case. 
 
 VOL i. 2 b 
 
370 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Our own herbalist Gerard's condemnation 
 of mushrooms is curious : he says, " Many 
 wantons, that dwell neere the sea, and have 
 fish at will, are very desirous, for change of 
 diet, to feede vpon the birds of the moun- 
 taines ; and such as dwell vpon the hills or 
 champion grounds, do long after sea-fish ; 
 many that haue plenty of both, doe hunger 
 after the earthie excrescences, called mush- 
 rooms : fewe of them are good to be eaten, 
 and most of them do suffocate and strangle 
 the eater. Therefore I giue my simple aud- 
 uice vnto those that loue such strange and 
 newe fangled meates, to beware of licking 
 honie among thornes, least the sweetness of 
 the one do not counteruaile the sharpness 
 and pricking of the other/' This author 
 says, the best mushrooms grow on mountains 
 and hilly places. 
 
 According to Lord Bacon, mushrooms 
 " have two strange properties : the one, that 
 they yield so delicious a meate ; the other, 
 that they come up so hastily, as in a night, 
 and yet are unsown ; and, therefore, such as 
 are upstarts in state are called in reproach 
 mushrooms. We find," says he, " that mush- 
 rooms cause the accident which we call 
 Incubus, or the mare in the stomach; and 
 
MUSHROOM. 3? 1 
 
 therefore, the surfeit of them may suffocate 
 and empoyson, and this sheweth that they 
 are windy, and that their windiness is gross 
 and swelling, not sharp and griping." 
 
 Mushrooms are now cultivated in mo-t 
 parts of Europe, as a delicious food ; but in 
 no country is the cultivation so general as in 
 England, where they are now to be procured 
 at all seasons of the year ; and little or no 
 apprehension is now entertained Respecting 
 their dangerous qualities, since they have 
 become the care of our gardeners. 
 
 Mr. Bradley states, that he has seen a 
 hundred kinds of mushrooms in England, 
 besides those small ones which arise from 
 the mouldiness of liquors, &c. It is, there- 
 fore, as absurd to condemn all mushrooms as 
 poisonous, as it would be to abstain from car- 
 rots, parsnips, and celery, because the roots 
 of some other umbellated plants, such as 
 the water-hemlock, the drop wort, &c. are 
 known to be venomous. 
 
 We have never heard of any persons hay- 
 ing suffered from eating cultivated mush- 
 rooms, although they are in such general use 
 in London and so much demanded in the 
 markets ; while in Paris, where they have 
 few but what are gathered in the fields, there 
 
 2 b 2 
 
372 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 are continually accounts of deaths caused by 
 these vegetables. 
 
 So much are mushrooms now in request, 
 that we cannot content ourselves with mush- 
 room beds only, but we have mushroom 
 houses also. The author, on referring to his 
 diary of November the fourteenth, finds a 
 memorandum that would have puzzled our 
 forefathers. 
 
 "While gathering a mushroom, the ladder 
 slipped and I was precipitated to the ground, 
 but without injury." 
 
 The mushrooms in the house alluded to, 
 were growing on beds supported one over the 
 other by broad shelves of elm planks, with 
 a deep ledge to keep up the earth; but from 
 the necessary fermentation of the manure, 
 the planks are liable to rot, therefore, where 
 durability is required, large flag-stones should 
 be substituted, and supported by iron props 
 or brackets. Should stone be found too cool 
 for the spawn, any slight boards that are not 
 painted may be laid on it. As light is not 
 necessary for the growth of this high-fla- 
 voured vegetable, almost every country-seat 
 may furnish an outhouse for the purpose of 
 obtaining mushrooms at all seasons, and of a 
 safe quality. 
 
mushroom. ;37 3 
 
 The author has observed that the upper 
 shelves in his Majesty's mushroom-house at 
 Kensington were equally or more productive 
 than those below: thus by good arrangement 
 a small shed, or even a closet, may be made 
 sufficient for the supply of a moderate family. 
 As mice will destroy the spawn or young 
 mushrooms, either traps must be set, or in- 
 gress allowed to their purring enemy. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of London expe- 
 rienced mushroom-men go about at the pro- 
 per season, collecting vast quantities of spawn 
 for the supply of seedsmen, who sell it by 
 the bushel, the price varying according to the 
 favourableness of the weather when it is 
 collected. Since mushrooms have been so 
 much grown on hot-beds, and more minutely 
 attended to, the plant has been found so 
 perfect that it can either be raised by seed 
 or propagated by roots, the several fila- 
 ments at the root producing tubercles in 
 the manner of potatoes, from each of which 
 will arise new roots and a new plant or 
 flower. 
 
 The following simple and easy method is 
 recommended for trying the quality of field- 
 mushrooms : take an onion, and strip the 
 outer skin, and boil it with them; if it re- 
 
374 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 mains white, they are good, but if it becomes 
 blue or black, there are certainly dangerous 
 ones among them. Where the symptoms of 
 poison have already taken place, the medical 
 assistant recommends an emetic, drinking 
 plentifully of warm water, and when the con- 
 tents of the stomach are brought off, to have 
 recourse to strong cordials, such as ginger- 
 tea and brandy, with laudanum, or cayenne 
 pepper made into pills. 
 
 Barham describes the symptoms to be, that 
 soon after they are eaten, a hiccup seizes the 
 patient, then a cold or chilling all over the 
 body, attended with tremblings, and at last 
 convulsions and death. 
 
 The most venomous sort is one that rises 
 out of the earth about six inches high, round- 
 ing and hollow like a bladder, red as scarlet, 
 full of holes like fine wrought net-work ; 
 which is most probably the Clathrus cancella- 
 tus. There is one kind of these mushrooms, 
 that is said to kill the very flies that settle 
 on them. According to Mr. Haller, says M. 
 Valmont Bomare, the Russians eat even the 
 mushrooms that the French consider the 
 most dangerous, and which they use to kill 
 flies ; if this be possible, we conclude they 
 
MUSHROOM. 375 
 
 have some method of extracting the venomous 
 particles of the plant, unless, like Mithridates 
 of old, they have become so accustomed to 
 poison, that it loses its effect on their consti- 
 tutions, as the Turks take opium with in- 
 difference. 
 
 We have not heard that the morel, a kind 
 of mushroom, has yet been cultivated, al- 
 though it is said to be good for creating 
 an appetite, is accounted restorative, and 
 is much used in sauces and ragouts. The 
 following accounts of extraordinary mush- 
 rooms, which we meet with in the works of 
 respectable authors, may perhaps subject 
 them to the imputation of credulity. 
 
 Matthiolus mentions mushrooms which 
 weighed thirty pounds each. Fer. Imperatus 
 tells us, he saw some which weighed above 
 one hundred pounds a-piece. The Journal 
 des Sf avans furnishes us with an account of 
 some growing on the frontiers of Hungary, 
 which made a full cart load. 
 
 A mushroom of the very best quality was 
 lately gathered in the neighbourhood of Brigg, 
 in Lincolnshire, which measured three feet 
 four inches in circumference ; girth of the 
 stalk, five inches and a half; it was two in- 
 ches in thickness, and weighed twenty-nine 
 
376 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 ounces. Six others were gathered at the 
 same time near the above, averaging about 
 two feet in circumference. 
 
 Chambers relates, that some years ago, an 
 extraordinary mushroom grew upon an old 
 piece of timber in a blacksmith's cellar in the 
 Haymarket, and attained the height of twelve 
 inches or more, and when cut down, appear- 
 ed again at the same time the next year, and 
 so for several succeeding years. In the year 
 1692, M. Tournefort found such an one 
 growing on an old beam in the abbey at St. 
 Germain's : the smell was like that of others 
 of the same kind. An infusion from part of it 
 turned an infusion of turnsol to a bright red; 
 so that it evidently abounded in acids. This 
 seed must have been brought by some acci- 
 dent to these situations, unless the fungi 
 originated in the decaying timber. Lord 
 Bacon says, " It is reported, that the bark 
 of white or red poplar (which may be classed 
 amongst the moist est trees), cut small and 
 cast into furrows well dunged, will cause the 
 ground to put forth mushrooms, at all sea- 
 sons of the year, fit to be eaten; some add to 
 the mixture leaven-bread, resolved in water. 
 It is also reported, that if a hilly field, where 
 the stubble is standing, be set on fire, in the 
 
MUSHROOM. 377 
 
 showery season it will put forth great store of 
 mushrooms/' 
 
 The Laplanders have a way of using the 
 common toadstools, as the Chinese do moxa, 
 to cure pains : they collect the large fungi 
 which they find on the bark of beech and 
 other large trees, and dry them for use. 
 Whenever they have pains in their limbs, they 
 bruise some of this dried matter, and pulling 
 it to pieces, they lay a small heap near the 
 part where the pain is situated, and set it 
 on fire ; in burning away it blisters up the 
 part, and the water discharged by this means 
 generally carries off the pain. It is a rude 
 practice, but said to be very effectual, where 
 the patient takes it in time, and has resolution 
 to stand the burning to a necessary degree. 
 
378 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES, 
 
 MUSTARD.— SINAPI. 
 
 Natural order, Siliquosce. A genus of the 
 Tetr adynamia Siliquosa class. 
 
 In Greek this plant was called Na7ru, by 
 Aristophanes and others that use the Attic 
 dialect, but more commonly Xwnm, Sinapi, 
 on vivei vus cotols, because it injures the eyes. 
 
 It was formerly called Senvie in English. 
 Egypt, that claims the honour of giving birth 
 to both Ceres and iEsculapius, was the bed 
 from whence the best mustard first sprang, 
 where, according to the opinion of the 
 heathen mythologist, it was nursed by the 
 goddess of seeds, and its qualities made 
 known to man by the god of medicine. We 
 will not enter into mythological dispute whe- 
 ther iEsculapius was the inventor of physic, 
 or whether he only perfected that part of the 
 art which relates to the regimen of the sick. 
 The brute creation are taught by instinct to 
 physic themselves by eating certain herbs. 
 From this observation, in all probability, the 
 
MUSTARD. 379 
 
 use of mustard-seed became known to man 
 through iEsculapius, for the eating of so bit- 
 ing and penetrating a seed in food must have 
 required long habit to have made it familiar 
 and agreeable. 
 
 Mustard seems to have been cultivated in 
 Syria when Christ was upon earth, as he 
 mentions it in parable as being the least seed 
 which was sown in the field, " but when it is 
 grown it is the greatest among herbs."* 
 
 The Romans made great use of mustard- 
 seed in medicine, and they thought it one of 
 the best of remedies for the complaints of the 
 stomach and the lungs. From the milky 
 juice of the plant they formed a gum that was 
 used for the tooth-ache, and the oil which 
 they drew from the seed was used with olive 
 oil after the bath, by those who had stiffness 
 occasioned by cold. 
 
 The ancients ate the young plants stewed, 
 and the leaves of the older plants were used 
 boiled as other pot-herbs. Pliny informs us 
 that it grew in Italy without sowing, but that 
 the most esteemed mustard-seed was brought 
 from Egypt. The Romans cultivated three 
 varieties in this author's time.-f 
 
 * Matt. c. xiii. v. 31. and Mark c. iv. v. 31. 
 t Bookxix. c. 8. and book xx. c.22. 
 
380 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 Of the fifteen species of this plant that 
 have been discovered, one third are natives 
 of Britain. 
 
 Tusser notices the cultivation of mustard- 
 seed in Queen Mary's time. His direction 
 for February says, 
 
 " Where banks be amended, and newly vp cast, 
 Sowe mustard-seed, after a shower be past." 
 
 The same author says, in his hints for August, 
 
 " Maids mustard-seed gather, for being too ripe ; 
 And weather it wel, yer ye give it a stripe : 
 Then dress it and lay it in soller vp sweet, 
 Least foistiness make it for table vnmeet." 
 
 Gerard informs us, that the garden-mus- 
 tard, which produces the whitest seed, was 
 not become common in Elizabeth's reign ; 
 but that he had distributed the seed into dif- 
 ferent parts of England to make it known. 
 Mustard was not manufactured in his day, 
 but was brought to table whole, or bruised in 
 vinegar. Gerard says, " the seede of mus- 
 tard pounded with vinegar, is an excellent 
 sauce, good to be eaten with any grosse 
 meates, either fish or flesh, because it doth 
 helpe digestion, warmeth the stomacke, and 
 provoketh appetite." 
 
 Coles observes, in 1657, " In Glocester- 
 shire about Teuxbury, they grind it, and 
 
MUSTARD. 381 
 
 make it up into balls, which are brought to 
 London and other remote places, as being the 
 best that the world affords." 
 
 Mustard-seed is one of the strongest pun- 
 gent, stimulating, diuretic medicines, that 
 operate without exciting much heat. By its 
 acrimony and pungency it stimulates the 
 solids and attenuates viscid juices ; and hence 
 stands deservedly recommended for exciting 
 appetite, assisting digestion, promoting the 
 fluid secretions, and for the other purposes 
 of the acrid plants called antiscorbutic. 
 
 This seed has often been given, unbruised, 
 with good success to those afflicted with pa- 
 ralytic, cachectic, and serous disorders ; and 
 its powder is also applied externally to sti- 
 mulate benumbed and paralytic limbs or 
 parts affected with rheumatic pains : it is 
 generally used with a few bread crumbs and 
 pounded garlic, made into a cataplasm with 
 vinegar. 
 
 The flower of mustard curdles boiled milk, 
 and gives all its pungency to the whey. 
 
 Dale, after Schroder, observes, that mus- 
 tard heats and dries, incides, attenuates, and 
 attracts. 
 
 We agree with Boerhaave, says Dr. James, 
 that mustard, and other acrid vegetables, 
 
382 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 
 
 prove excellent medicines, when prudently 
 given, in distempers attended with an indo- 
 lent, watery, or cold phlegmatic humour, no 
 way saline, where acrid humours are lodged 
 in the f st passages ; where the bile is slug- 
 gish, and where no alkaline, foetid, or oily 
 putrid matter is lodged; but the body re- 
 mains cold, torpid, and swelled all over ; as 
 on the other hand, mustard proves hurtful 
 where the body is hot and feverish, the bile 
 sharp, the juices putrid, the parts inflamed, 
 or wasted ; or where the putrid scurvy 
 abounds. 
 
 Mustard-seed, by chemical analysis, gives 
 a much greater indication of an acrid than 
 of an acid salt ; but it affords a considerable 
 quantity of oil, very little fixed salt simply 
 saline, a great deal of earth, a little urinous 
 spirit, and no volatile concrete salt. 
 
 When mustard is calcined, it leaves very 
 little salt in the ashes, because the salt is vo- 
 latile, and flies off in the calcination.* 
 
 On the whole, mustard may be considered 
 a wholesome condiment, when taken in mo- 
 deration and with due consideration of the 
 state of the body ; but we are too apt, gene- 
 rally, to accustom ourselves to the same re- 
 
 # James. 
 
MUSTARD. 383 
 
 gimen, without consulting our respective 
 constitutions. Buchan remarks, that the cure 
 of many diseases may be effected by diet 
 alone, and although its effects are not al- 
 ways so quick as those of medicine, they are 
 generally more lasting. 
 
 The young and green mustard plants, 
 which are so readily and easily reared in the 
 spring, are perhaps the most beneficial, as 
 well as the most agreeable addition to our 
 salads. On this account various ways have 
 been invented to grow it expeditiously, all of 
 which are too simple and well known to re- 
 quire explanation here. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY 5. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET-STREET,