THE number of plants and vegetables that are of excellent quality, and can be profitably cultivated for purposes of pot-herbs and salads, are so numerous that we can only mention the names, with here and there an item, that we may rouse the young housekeeper’s curiosity sufficiently to tempt her to search for their full history herself and we hope lead others to do the same.
In Burr’s “Field and Garden Vegetables of America,” is a “full description of nearly eleven hundred species and varieties, with directions for propagation, culture, and use.” Among them are many species and varieties which make excellent salads and greens.
The Leaf-beet is much esteemed. The leaf is used for greens. The rib, which is called Swiss chard, is cut out, boiled, and dressed like asparagus, which it resembles in taste. There are five varieties, of which the silver-leaf is the best.
Three varieties of the Nightshade—the white from East India, the large-leafed China malabar, and the red malabar from China—furnish a desirable addition to our pot-herbs. The juice from the fruit of the red variety supplies a beautiful color, but is not permanent. The black, or deadly nightshade, is poisonous.
The Nettle, of which only one kind is mentioned, will grow anywhere spontaneously, but is, in many places, largely cultivated, and is excellent for greens. The young, tender buds or shoots are nipped off as they appear, and will shoot out again very rapidly. By being put into a green or forcing-house, it furnishes a good substitute for cabbage, colewort, or winter spinach. If placed near a flue in the hot-house in winter, it will supply excellent nettle-kale all through the winter. Lawson says: “The merits of this generally accounted troublesome plant have been quite overlooked. Aside from the food it can supply, the stalk is quite fibrous, and may be made into ropes and cordage and good thread; besides a white, beautiful linen-like cloth can be manufactured from it, but it has never been cultivated for that purpose. It is an Asiatic plant.”
Spinach is one of the most important of this class of edibles. It grows wild in England. Flanders supplies us with some of the cultivated kinds. The orache, or mountain spinach, is quite hardy and very good. It is a native of Tartary, and was brought into England by Sir John Banks.
The Quinoa, a native of Mexico, is easily cultivated here. The leaves are used like spinach. The seeds in some places are made to take the place of corn or wheat for bread, and are excellent food for poultry.
The English and Irish Sea-beet are much liked in some places, and are easily cultivated.
The Shepherd’s-purse tastes somewhat like cabbage, but is much more delicate. That which is raised and marketed in Philadelphia is wonderfully juicy, and the leaf grows quite large.
Of the salad plants, Celery stands among the first. It is a native of England, and has many varieties, too numerous to mention here.