“I might also mention the tripe de roche, on which Captain Franklin and his unfortunate companions were reduced to live; but my object was, I believe, to shew, not how many mosses or lichens might be eaten, but that every country contains within itself some vegetable productions which are, at times, an invaluable resource to the poor inhabitants. For instance, in that part of the Russian empire near the Caspian Sea, called the Steppes, their principal food, in some years, consists of mushrooms, dried and powdered, and made into bread, which is neither unwholesome nor unpleasant.”
16th.—My aunt’s flower-garden is certainly very pretty, and with those of my cousins, which join it, make a delightful spot; and they all seem to be so fond of their flowers, and to find so much pleasure in gardening, that I begin to think I should like to assist them; but at present I am contented with watching what they do.
My aunt said to me, when we were walking there, “After all, Bertha, I must confess, that the objection I made yesterday against the prickly pear, of its not being adapted to this climate, was not very wise; for had our gardeners been prevented by such fears, we should not now have the variety of foreign plants that we possess, and many of which are not only pretty, but highly useful.”
I asked her whether it was true, that many of the vegetables, now common in kitchen-gardens, have been brought from other countries.
“Yes,” said she, “several of the most useful species have been brought from Asia into Europe, and in the course of two thousand years have been gradually spread over it—in former times by the Greeks and Romans, then by the Crusaders, and more recently by the direct means of navigation; and these again have passed on to America, to which we have given all our vegetable treasures.”
I asked if America, which abounds in delightful plants, has given any thing useful in return to Europe.
“Yes,” said my aunt, “one plant in particular, which is so useful that its cultivation is almost universal. In this country it makes so important a part of the food of millions, that I think it better deserves the name of ‘the hundred ounces of gold’ than the famous Peony tree, called in China ‘Pe-hang-king,’ which has that meaning on account of the enormous price given for it.”
I could not help interrupting her to say, I was sure that was what Mrs. Barbauld alluded to in the line,
And China’s groves of vegetable gold.
She smiled and went on:—“The American plant, I speak of, is no longer curious, nor high in price, though it is in value. Can you guess what it is, Bertha?—it is a native of Peru, where, however, it does not seem to grow with half the luxuriance that it does in Europe.”