more profitable in their culture. Its peculiar sweetness, so delightful to the palates of our less refined fore-fathers, to us appears nauseous lusciousness; and that root which the Emperor Tiberius esteemed so much as to cause it to be brought from the banks of the Rhine for the use of his table, is little relished in the present day. Beckmann ingeniously accounts for this change of taste in the use of vegetable productions. "In the oldest times mankind were so fond of sweet things, that the goodness and agreeable taste of every kind of food was determined according to the degree of its sweetness; and such is the manner of judging, even at present, throughout all the East, in Africa, and in America. This is the case also among us with the greater part of the lower classes, who are not able to follow the mode of richer tables. In the northern countries this taste is almost every where prevalent. Thus the Swedes spoil, by the addition of sugar, costly Rhenish wines, sauer-kraut, and other articles, the agreeable tartness of which is gratifying to other nations. In proportion to their population and luxury, the Swedes seem to use more sugar than the Germans, and the Germans more than the English or French; and one might almost suspect that a taste for sweet things was in the inverse ratio of culture. At any rate, one can thus explain why many vegetable productions which some centuries ago were reckoned among the most agreeable dishes appear to us to be nauseously sweet **

For some time after the cultivation of skirrets had become neglected in the gardens of the rich, they still continued to be an object of culture among the poor in a few remote parts of the country. But even in those situations they have now very generally given way to the potato, and are seldom grown, and even then rather from the love of variety than for any * History of Inventions, vol. iv. p. 358.

particular merit which they may possess. The skirret is thus occasionally cultivated in the north of Scotland, under the name of crummack.

"

This plant is small compared with the carrot and parsnip. It has pinnated leaves, consisting of two or three pair of long dentated leaflets, and terminated by an odd one. The flower-stalk rises to the height of about two feet, breaking out at top into branches, each terminating in an umbel of small white flowers. The root consists of a cluster of fleshy fibres, which are connected together at the crown or head, and in the course of a few years augment to a considerable

bunch. Each separate tuber is about the thickness of the little finger. They grow very uneven, and are covered with a whitish rough bark, while a hard core or pith runs through the centre.

This plant is propagated either by seeds or by offsets from the parent root; the first method is considered the most preferable for obtaining good and tender roots.

The skirret abounds in saccharine matter. Mr. Margraaf extracted from half a pound of this root one ounce and a half of pure sugar.

The BEET-Beta-was known as an esculent root in the time of Pliny, who has given an accurate description of it in his work, The period when this plant was first introduced into Britain as a garden vegetable is not ascertained. It was cultivated at Lambeth by Tradescant the younger in 1656; but there is no reason for supposing that he was the first cultivator; on the contrary, it is more than probable that the beet was brought into this country by the Romans, and that it has continued since that period to be an object of partial cultivation.

The cultivated beets, in all their varieties, are plants of the same duration, and nearly of the same habits, as turnips. They are sown in the early part of the summer, bulb towards the close of the season, and, if allowed to stand, send up their flowering stems, and ripen their seeds in the following year.

The variety which has its root red throughout its whole substance is most used in England for culinary purposes. This plant is said to be a native of the warmer countries of Europe; but it is sufficiently hardy to bear the climate of most parts of Britain. The root is in the form of a carrot, but thicker in proportion to its length, those of a foot long often being three or four inches in diameter. It is very juicy, and, when wounded, bleeds freely a limpid fluid of a beautiful purple colour. The leaves are large, long,

and succulent, and generally have a red or purple tinge. When eaten warm, beet-root has rather a mawkish flavour; it is, therefore, usually eaten cold, cut in slices, after having been previously boiled, and with the addition of vinegar is by some persons found agreeable to the palate. Its culture, as an esculent, has not, however, increased of late years, and it is not generally a favourite vegetable for the table; although, according to Sir H. Davy's analysis, it contains much more nutritive matter than any other root excepting the potato, the total quantity being one hundred and forty-eight parts in a thousand, or nearly fifteen per cent. Nearly twelve per cent. of the whole weight of the beet is saccharine matter, which is a much greater proportion than is contained in any other European esculent. The quantity contained in the red and the white beet is nearly the same; the proportion of mucilage in each is likewise almost equal, the red having rather the advantage, while it has nearly three times as much gluten as the white. From this account of its composition it would appear that the red beet is the most nourishing of all the edible roots, the potato alone excepted.

In a country like Britain, where with the bulk of the people vegetables are esteemed for their agreeable flavour, rather than for their nutritive qualities, the superiority of the beet, in the latter respect, is disregarded, and those roots which are considered more savoury obtain the preference.

From one variety of this root, which has a red skin, but is internally white, sugar is extensively prepared in France. We shall notice this manufacture in a subsequent chapter.

The white beet is seldom, if ever, used as human food, but is largely cultivated for the nourishment of domestic animals, and is preferred for this purpose to the turnip or carrot, especially in the vicinity of popu

lous towns. The field-turnip is esculent when young; the carrot is so in all stages of its growth; and, therefore, when grown amid a thick population, they form a great temptation to petty depredators, by whom the farmer finds this provender for his cattle much diminished. The field-beet, however, affords no allurement to the hungry plunderer, as starvation itself could scarcely induce him to make a meal of this harsh, coarse root, previously to its being subjected to culinary preparation, and even then it would prove a most unpalatable repast. When cows are fed with the beet, it is said that they yield a greater quantity of milk in consequence; and this food does not impart any of that rank flavour which is com municated by turnips.

There are several varieties of the field-beet; some with the stem, branches, and veins of the leaves red; others with leaves wholly red; and some, again, with the epidermis of the root in different shades of red, brown, and yellow. Those coloured varieties are considered more hardy than the white, and one, having a reddish skin, the mangold or mangol wurtzel of the Germans, is said to produce the largest roots, and the most weighty crop in a given space of land. In Guernsey crops have been raised of one hundred tons per acre*.

Some varieties of white beet are cultivated in the gardens for their leaves alone; these are larger than the leaves of the red beet, and are more thick and succulent; they are boiled as spinach, and put into soups. One kind, called the great white or sweet beet, is esteemed for the footstalks and midribs of the of leaves, which are stewed and eaten under the name Swiss chard, or poirée aux carotes.

The JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE

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Helianthus tube rosus-is a native of Brazil; and was first introduced *Gard. Mag., vol. iv.