The Botanist's Companion Part 63

43. SAXIFRAGA oppositifolia. PURPLE SAXIFRAGE.--Perhaps we have few flowers early in the spring that deserve more attention than this. It blooms in the months of February and March, and in that dreary season, in company with the Snow-drop, Crocus, and Hepaticas, will form a most delightful group of Flora's rich production. The Saxifrage is a native of high mountains, and it can only be propagated by being continually exposed to the open and bleakest part of the garden: it succeeds best in pots. It should be parted every spring, and a small piece about the size of a s.h.i.+lling planted in the centre of a small pot, and it will fill the surface by the autumn. The soil bestsuited to it is loam.

44. SEDUM acre. STONE CROP. SEDUM rupestre. ROCK GINGER.--All the species of Sedums are very ornamental plants, and are useful for covering rocks or walls, where they will generally grow with little trouble. The easiest mode of propagating and getting them to grow on such places is first to make the place fit for their reception, by putting thereon a little loam made with a paste of cow-dung; then chopping the plants in small pieces, and strowing them on the place: if this is done in the spring, the places will be well covered in a short time.

45. STATICE Armeria. THRIFT.--This plant is valuable for making edgings to the flower garden. It should be parted, and planted for this purpose either in the months of August and September, or April and May.

46. STIPA pinnata. FEATHER GRa.s.s.--We have few plants of more interest than this; its beautiful feathery bloom is but little inferior to the plumage of the celebrated Bird of Paradise. It is frequently worn in the head-dress of ladies.

47. SWERTIA perennis. MARSH SWERTIA.--This is a beautiful little plant, and worth the attention of all persons who are fond of flowers that will grow in boggy land. It is a perennial, and of easy culture.

48. TROLLIUS europaeus. GLOBE FLOWER.--This is also a fine plant: when cultivated in a moist soil its beautiful yellow flowers afford a pleasing accompaniment to the flower border and parterre in the spring of the year. It is easily raised by parting its roots.

49. TULIPA sylvestris.--This beautiful flower is also an inhabitant of our flower-gardens; it is called the Sweet-scented Florentine Tulip. It has a delightful scent when in bloom, and is highly worthy the attention of amateurs of flower gardens. It should be planted in September, and will grow in almost any soil or situation.

50. TYPHA latifolia. TYPHA angustifolia. TYPHA minor.--These are all very fine aquatics, and worth a place in all pieces of water; the foliage forms a fine shelter for water-fowl.

51. VIOLA tricolor. HEART'S-EASE.--Is an annual of singular beauty, and forms many pleasing and interesting varieties.

52. VIOLA odorata must not be pa.s.sed over among our favourite native flowers. This is of all other plants in its kind the most interesting.

It forms also several varieties; as Double purple, Double white, and the Neapolitan violet. The latter one is double, of a beautiful light blue colour, and flowers early; it is rather tender, and requires the protection of a hot-bed frame during winter. It is best cultivated in pots.

53. VINCA minor. LESSER PERIWINKLE.--This is also a beautiful little evergreen, of which the gardeners have several varieties in cultivation; some with double flowers, others with white and red-coloured corols, which form a pleasing diversity in summer.

54. VINCA major. GREAT PERIWINKLE.-I know of no plant of more beauty, when it is properly managed, than this. It is an evergreen of the most pleasing hue, and will cover any low fences or brick-work in a short s.p.a.ce of time. The flowers, which are purple, form a pleasing variety in the spring months.

MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES

53. BETA vulgaris. I have noticed this plant before, both as to its culinary uses and for feeding cattle: but having received a communication from a friend of mine who resides in the interior of Russia, relative to his establishment for extracting sugar from this root, I cannot omit relating it here, as it appears to be an interesting part of agricultural oeconomy.

"I have here two extensive fabrics for the purpose of making sugar from the Red Beet, and we find that it yields us that useful article in great abundance; i. e. from every quarter of the root (eight bushels Winchester measure) I obtain ten pounds weight of good brown sugar; and this when refined produces us four pounds of the finest clarified lump sugar, and the mola.s.ses yield good brandy on distillation. This is not all; for while we are now working the article the cows are stall-fed on the refuse from the vats after mas.h.i.+ng; and those animals give us milk in abundance, and the b.u.t.ter we are making is equal to any that is made in the summer, when those animals are foraging our best meads."-- Dashkoff, in the government of Orel, 1500 miles from St. Petersburgh, Jan 7, 1816.

The above account, which is so extremely flattering, may no doubt lead persons to imagine that the culture of the beet for the same purpose in this country might be found to answer: and as it is our aim in this little work to give the best information on these subjects without prejudice, I shall beg leave to make use of the following observation, which is not my own, but one that was made on this subject by a Russian gentleman, whom I have long had the honour of enumerating among my best friends; and who is not less distinguished for his application both to the arts and oeconomy, than he is for his professional duties, and his readiness at all times to communicate information for the general good.

"The land where the Beet is grown is of an excellent quality, very deep and fertile, and such as will grow any crop for a series of years without manure. Such soils are seldom found in this country but what may be cultivated to more advantage. In such land, and such alone, will this vegetable imbibe a large quant.i.ty of the saccharine fluid; for it would be in vain to look for it in such Beet roots as have been grown on poor land made rich by dint of manure.

"It may also be a circ.u.mstance worth remarking, that although the sugar thus obtained is very good for common use, it by no means answers the purpose of the confectioner, as it is not fit for preserving; and for this purpose the cane sugar alone is used; so that although great merit may attach to the industry of a person who in times of scarcity can produce such an useful article as sugar from a vegetable so easily grown, yet when cane sugar can be imported at a moderate rate, it will always supersede the use of the other."

56. PYRUS malus. THE APPLE.--This useful fruit, now growing so much to decay in this country, which was once so celebrated for its produce, is grown in great perfection in all the northern provinces of France; and she supplied the London markets with apples this season, for which she was paid upwards of 50,000 l.; and can most likely offer us good cyder on moderate terms.

The French people, ever alive to improvement and invention, having discovered a mode of extracting sugar in considerable quant.i.ty from this fruit, I shall transcribe the particulars of it.

On the Preparation of Liquid Sugar from Apples or Pears. By M. DUBUC.

(Ann. de Chim. vol. lxviii.)--"Several establishments have been made in the South of France for making sugar from grapes; it is therefore desired to communicate the same advantage to the North of France, as apples and pears will produce sugar whose taste is equally agreeable as that of grapes, and equally cheap.

"Eight quarts of the full ripe juice of the Orange Apples was boiled for a quarter of an hour, and forty grammes of powdered chalk added to it, and the boiling continued for ten minutes longer. The liquor was strained twice through flannel, and afterwards reduced by boiling to one half of its former bulk, and the operation finished by a slow heat until a thick pellicle rose on the surface, and a quart of the syrup weighed two pounds. By this method two pounds one ounce of liquid sugar was obtained, very agreeable in flavour, and which sweetened water very well, and even milk, without curdling it.

"Eight quarts of the juice of apples called Doux levesque, yielded by the same process two pounds twelve ounces of liquid sugar.

"Eight quarts of the juice of the sour apples called Blanc mollet, yielded two pounds ten ounces of good sugar.

"Eight quarts of the juice of the watery apples called Girard, yielded two pounds and a half.

"Twenty-five chilogrammes, or fifty-pounds of the above four apples, yielded nearly fourty-two pounds of juice; which took three ounces of chalk and the white of six eggs, and produced more than six pounds of excellent liquid sugar.

"In order to do without the white of eggs, twenty pounds of the juice of the above apples were saturated with eleven drachms of chalk, and repeatedly strained through flannel, but it was still thick and disagreeable to the taste; twelve drachms of charcoal powder were then added, and the whole boiled for about ten minutes, and then strained through flannel; it was then clear, but higher-coloured than usual; however, it produced very good sugar. Six quarts of apple-juice were also treated with seven drachms of chalk, and one ounce of baker's small-coal previously washed until it no longer coloured the water, with the same effect.

"Eight quarts of apple juice, of several different kinds and in different stages of ripeness, of which one-third was still sour, were saturated with twelve drachms of chalk, and clarified with the whites of six eggs; some malate of lime was deposited in small crystals towards the end, and separated by pa.s.sing the syrup very hot through the flannel. Very near two pounds of sugar were obtained.

"Ten pounds of bruised apples, similar to the last, were left to macerate for twenty-four hours, and four quarts of the juice were treated with five drachms of chalk and the white of an egg: it yielded one pound six ounces of liquid sugar; so that the maceration had been of service.

"Twenty-four pounds of the pear called Pillage, yielded nine quarts of juice, which required eighteen drachms of chalk and the whites of two eggs, and yielded about twenty-four ounces of sugar, which was less agreeable to the taste than that of ripe apples.

"Six quarts of juice from one part of the above pears, and two of ripe apples, (orange and girard,) treated with eight drachms of chalk and the whites of two eggs, yielded twenty-six ounces of very fine-tasted sugar, superior to the preceding.

"Six quarts of juice, of an equal quant.i.ty of apples and pears, treated with ten drachms of chalk and thirteen of prepared charcoal, deposited some malate of lime, and yielded a sugar rather darker than the preceding, but very well tasted.