William Bingley

“ COMMON or SPEAR-MINT (Mentha viridis) , one of our most frequent garden herbs, is a native British plant, and grows wild in watery places, and near the banks of rivers, in several parts of England. The ancients ascribed many virtues to different kinds of mint, but it is not now possible to ascertain correctly the respective species, though there can be little doubt that spear-mint was one of the most important of them. Its flavour is to many persons peculiarly agreeable, and, on this account, it is employed for several culinary purposes, both in a green and dried state. ”

“ The CABBAGE-TREE (Areca oleracea) is an American species of palm, which grows to the height of a hundred feet and upwards, and is destitute of leaves until within a few feet of the summit. The leaves, sometimes near twenty feet long, are winged, and the leaflets are entire. Such is the general elegance of this tree that it is frequently denominated the queen of woods. Its fruit, which grows in bunches from the top, is an oblong and obtuse kind of berry, of bluish purple colour, and about the size of an olive. ”

“ By boiling, the ginger loses a portion of its essential oil; and its black colour is owing to this.
The uses of ginger, both in medicine, and as a spice, are numerous and well known. In the West Indies this root is frequently eaten fresh in salads, and with other food: and the roots when dug up young, namely, at the end of three or four months after they have been planted, are preserved in syrup, and exported as a sweet-meat to nearly all parts of the world. The ginger which is brought into this country from the East Indies is much stronger than any we have from Jamaica. ”

“ There is scarcely any situation in which the aspen will not flourish, but it succeeds best where the soil is moist and gravelly. Its wood is light, porous, soft, and of white colour; and, though inferior in excellence to that of the white poplar, is applicable to many useful purposes, particularly for field-gates, the frames of pack-saddles, for milk-pails, clogs, and the wood-work of patterns. It is improper for bedsteads, as it is liable to be infested by bugs. In some countries the bark of the young trees is made into torches. ”

“ From hemp-seed a valuable kind of oil is procured, by pressure, which is peculiarly adapted for burning, as it is perfectly limpid and without smell: it is also used for making the soap called green soap. The seeds themselves are sometimes employed in the feeding of poultry, from a notion that they cause the hens to lay a greater number of eggs than they otherwise would do. They are also given as food to singing birds; but, if in great quantity, they are supposed to injure the plumage. The stalks, after the hemp is taken from them, afford an excellent fuel. ”

“ Orange flowers are valued as a perfume, and yield their flavour to rectified spirits; and, in distillation, both to spirits and water. In Portugal and Italy a fragrant red-coloured oil is obtained from them, which, by some persons, is considered of more delicate and agreeable perfume than even ottar of roses.
The juice of the orange, when ripe and of good kind, is extremely sweet, grateful, and wholesome. In fevers, and other complaints, it is of considerable use for allaying heat and quenching thirst; and, in scurvy, it has been found a very valuable remedy. ”

“ As food for mankind they are considered extremely nutritive; and may, with great advantage, be kept on board ships that are destined for long voyages. It is, however, said that they should not be dug up for use in the spring, because, at that season, the nutritive juices rising upward to produce the seed, they are then unwholesome.
Parsnips abound in saccharine juice; and various experiments have, in vain, been made with a view to extract sugar from them. In several parts of Ireland they are used instead of malt in brewing; and, when properly fermented, they afford an agreeable beverage. ”

“ The PEACH is a large, downy, and well-known garden fruit (Amygdalus Persica) , which is supposed to have been originally introduced into Europe from Persia, and was first brought into England about the year 1562. This rich and delicious fruit is highly and deservedly esteemed at table, as an article in our desserts; and, when ripe and fresh, is grateful and wholesome, seldom disagreeing with the stomach, unless this organ be not in an healthy state, or the fruit be eaten to excess. When preserved in wine, brandy, or sugar, it loses its good properties. The kernels yield a salubrious bitter. ”

“ ANISE-SEEDS are the production of an umbelliferous annual plant (Pimpinella anisum) , which grows wild in Egypt, Syria, and other Eastern countries. They are roundish and striated, flatted on one side, and pointed at one end; and of pale colour, inclining to green. Attempts were made more than two hundred years ago to cultivate anise in this country, but the summers of our climate are seldom warm enough to bring the plant to perfection. It has consequently been found necessary to import the seed from Malta and Spain, where it is cultivated to considerable extent. ”

“ The various uses of the carrot in cookery are well known. But, although it contains much nutriment, this root is difficult of digestion; particularly if eaten raw, or imperfectly boiled. Carrots are an excellent fodder for cattle and horses, either alone or mixed with hay; and, if given to cows, in winter or the early part of spring, they are said to cause a great increase of milk. If carrots be boiled with their wash, hogs will thrive well upon them. In some parts of England this vegetable has been cultivated as a winter food for deer ”

“ Much of the fruit of the chesnut is consumed as food by the poorer classes of people on the Continent, but particularly by those of Spain and Italy; and, when dried and powdered, it is no mean substitute for flour, in bread and puddings. Chesnuts are imported into this country in considerable quantities, both from France and Spain, and are roasted and eaten in desserts: those which are grown here being much smaller than what we receive from abroad. On the Continent they are sometimes used for making starch, and in the bleaching of linen. ”

“ COMMON RED or BROAD CLOVER (Trifolium pratense) is a well-known field plant, much cultivated in this country. Clover is chiefly grown in firm and good soils, either as green food for horses and cattle, or to be cut for hay. On grass farms it is sometimes sown in conjunction with spring corn, and sometimes with ray-grass (51) ; and its utility in the fattening of cattle is well known. This species of clover grows wild, in meadows and pastures of most parts of Europe; and, in some countries, during a scarcity of provisions, the flowers have been made into a kind of bread. ”

“ The flour of peas is not unfrequently mixed by bakers amongst that of wheat for bread; but bread made of this flour alone is heavy and unwholesome. Three parts of rye-flour and one of ground peas are said to yield a palatable and nourishing bread. Peas that are freed from their husks, and split in mills constructed for the purpose, are used for soup. The haulm or straw of field peas, if saved in favourable seasons, affords not only an excellent fodder for working horses, but is also an useful food for horses, cattle, and sheep. ”

“ The tea plant may be propagated in the temperate climates of Europe, as well as in the Indies; under the shelter of a south wall it will even flourish in our own gardens. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that the fresh leaves, if used for tea, produce giddiness and stupefaction; but these noxious properties are capable of being dissipated by the process of roasting.
In some of the southern parts of England there are smugglers who have reduced to a regular process the management of the leaves of the ash, the sloe, and some other trees, for the adulteration of tea. ”

“ SUGAR is the concrete or crystallized juice of the sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum, Fig. 5) , a plant, much cultivated both in the East and West Indies, which has a jointed stem eight or nine feet high, long and flat leaves of greenish yellow colour, and flowers in bunches. The cultivation of the sugar-cane is pursued to great extent in the islands of the West Indies, where, about three centuries ago, it was first introduced from China, or some other parts of the East, and where it flourishes with great luxuriance, particularly in moist and rich ground. ”

“ Bean flour is not only thought more nutritive, but is found to be more abundant than that of oats. Beans are chiefly applied to the feeding of horses, hogs, and other domestic animals; and it is supposed that meal-men often grind them amongst wheat, the flour of which is to be made into bread. By some persons they are roasted, and adopted as a substitute for coffee. With the Roman ladies bean-flour was in much repute as a cosmetic.
Garden-beans are almost wholly confined to culinary uses. What are called French-beans, and Kidney-beans, belong to a different tribe from the present. ”

“ The true ottar of roses is undoubtedly the most elegant perfume that is known.
From the petals of this rose are also prepared a conserve and syrup, which are used in medicine. The simple distilled rose-water has little to recommend it beyond its fragrance: it is occasionally used to impart an agreeable flavour to culinary preparations, and also to some kinds of cordials. It should be remarked that, although, from their fragrance, roses are much used for nosegays, their odour has sometimes produced very alarming symptoms in persons sitting or sleeping with such nosegays in confined apartments. ”

“ GENTIAN is a bitter drug, the dried root of a plant (Gentiana lutea) which grows wild amongst the Alps, and in other mountainous parts of the Continent.
The flower-stem of the gentian is two or three feet high, strong, smooth, and erect. The leaves which grow upon its lower part are spear-shaped and ribbed, and those on the upper part are concave, smooth, and egg-shaped. The flowers, which are large and yellow, grow round the upper part of the stem on strong footstalks, and are divided at the edge into five or more segments. The calyx is a kind of sheath. ”

“ The PLANTAIN-TREE (Musa paradisiaca) , which is much cultivated in the West Indies and South America, has a soft stem, fifteen or twenty feel high, with several leaves on the summit; and bears a fruit of pale yellow colour, somewhat shaped like a cucumber, about a foot in length, and two inches thick. The leaves are frequently eight feet long, and more than two feet broad, and are so thin and tender that they are often torn by the wind. The fruit is produced in bunches so large as each to weigh forty pounds and upwards. ”

“ The ancients frequently kept their wine in skins, or leathern bags, well secured at the seams; hence the passage in the gospels; "neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved."
The kinds of wine are extremely various. The difference which exists betwixt them is not, however, so much owing to a distinction in the species of grapes, as in the quality of the fruit, produced by the varieties of soil, cultivation, and climate to which they are subject. ”

“ By the English peasantry the potatoe is by no means esteemed as it deserves. In addition to its value for culinary uses, it might, in a very essential degree, be made to serve as a substitute for bread. If duly prepared, and mixed with a nearly equal portion of wheat flour, it may even be made into loaves. A kind of cheese may be made, by reducing potatoes to the consistence of paste, adding an equal quantity of the curd from which cheese is made, with a little salt and some other ingredients, mixing the whole together, and forming them in moulds. ”

“ The COWSLIP is a plant (Primula veris) which grows in most meadows and pastures, and is too well known to require any description. The flowers of the cowslip, when picked and dried, are sometimes used as a balsamic tea. When boiled, with a certain proportion of water and sugar, and afterwards properly fermented, they may be made into a peculiarly pleasant wine.
The roots have a fine odour; and, when immersed in ale or beer, are said to add considerably to the strength of the liquor. The leaves are sometimes eaten as a pot-herb, and in salads ”

“ When the berries are quite ripe, they are of a dark purple colour, and filled with a sweet pulp.
Pimento is thought to resemble in flavour a mixture of cinnamon, nutmegs, and cloves, whence it has obtained the name of "all-spice." It is much employed in cookery; and is chiefly used in whole grains. It is also employed in medicine, as an agreeable aromatic; and forms the basis of a distilled water, a spirit, and an essential oil. The leaves of the pimento trees yield in distillation an odoriferous oil, which is not unfrequently used in medicinal preparations, instead of oil of cloves. ”

“ The size of this fruit is nearly that of a large pear, and the colour of its pulp is sometimes yellow and sometimes red. The singularity of its form, with a nut or stone at the extremity, instead of the centre, generally excites the surprise of persons when they first see it. In a ripe state the fruit is sometimes roasted, cut in slices, and used as an agreeable acid in punch. Its juice, when fermented, is made into wine; and, on distillation, yields a spirit which some persons prefer even to rum. ”

“ The principal use of hops, in brewing, is for the preservation of malt liquor, and to communicate to it an agreeably aromatic bitter flavour. The best hops are used for ale and the finer kinds of malt liquor, and inferior kinds are used for porter. The odour of hops hung over a bed, or a pillow stuffed with hops, has been said to promote sleep, after the application of opium has failed. The young shoots and tops are often gathered from the hedges, by poor people, and boiled and eaten in the manner of asparagus. ”