William Bingley

“ Persons who have visited hot climates know well how to appreciate the grateful coolness and delicious flavour of the water melon, the flesh of which is so succulent that it melts in the mouth; and the central pulp of which is fluid, like that of the cocoa-nut, and may be sucked, or poured out through a hole in the rind, and thus made to afford a most refreshing beverage.
To the inhabitants of Egypt, China, the East Indies, and other countries, where they are cultivated to a great extent, water melons are extremely valuable, {210}both as food and physic. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ COFFEE is the seed of an evergreen shrub which is cultivated in hot climates, and is chiefly imported from Arabia and the East and West Indies.
This shrub (Coffea Arabica, Fig. 9) is from fifteen to twenty feet in height. The leaves are four or five inches long, and two inches broad, smooth, green, and glossy on the upper surface; and the flowers, which grow in bunches at the base of the leaves, are white and sweet-scented. The berries or fruit are of a somewhat oval shape, about the size of a cherry, and of dark red colour, when ripe. ”

“ 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 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 ”

“ CHIVES (Allium schœnoprasum) are the smallest of the garlic tribe, seldom rising more than a few inches above the ground, and the bulbs not being larger than peas.
The stem is naked, as long as the leaves; and the leaves are round and somewhat awl-shaped.
Chives are natives of Italy, Switzerland, and several other parts of Europe; and are so hardy, and at the same time so useful, that they merit a place in every garden: yet, in the northern counties of England and in Scotland, they are very rarely to be seen. ”

“ Juniper berries are at first green; and they continue upon the trees two years before they become ripe and assume their purple colour. When ripe they have a sweetish aromatic taste. The Swedes prepare, from these berries, a beverage which they consider useful as a medicine; and in some parts of the Continent juniper berries are roasted, ground, and adopted as a substitute for coffee. In Sweden they are eaten at breakfast, in the form of a conserve; and, in Germany, they are frequently used as a culinary spice, and especially for imparting their peculiar flavour to sour crout. ”

“ In Spain, when the rice is ripe, it is gathered into sheaves, and put into a mill, where the lower grinding stone is covered with cork; and, by this means, the grain is separated from the husk, without being bruised.
Rice is said to have been lately cultivated, with success, in some parts of Scotland; and it is not improbable, that, by degrees, this species of grain may be naturalized to our climate.
No kind of grain is so generally adopted for food in hot climates as this. The inhabitants of many parts of the East subsist almost wholly upon it ”

“ 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. ”

“ The tough rind of the fruit, which is of a bitter and astringent nature, was employed by the ancients in the dressing of leather; and it is still used in some parts of Germany, together with the bark of the tree, in the preparation and dyeing of red leather in imitation of what is called Morocco leather.
Pomegranates were first cultivated in England about the year 1596; but the fruit grown in this country seldom attains a delicacy of flavour equal to that which is imported from Spain, Italy, and other warm climates. ”

“ As a timber-tree the hornbeam is more esteemed on the Continent than in this country. It grows readily in stiff soils, particularly on the sides of hills; and is easily transplanted. The wood, which is white, hard, and tough, is used by turners; and is wrought into cogs for mill-wheels, screw-presses, the heads of beetles, handles of working tools, and other instruments and machinery in which great strength is required. As fuel it is preferred, on account of its readier inflammability, to most other kinds of wood. The inner bark is used, in some countries, for dyeing yellow. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is no tree of British growth more admired, or more deserving of admiration on account of its brilliant appearance at a very early season of the year than the chesnut. Its beautiful flowers, in upright conical spikes, terminate the branches on all sides, in such manner that sometimes almost the whole tree appears as if it were covered by them. ”

“ STRAMONIUM, or THORN-APPLE (Datura stramonium) , is an annual plant, with thick round stalks, somewhat triangular leaves, jagged or toothed at the edges, large white and funnel-shaped flowers, and seed vessels large and beset with spines.
Although originally a native of America, stramonium is now a frequent weed on dunghills, and in cultivated ground of our own country; and, when once introduced into a garden, it is difficult to be eradicated. ”

“ As a medicine internally taken, garlic is administered as a bolus, or made into pills. Its smell is considered an infallible remedy against vapours, and to be useful in nearly all the nervous disorders to which females are subject. An oil is sometimes prepared from garlic, which is so heavy as to sink in water. But the virtues of this pungent vegetable are more perfectly and more readily extracted by spirit of wine than in any other way. A syrup is also made from it. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Bread that is made of rye which contains even a great quantity of this bad corn, is not distinguishable by the taste, from other rye bread; and it seldom produces its ill effects till some time after it has been eaten, it is then said to occasion gangrenes in the legs and other parts of the body, and dangerous fevers. The poorer people, however, are those chiefly who are subject to these diseases, as many of them have little other substantial food to subsist upon than bread made of this species of corn. ”

“ The roots are the only edible parts of the plant. These, which are white, soft, and farinaceous, from one to two feet in length, and five or six inches in circumference, are dug out of the earth, at a certain season of the year, washed, stripped of their rind, and ground to a pulp. The juice, or poisonous part, is pressed out, and carefully thrown away; as cattle, and other animals, which have accidentally drunk of it, have almost instantly died. The flour that remains, after pressure, is formed into thin round cakes and baked. ”

“ In some part of the country, rye is much used by ginger-bread bakers, for the dark colour of its flour is not perceptible, when mixed with treacle. This species of grain is frequently used for the distillation of spirits.
It has been remarked, in some districts of France, that rye, from bad seasons, or from other causes, has proved noxious and even poisonous. The grains of the corn, thus degenerated, are black on the outside and tolerably white within; and, when dry, are harder and closer than good grain. ”

“ The juice of the sugar-cane is so palatable, and at the same time so nutritive, that, during the sugar harvest, every creature which partakes freely of it, whether man or animal, appears to derive health and vigour from its use. ”

“ They each, but particularly the flowers, have a powerful, though not an unpleasant smell, and a bitter taste.
They are administered in substance, as a powder or electuary, in infusion as tea, in decoction or extract, or in the form of an essential oil obtained by distillation.
So fragrant is the camomile plant, that the places where it grows wild, on open gravelly commons, may easily be discovered by the somewhat strawberry-like perfume which is emitted by treading on them. This quality alone has sometimes induced the cultivation of camomile for a green walk in gardens. ”

“ The COMMON MELON, or MUSK MELON, is a species of cucumber, produced by a creeping herbaceous plant (Cucumis melo) , which has leaves with rounded angles, and grows wild in Tartary.
In hot climates this fruit attains great perfection and a peculiarly fine flavour; and even in England, where it is cultivated in hot-beds, and sheltered by glass frames, it is one of the coolest and most delicious summer fruits {208}that we possess. Its size and form vary beyond description. ”

“ In few vegetable productions are the effects of cultivation more conspicuous than in the carrot. The wild plants, which are common in most parts of England, have a root so small and woody, that no one could suppose they had any alliance whatever to the large and succulent root of the garden carrot. ”