Horseradish

“ When the balls are perfectly dry, they are ready for use; and are employed, not only in dyeing blue, but also as the basis of several other colours.
185. HORSE-RADISH (Cochlearia armoracia) is a well-known kitchen-garden plant, which grows wild by the sides of ditches and the banks of rivers, in several parts of the north of England.
The root of horse-radish is much used for culinary purposes. It is remarkable for great pungency both of smell and taste. When scraped, it is mixed with pickles to heighten their flavour, and is eaten with roast beef, fish, and several other kinds of food. ”

“ The roots, which are the edible part, consist of a watery fibrous pulp, which is comparatively bland, and of an external skin furnished with a pungent volatile aromatic oil which acts as a condiment to the phlegmatic pulp. "Radishes are eaten with salt alone as carrying their pepper in them." The oil contained in the roots, and likewise in the seeds, is sulphuretted, and disagrees with persons of weak digestion. A young Radish, which is quickly grown and tender, will suit most stomachs, especially if some of the leaves are masticated together with the root ”

“ Tussilago Farfara, from the shape of its leaf, is termed Horse Hoof. Centaurea nigra is Horse Knob. Another name for Colt’s Foot is Horse Foot; and we have Horse Thistle, Mint, Mushroom, Parsley, Thyme, and Radish. The Dutch Rush, Equisetum, is called Horse Tail, a name descriptive of its shape; Hippocrepis comosa is known as the Horse-shoe Vetch, from the shape of the legumes; and, lastly, the Œnanthe Phellandrium is the Horse Bane, because, in Sweden, it is supposed to give Horses the palsy. In Mexico, the Rattle Grass is said to instantly kill Horses who unfortunately eat it. ”

“ Râs Mâlâ, ii. 82; [ed. 1878, p. 418] .
JAVA-RADISH, s. A singular variety (Raphanus caudatus, L.) of the common radish (R. sativus, L.) , of which the pods, which attain a foot in length, are eaten and not the root. It is much cultivated in Western India, under the name of mugra [see Baden-Powell, Punjab Products, i. 260] . It is curious that the Hind. name of the common radish is mūlī, from mūl, 'root,' exactly analogous to radish from radix.
[JAVA-WIND, s. In the Straits Settlements an unhealthy south wind blowing from the direction of Java is so called. (Compare SUMATRA, b.) ]
JAWAUB, s. ”

“ The great Horsetail at the first springing has heads somewhat like those of asparagus, and afterwards grow to be hard, rough, hollow stalks, jointed at sundry places up to the top, a foot high, so made as if the lower parts were put into the upper, where grow on each side a bush of small long rush-like hard leaves, each part resembling a horsetail, from whence it is so called. At the tops of the stalks come forth small catkins, like those of trees. The root creeps under ground, having joints at sundry places. ”

“ The English name of horse-radish is not of such an original nature as to lead to a belief in the existence of the species in the country before the Saxon conquest. It means a very strong [Pg 36] radish. The Welsh name rhuddygl maurth59 is only the translation of the English word, whence we may infer that the Kelts of Great Britain had no special name, and were not acquainted with the species. In the west of France, the name raifort, which is the commonest, merely means strong root. Formerly it bore in France the names of German, or Capuchin mustard, which shows a foreign and recent origin. ”

“ Restaurants keep their supplies of horse-radish quite fresh for several months by planting the roots in cool cellars in moist sand, and the cuttings held over for the spring planting are kept in the same way. ”

“ There is every reason to suppose that the Maliner Kren variety of horse-radish can be cultivated as successfully in America as in Bohemia, if the hand labor entailed by the removal of the small roots from the cuttings is not too great. ”

“ If however too much blood will have flown out, with a small soft cloth having been plucked with oil and vinegar and small salt and with its own shit of the horse on the joints with hooves you will tie. After the third day you will make warming. If flesh will have accumulated, you will use either contracting or vulnary things and more often with a scalpel the horn of the hoof you will purge and destroy, in order that it should grow equally. ”

“ Radishes must be set in boxes guarded by wooden hurdles or by nets to keep off the birds; they are fair-sized but hollow and flavourless. The rare flowers are chiefly geraniums and fuchsias, pansies and marigolds; but as in Norway and the North generally, flora flourishes best in pots behind the little half-blinded windows ”

“ Every one had the skin of a crow hanging att their guirdles. Their stokens all inbrodered with pearles and with their own porke-pick worke. They have very handsome shoose laced very thick all over with a peece sowen att the side of the heele, which was of a haire of Buff, which trailed above halfe a foot upon the earth, or rather on the snow. They had swords and knives of a foot and a halfe long, and hattchetts very ingeniously done, and clubbs of wood made like backswords ”

“ In the centre of the Horseshoe, which is really more the form of two sides of an obtuse-angled triangle, the water, being of great depth—at least thirty feet where it falls over the precipice—is of an azure green, which contrasts well with the yellow, white, and light emerald colours of the shallower and more broken portions nearer the sides. ”

“ The power of taste they possess, as is shown by the preference of some foods to others. The sense of touch is acute and resides in all parts of the soft and moist external skin, and especially in the upper tentacles or horns in the Helicidæ. Jaws they have with which to seize and to bite off food, and in H. aspersa and others these bear teeth, but the chief work is done by a sort of toothed tongue, the radula, which rasps off particles of food with a side to side motion of the head as the animal advances. ”

“ The coarse, large nuts are not fit for human food. It is quite common to think that horses can eat things too rank for our more fastidious taste. Horse sugar is the name of a small tree whose sweetish twigs are browsed upon by cattle and horses in wooded pastures. Horse-radish and horse-mint are coarser, more rank-growing kinds of plants, than their closely related species which are used for human food.
[210]
We shall know the horse-chestnut in the dead of winter by the large buds, the large hoof-print leaf scars, and by the pyramidal form of the tree. ”

“ The water, running through wet places, could be heard distinctly trickling among roots and coarse grasses and patches of rush, as well as the quick cropping of sheep and occasional scuttering of their feet over muddy bits of path; and along the track from the direction of Llangarth came the dull thud of a horse’s advancing hoofs and the constant sneezing of the animal as he tried in vain to blow the clinging damp from his nostrils. ”

“ Our native club-mosses, though once used in medicine, are positively deleterious; horsetails (Equisetaceæ) , though harmless, so abound in silex, which wrap them round with a cuticle of stone, that they are rarely cropped by cattle; while the thickets of fern which cover our hill and dell, and seem so temptingly rich and green in their season, scarce support the existence of a single creature, and remain untouched, in stem and leaf, from their first appearance in spring until they droop and wither under the frosts of early winter. ”

“ The wildmen brought us more meate then we would, and as much fish as we might eate.
The 12th day we perceived afarr off some 50 yong men coming towards us, with some of our formest compagnions. We gave them leave to come into our fort, but they are astonied, calling us every foot devills to have made such a machine. They brought us victualls, thinking we weare halfe starved, but weare mightily mistaken, for we had more for them then they weare able to eate, having 3 score bussards and many sticks where was meate hanged plentifully. ”

“ The general appearance of the horsetail.—The common horsetail (Fig. 154) , which may be found in hedgerows and cornfields, is not in any respect showy. It rarely exceeds a few feet in height, and does not attract attention by any display of bright colours. The plant has stiff, jointed stems or haulms, standing gracefully erect and bearing rings of small united leaves at intervals. The branches arise just above the leaves, and alternate with them: several coming off at each level, somewhat like the ribs of an umbrella. The whole plant has thus a rather stiff and formal aspect. ”

“ On the borders of Canada animals are now and again seen somewhat resembling a horse; they have cloven hoofs, shaggy manes, a horn right out of the forehead, a tail like that of the wild hog, black eyes, a stag's neck, and love the gloomiest wildernesses, are shy of each other. So that the male never feeds with the female except when they associate for the purpose of increase. ”

“ The fine dust is stirred up in yellow clouds and moves along the road; the tramp of hoofs in unison resounds afar; the horses race along, pricking up their ears; in front of all, with his tail in the air and thistles in his tangled mane, prances some shaggy chestnut, constantly shifting his paces as he goes. ”

“ Springing clear of his couch, and bounding a score of yards across the prairie, he pauses to look back upon the disturber of his dreams.
In the clear moonlight of a southern sky, he recognises the most ruthless of his enemies—man. One is approaching upon horseback.
Yielding to instinctive dread, he is about to resume his flight: when something in the appearance of the horseman—some unnatural seeming—holds him transfixed to the spot. ”

“ Radishes, like other fleshy roots, are attacked by insects, the most dangerous being the larvae of several species of fly, especially the radish fly (Anthomyia radicum) . The most effectual means of destroying these is by watering the plants with a dilute solution of carbolic acid, or much diluted gas-water; or gas-lime may be sprinkled along the rows.
Forcing.—To obtain early radishes a sowing in the British Isles should be made about the beginning of November, and continued fortnightly till the middle or end of February; the crop will generally be fit for use about six weeks after sowing. ”

“ The Horsetails are a small group of flowerless plants, quite distinct from the ferns, though there are certain points in which some resemblance may be traced. We have eight British species out of twenty-five that are known to inhabit the earth. The most widely distributed of these is the Field Horsetail (E. arvense) , which farmers regard as a pest. In common with the whole tribe it has a creeping underground rootstock, from which more or less erect jointed stems arise. ”

“ The outer wall is usually more slanting than the inner, and the more slanting half of a hoof is always the thicker. In front hoofs the wall is thickest at the toe and gradually thins out toward the quarters, where in some horses it may not exceed one-fourth of an inch. In hind hoofs there is much less difference in thickness between the toe, side walls, and quarters. The horny sole, from which the flakes of old horn have been removed, is concave and about as thick as the wall at the toe. It is rough, uneven and often covered by flakes of dead horn in process of being loosened and cast off. ”

“ The other day I had just planted my celluloid radishes and irrigated my turnips and sown my hunting-case summer squashes, and this cow went by trying to convey the impression that she was out for a walk.
That night the blow fell. The queen of night was high in the blue vault of heaven amid the twinkling stars. All nature was hushed to repose. The people of Laramie were in their beds. So were my hunting-case summer squashes. I heard a stealthy step near the conservatory where my celluloid radishes and pickled beets are growing, and I arose. ”

“ Equisetum hyemale.—In this case the specific name is a Latin adjective which means “pertaining to winter,” an allusion to the fact that the plant is to be found all through this season. The Rough Horsetail or Dutch Rush.
This is quite the most distinct of all the Horsetails. There are none of the whorled branches which are so familiar in the other [121] species, and it is only now and again that even a single branch is produced from the base of one of the sheaths. There is a strong resemblance between the barren and the fertile stems. ”

“ Its gait is graceful, its feet small and light, its head well raised; and its plumage, though devoid of striking contrasts, is exquisitely pencilled, each feather on the back and breast being veined like the gauzy wings of a fly. The most conspicuous part of the plumage of the male bird, the horseshoe on its breast, is invisible as it walks or crouches, and the general tone approaches that of the soil. ”

“ Thrush (q.v.) is more common with draught-horses than any other breed, and is usually caused by a filthy, ill-kept stable. Corns are injuries to the living horn of the foot, appearing in that part of the sole which is included in the angle between the bar and the outside wall of the hoof. They are described, according to the character of the conditions which follow the primary injury, as the dry, the moist, and the suppurative. ”

“ Hundreds of valuable horses used by civilians are constantly ruined by the pernicious practice of cutting the hoof and sole of the horse’s foot into a shape quite contrary to that intended by Nature, who has cast it in a mould necessary and proper to support the horse’s weight or the peculiar shape of its legs, which differ more or less in all animals, although the basis of their construction is essentially the same. ”