Maraschino

“ Punch a la Romaine—Roman Punch Ice.—Make a quart of lemon ice, and flavor it with a glass or two of each of rum, brandy, champagne, and Maraschino; when it is frozen, to each quart take the whites of five eggs and whip them to a very strong froth; boil half a pound of sugar to the ball, and rub it with a spoon or spatula against the sides to grain it: when it turns white, mix it quickly with the whites of eggs, stir it lightly together, and add it to the ice; when cold, mix it well together, and serve it in glasses. ”

“ Marabuts. The priestly order of the Arabs in North Africa; those who attend the mosques and call the people to prayers. Their name is derived from the Arabic Marabath, sacred or devoted to God.
Maraschino. A liqueur distilled from delicate and finely flavoured cherries, called Marazques, cultivated at Zara in Dalmatia.
March. In honour of Mars, the Roman god of war.
Marconigram. A wireless telegram, so called after Marconi, the inventor of the system.
Margate. From the Anglo-Saxon Mære, the sea; expresses the road or entrance to the Thames estuary from the sea. See “Gate.” ”

“ If grapes are firm, boiling water may be poured over them and allowed to stand 1 minute, when skins will come off easily.
Pare
2 oranges, removing white part with the skin, and remove sections free from membrane.
Cut
4 slices canned pineapple in dice. Mix the fruit with
1⁄3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1⁄2 cup orange juice
1⁄2 cup syrup from canned pineapple, and
Few grains salt.
Put into ice cream freezer, surround with ice and salt, and stir occasionally until juice begins to freeze. Serve in cocktail glasses, garnishing each glass with a
Maraschino cherry. ”

“ And as sherry was certainly a Spanish wine, the false reasoning born of association of ideas made one think that Marsala also was a Spanish wine.
The way to Marsala from Palermo is exceedingly interesting. The country is beautiful with all the grand Sicilian beauty—broken foregrounds, noble mountain forms, the dark-blue sea, of which the splendour is enhanced by the gray green of the olives and the contrast of the golden hue given by the lemon-trees hanging thick with fruit. All the waysides along the railroad are rich in flowers, making the land look as if enamelled. ”

“ In all the above-mentioned islands of Maluco are to be found cloves, ginger, sagu, which is their bread made of wood, rice, cocoa-nuts, plantains, almonds larger than ours, sweet and bitter pomegranates, sugar-canes, oil of cocoa and of sesame, melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, comilicai, [249] which is a refreshing fruit the size of a water-melon, another fruit like a peach called guave, and other eatable vegetables. They also have goats and fowls, honey produced by bees not larger than ants, which make their hives in trunks of trees. ”

“ It is somewhat tough, the solid stem particularly so, the gills wide apart, and cream-coloured.
This species has no downy hairs at the base of the stem. Certain other species of Marasmius, frequently found growing on dead leaves in woods, and possessing this hairy down, are to be avoided. There is a poisonous plant sometimes found in similar situations, and often with the Fairy-Ring Champignon (M. urens) , fig. 30, Poisonous Sheet. I once tested its qualities (by accident) . See description. [Pg 49]
Truffle. ”

“ So far as the labours in South America were concerned, all obstacles were surmounted, and the objects of this great enterprise were fully attained. Not only were plants and seeds safely brought to the coast, but, in every instance, the collectors took care to provide themselves with botanical specimens from the chinchona-trees. Thus the leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of each species, which were brought to England, placed the identity of the valuable species to which the plants and seeds belonged beyond the remotest possibility of a doubt. ”

“ The Indians use the mashua as a medicine: they consider it an efficacious remedy in cases of dropsy, indigestion, and dysentery.
The vegetables and fruits of Europe thrive luxuriantly in the warm Sierra valleys; yet but few of them have been transplanted thither, and those few are but little esteemed. Some of the cabbage and salad species, together with onions, garlic, and several kinds of pulse, are all that are cultivated. It is remarkable that in these regions no indigenous fruit-trees are to be seen. The only fruit really belonging to the Sierra is the Tuna. ”

“ There are no sand-flies nor bête-rouge nor mosquitos in this pretty spot. The fire-flies, during the night, vie in numbers and brightness with the stars in the firmament above; the air is pure, and the north-east breeze blows a refreshing gale throughout the day. Here the white-crested maroudi, which is never found in the Demerara, is pretty plentiful; and here grows the tree which produces the moran, sometimes called balsam-capivi.
Your route lies south from this place; and at the extremity of the savanna you enter the forest and journey along a winding path at the foot of a hill. ”

“ The first of these may be distinguished from the oreades, by the rusty brown color of the gills, its smooth stem and rusty colored spores. In the second the gills are much narrower and the stem is very smooth and hollow.
The Marasmius urens as described by European authors has a pale buff cap, not umbonate but flat, and at length depressed in the centre, from one to two inches across. The gills are unequal, free, very crowded; cream color, becoming brownish. The stem is solid and fibrous, densely covered with white down at the base. It is very acrid to the taste. ”

“ The introduction of quinine-yielding Chinchona-trees into India, and the cultivation of the "Peruvian Bark" in our Eastern possessions, where that inestimable febrifuge is almost a necessary of life, has for some years engaged the attention of the Indian Government. In 1859 the author of the present work was intrusted, by the Secretary of State for India in Council, with the duty of superintending all the necessary arrangements for the collection of Chinchona-plants and seeds of the species esteemed in commerce, in South America, and for their introduction into India. ”

“ Out of Lima, the masses in Peru subsist mostly on a vegetable diet. The flour of maize, wheat, peas, beans, barley, rice, and arrowroot, are made into a soft pap, or mush, which is sweetened exceedingly with sugar or molasses. This is the great Peruvian dish called “masamora,” and which is the edible staple in every family. It produces sleekness without strength, and fatness without fire. They who subsist upon it retain their flesh till they pass forty; then begin to dwindle away; at sixty they are extremely thin; and at seventy have hardly substance enough to cast a shadow. ”

“ In all the great wine-making countries it is considered a legitimate joke to befuddle the careless American whose enthusiasm outruns his prudence. One or two sips of the wine may be taken with dignity, but Marsala, like its Spanish cousin, Sherry, is a heady wine, and the rich, heavy air of the winery and wareroom alike bespeak caution on the part of the investigator, if a delightful memory is not to be spoiled by a pricking conscience. ”

“ The armajo is the typical plant of the marisma, flourishing even where there is a considerable percentage of salt in the soil. This aquatic shrub increases most in dry seasons, a series of wet winters having a disastrous effect on its growth. The Sapina, above mentioned, has a curious effect when eaten by mares (which is often the case when other food is scarce) of inducing a form of intoxication from which many die. Indeed, the deaths from Ensapinadas represent a serious loss to horse-breeders whose mares are sent to graze in the marismas. Cattle are not affected. ”

“ We hired a boat and a couple of Indians to paddle us two or three miles up the igarapé and back again. The banks are lined with gardens, from which many vegetables are sent to the market of Para.
"In the interior of the island there are farms and plantations where sugar-cane, cacao, cotton, rice, and mandioca are grown, but the greatest industry of Marajo is in the exportation of cattle. The trade is said to reach about ten thousand head every year; horses are scarce, and a good riding animal brings a high price. ”

“ Then again the supplies of bark from South America are not nearly sufficient to meet the demand, and the price is kept so high as to place this inestimable remedy beyond the means of millions of natives of fever-visited regions. For these reasons the incalculable importance of introducing the chinchona-plant into other countries adapted for its growth, and thus escaping from entire dependence on the South American forests, has long occupied the attention of scientific men in Europe. ”

“ North of the city, Maracaibo, are salinas or salt deposits, from which several thousand tons are taken annually. Southwest of Maracaibo, a peculiar tree is found in the forest, the arbol de vaca, or palo de leche, the sap of which, though slightly thicker, may be used in every way as cow’s milk. In the forests are valuable timber, useful creepers, and trees which furnish various gums or resins. Around the lake are found outcrops of coal, also petroleum and asphalt.
COLOMBIA, VENEZUELA, GUIANA, ECUADOR, NORTH BRAZIL
The capital city, Maracaibo, is a busy place, and prosperous. ”

“ In Santa Tarsilla the August weather was hot with the cruel, unchanging, misty heat that breeds all manner of disease from the waters and the earth, and which is only good for the lecherous vine that strangles the maples it clings to, and lives on to steal the soul out of man by and by, and vines are there none in Maremma. ”

“ Spruce, Dr. Weddell, Mr. Howard, Mr. McIvor, and Mr. Cross, that the chinchona-plants must be planted in the open, and freely exposed to the influence of fresh air and sunshine; but I am most strongly of opinion that, if the opposite system was unfortunately adopted, it would have been far better if the expense and trouble of introducing these precious trees into India had never been incurred.
It is true that, when planted in the forest, the chinchonæ will look well to the casual observer, and that their cultivation can be conducted without skill or care, as all will be left to nature ”

“ The measures adopted by the Spanish Government towards the end of the last century, in sending botanical expeditions to explore the chinchona forests in other parts of their vast South American possessions, led to the discovery of additional valuable species, the introduction of their barks into commerce, and the reduction of the pressure on the Loxa forests, which were thus relieved from being the sole source whence Peruvian bark could be supplied to the world. ”

“ After much careful consideration it had been decided that the best place for commencing the experimental cultivation of chinchona-plants in India would be the Neilgherry hills, in the Madras Presidency. Here are to be found a climate, an amount of moisture, a vegetation, and an elevation above the sea, more analogous to those of the chinchona forests in South America than can be met with in any other part of India. In the Government gardens at Ootacamund, on the Neilgherries, there were the necessary conveniences for propagating plants and raising seedlings ”

“ They are all mountain-born, and chiefly from the chestnut-woods of the northern spurs of the Apennines, where the snow has fallen already; here, down in the green Maremma, they will, year after year, arrive all their lives through, to plough, and harrow, and sow, to hew, and saw, and burn wood for timber and charcoal, all the winter long; and then, after waiting perhaps for the first hay stacking or wheat harvest, will go back with the money in their pockets to reap and plough, and gather the nuts, and prune the olive on their own hills ”

“ It will thus be seen that fevers and perilous roads are not the only dangers to be apprehended in a search for chinchona-plants.
Lastly, and extending for a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, from Marcapata to the frontier of Bolivia, is the watershed along that part of the eastern Andes known as the Snowy Range of Caravaya, where the numerous streams take their rise which unite to form the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios, Marcapata, and Ynambari are thus the three great sources of the Purus. The tributaries of the latter drain the province of Caravaya. ”

“ The marshy plain then appears overhung with a thick color-changing sheet of malaria. Malignant intermittent fever and diseases of the skin are frequent in Huaura. The town is thinly peopled; the number of inhabitants being not more than 2000.
A great sugar plantation, called El Ingenio, is situated at about a quarter of a league from Huaura. It formerly belonged to the Jesuits, but is now the property of a rich Lima family. The trapiche, or sugar-mill, is worked by a water-wheel, the first ever established in Peru, a circumstance of which the owner proudly boasts. ”

“ The extensive meadows of Marajo are the grazing fields of numerous herds of wild horses and horned cattle, the former of a superior breed, highly prized on the mainland; and yet so rapidly do they increase in this climate, in the wild state, that every few years they are killed in large numbers for their hides alone. The exports from the island consist of rice, cattle, horses, and hides. There are some large plantations devoted to the cultivation of rice, the soil and water supply of certain districts being especially favorable to this crop. ”