Dill.
388. Dill (rlizethum graveolens, L.) is a biennial plant, a native of the corn fields in Spain and Portugal. It has long been cultivated in our gardens as an aromatic and carminative, and the leaves were formerly used in soups and sauces ; but the plant is now scarcely employed, un less that the seeds are sometimes added to cucumber pickles. In order to ensure a crop, the seeds should be sown when they ripen in autumn. if some plants he allow ed to scatter their seeds, plenty of seedlings will rise in the spring.
French and Common Sorrel.
S'orrel (Rumex; Hcxandria Trigynia ; Polygonee, Juss. Oseille of the French) is of different kinds.
389. French sorrel (R.scutatus, L.) is a perennial plant a native of France and Italy ; it was cultivated in Englant ',e fore the middle of the 17th century, and it is now corn.
mon. The leaves are somewhat cordate or bastate, but blunt or rounded, and entire ; glaucous, smooth, soft, and fleshy ; the stems rise front a foot to a foot and a half high. It is sometimes called Ilennan sorrel ; and, front the breadth and bluntness of the leaves, gardeners often dis tinguish it by the Milne r,l ROUndleaved sorrel ; our native species being their Long-leaved sorrel. Tae acid is con sidered as more grateful than that of C0111111011 sorrel, and the leaves arc more succulent ; it is therelore prefel red for kitchen use. The plant runs at the root, and is in this way easily pi opagated. It grows best in a light sandy soil ; and the plants ale ['laved about a foot apart. The only attention it requires is the cutting off of the flower stems and branches in July, so that new leaves may push out for autumn use. In duce or four years, however, the plants generally give indications of decay ; and new ones must be raised from seed. or offsets procured from young and vigorous plants. if a few stems be allowed to re main in the summer, plenty of seeds may be procured in autm»n.
390. Common Su•rel (R. ?lcctosa, L.) is a well-known perennial native, grow ing in meadows and by the sides of rivers, and is figured itt " English Botany," t. 1270. The lower leaves have long loot-stalks; they are a•row-shaped, blunt, and marked with two or three large teeth at the base : the tipper leaves are sessile,.and acute. It is easily raised from seeds sown early in the spring. It thrives best in a shady border. The leaves are used, like those of French sorrel, in various soups, sauces, and especially in salads. As formerly mentioned, they give an excellent flavour to herb patience, used as a substitute for spinach. This species, it may be remarked, is used in France nearly as much as the other, which we generally call French sorrel.
There is a third species of sorrel, reckoned by the Parisians more delicate than either of the others. It is the Rumex arifolius of the nor(' Franfaise. Its leaves are larger and less acid ; and it very rarely throws up a flower-stem.
391. lVood-sorrcl is an entirely different kind of plant, (Oxalis .1cetosella, L. ; Decandria Pentagynia ; belonging to the Gerania of Jussieu.) Having a very grateful acid taste, the leaves form a desirable addition to salads, par ticularly when young, in the months of March and April. It is to be found in almost every wood ; but if the roots be transplanted, in tufts, into the more shady parts of the shrubbery, they will there establish themselves, and be at hand when wanted.
Corn- 392. Corn-salad, or Lamb's Lettuce (Valeriana Willd.; V. Locusta, Lin. ; Tetrandria Monogynia ; Dtp sacetc, Juss.) is a small annual plant, growing on the margins of our fields, (ling. Bot. t. 811.) and only 2 or 3 inches high. Cultivated in gardens, it rises, when in flower, a foot or more in height. The leaves have a pale glaucous hue ; they are long and narrow, the lower ones rather succulent. The flowers are very small, pale bluish, and collected into a close little corymb. In the fields, lamb's-lettuce may be gathered in March, and it flowers in April. In gardens it may be had still more early in the spring : indeed during the greater part of a mild win ter. The tender leaves are little inferior to those of young lettuce, having a slight agreeable flavour ; they form an excellent ingredient in winter and early spring salads. It has very long been a favourite spring salad-plant in France, under the various denominations of fraiche, doucette, salade de chaupine, and lioulc-grasse. tells us, that foreigners using it when in England led to its being cul tivated in our gardens. The seeds are sown in autumn, generally about the end of August. They are either sown at broad-cast or in drills, on a small bed or border. The plants soon rise, 1% ith a low tuft of oblong narrow leaves ; they are then thinned out to two or three inches asunder ; and in February they are fit for use. The entire plant is drawn, in the manner of lettuce, The younger the plants are when used, the better : in warm dry weather, the leaves soon acquire rather a strong taste, disagreeable to many persons. Sometimes a small sowing is made in February, which affords plants with fine tender leaves in April and May. A few plants may be allowed to spring up to flower, and they perfect their seeds in July and August. The culture of lamb's lettuce, as a salad plant, has for some time past been declining, but without any good reason.