The leaf-stalks, when blanched, are used raw as a salad; they are in season from August to March in the following year; they are also used to flavour soups, and sometimes are boiled as a dinner vegetable. The root only of Celeriac is used. It is excellent in soups, in which, whether white or brown, slices of it are used as ingredients, and readily impart their flavour. With the Germans it is also a common salad, for which the roots are prepared by boiling, until a fork will pass easily through them; after they are boiled and become cold, they are eaten with oil and vinegar. They are also sometimes served up at table, stewed with rich sauces. In all cases, before they are boiled, the root, and the fibres of the roots, which are very strong, are cut away; and the edible part of the root is put in cold water on the fire, not in water previously boiling.

For an early crop of Celery, the seed should be sown in a hot-bed the early part of March; and when the plants are two inches high, they must be pricked out under hand-glasses, where they are to remain till they are six inches high. They should then be planted out in trenches, preserving all their leaves, but pulling off every offset or sucker which appears springing from the upper part of the root.

For the succeeding crops, the seed may be sown upon a bed of rich mould in March, and again in April, where the plants may remain till they are large enough to plant into the trenches. In taking up the young plants, they should be raised with the spade, and planted with the roots entire, merely cutting off the extreme fibres, leaving the roots at least six inches long. The second and third sorts are the most valuable.

The fourth sort should be sown upon a hot-bed, under glass, in February or March; when the plants are two or three inches high, remove them to another hot-bed, and prick them out two inches apart, under a hand-glass.

In June prepare a rich piece of ground, and transplant them upon a flat bed, fifteen inches apart each way: water them frequently and plentifully, and increase the water as they increase in size: they require hoeing only to keep them free from weeds, and the roots will be fit for use in September or October. See an excellent paper on this subject in the Hort. Trans. Vol. vi. p. 419.

19. CHAMOMILE.

Chamomile, Anthemis nobilis, is a perennial plant, a native of Britain. The double-flowered variety is that cultivated in the garden. It is in considerable repute both in the popular and scientific Materia Medica. The flowers, which are the parts used, have a strong and fragrant smell, and a bitter aromatic taste; both are extracted by water and alcohol. Medicinally, the flowers are considered tonic, carminative, and slightly anodyne; yet when a strong infusion of them is taken in a tepid state, it proves powerfully emetic.

The flowers of Chamomile should be pulled from time to time, as they are produced; for the plants continue to blossom in succession for several months. When gathered, they should be gradually dried, partly in the sun and partly in the shade, by being spread upon a mat or sheet; removed out of the sun in the heat of the day, and placed in it mornings and evenings.

Chamomile is propagated by dividing the roots in March or April, and planting them out in small patches, in an open situation, at six or nine inches apart, according to the size of the patches divided from the root. In some gardens they are planted as edgings to borders: in either way the plant is of the most easy culture.

20. CHERVIL.

Chervil, Charophyllum sativum, is an annual plant, a native of England, and is cultivated in gardens

for the young leaves, which are used as a small salad along with mustard and cress; and it is used also in soups, to which it imparts a warm and aromatic flavour. There are two sorts cultivated in our gardens:

1. Common.

2. Curled-leaved.

Both sorts require to be sown in drills, in the manner of other small salading, every three or four weeks during the summer season. The curled sort, however, had better be sown thinly broad-cast, as, when the leaves are fully grown, they make a very handsome garnish for dishes. To keep this sort very true, the most perfectly curled plants should be taken up carefully, and transplanted out into a bed to run up for seed. This latter variety is by no means common; but I have seen it in great plenty in the gardens at Hampton Court, when under the direction of the late Mr. Padley.

21. CHIVES.

Allium Schænoprasum, or common Chive, is a native of Britain, found in Oxfordshire, Berwickshire, and Argyleshire the root is perennial, composed of small slender bulbs, pale, forming dense tufts.

The leaves are used early in the spring for salads: they are generally cut off close to the surface, but sometimes the whole of the plant is made use of as a substitute for young onions.

It is cultivated by dividing the roots, which should be planted out in small patches, six or eight inches apart, in almost any soil or situation, where they rapidly increase, and soon make large bunches, which will last for three or four years.

22. CLARY.

Salvia Sclarea, or common Clary, is a biennial plant, a native of Italy, and introduced into England in 1562.

It has a very strong scent, and was formerly used in medicine. A wine is made from the herb or flower, boiled with sugar, which has a flavour not unlike Frontignan.

The seeds should be sown in the open part of the garden in March or April; and when the plants are three or four inches high, they should be thinned out, leaving them six or eight inches apart. From this time nothing further will be necessary than to keep the plants clear from weeds till the time of their flowering, in July or August in the following year, when they become fit for use.

23. CORIANDER.

Coriandrum sativum, or Coriander, is an annual plant, a native of England.

The leaves are strongly scented; the fruits, which are slightly aromatic, are used to conceal the taste of senna, and in spices as currie powder; and they are also covered with sugar as a sweetmeat.

The seeds require to be sown in March or April, in an open part of the garden, and will require nothing further to be done than to be kept clean from weeds : the fruits will be ripe in August or September.

24. CORN SALAD, OR LAMB'S LETTUCE. The common Corn Salad, Valerianella olitoria, is an annual plant, a native of England. It is used through the winter, and early in spring, partly as a substitute for small lettuces, and partly to increase the variety of small salad herbs. Till lately this species was the only one cultivated in our gardens. We have now, however, another species which has been introduced from France. It is superior to the common sort in the quality of its foliage, which is milder in flavour, and in coming earlier into use. The two sorts may be stated thus:

1. Common Corn Salad.

Valerianella Olitoria.
Mache of the French.

2. Italian Corn Salad.
Valerianella Eriocarpa.
Mache d'Italie.

The principal difference in appearance between the Italian and the Common sort is in the colour of the leaves of the former, and the greater length of the footstalks. Besides its use in a crude state in salads, the Italian species, when dressed in early spring as a spinach, is very good, and has been in much request for that purpose.

The seeds of both sorts may be sown in August for winter and spring use; they may either be sown broadcast, or in narrow shallow drills; and when the plants are an inch high, they should be thinned out to the distance of three or four inches from each other.

25. CRESS.

The sorts of Cress cultivated in England are the following

1. American Cress. Barbarea Præcox.

Belleisle Cress.

Winter Cress.

2. Common Cress.

3. Curled Cress.
4. Golden Cress.

Cresson Doré of the French.

The American, or Belleisle Cress, is a perennial plant, a native of England, and used in salads during the autumn and winter. It is best sown broad-cast, under the protection of a north wall, in April or May, and when the plants are two or three inches high thinned out to six inches apart it transplants readily, and therefore some of the young plants may be pricked out three or four inches apart, so as to be covered with a hand-glass in severe frost and snow, which will thus keep it perfectly sweet and tender: it is, nevertheless, a very hardy plant, and will stand through our most severe winters.