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Now en revanche for the ugly cabbage, we will turn to the delicate ASPARAGUS, with its pretty Greek name (arragayes, a young shoot not yet opened into leaf). Is there not much beauty in a bed of asparagus run to seed? The tall, slender, feathery, green sprays, with their shining bead-like berries, have an air of great elegance, especially when begemmed by the morning dew. Asparagus was first cultivated in England about 1662. Some species of the wild Asparagus are still found in Wales,

in the Isle of Portland, and near Bristol. Tavernier mentions having found some enormous asparagus on the banks of the Euphrates; and Pliny mentions asparagus cultivated at Ravenna, three of which would weigh a pound.

Asparagus is an especial favourite with our Gallic neighbours. Of the French philosopher, Fontenelle, an anecdote is related, which shows how completely his gourmandise could conquer all natural emotions of the mind!

One day a brother literati, with whom he had lived in habits of friendship for many years, came to dine with him. The principal part of the meal was to consist of asparagus, of which both host and guest were extremely fond, but they differed in their tastes as to the mode of dressing it; the latter preferred it with butter, the former with oil. After some discussion, they came to a compromise; the cook was ordered to make two equal divisions, and to dress one share with oil, and the other with butter. This knotty point being settled, the friends entered into some literary conversation. In the height of their discourse, the guest fell from his chair, suddenly struck with apoplexy. Fontenelle hastily summoned all necessary assistance, but in vain; for despite of every exertion to restore him, the invalid expired. What were the reflections of our French philosopher on this abrupt and melancholy termination of long-standing friendship? Awe? Sorrow? Religious aspira tions? No! but a happy recollection that now his own taste could be fully gratified, without the necessity of any deference to that of another. He left the corpse, and running to the head of the stairs, called out to his cook"Dress it all with oil-all with oil!" ("Tout à l'huile-tout à l'huile !" It is not surprising that a man so exempt from the wear and tear of human emotions as Fontenelle, lived to be upwards of ninety-nine years of age. He was for forty years Secretary to the Academy of Sciences, and died in 1756.

Wild asparagus was held in reverence by the Ioxides, a colony in Caria, in remembrance of their ancestress, Perigone. She was the daughter of Sinnis, a robber of gigantic stature, dwelling in the Peloponnesus, who was surnamed the Pine-bender, from the species of cruelty he prac

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tised on all whom he defeated. used to bend down two pine trees till they met; then he tied a leg and an arm of the captive to each tree, and suddenly letting the pines fly back to their natural position, the unfortunate victim was torn asunder. This monster was conquered by Theseus, and put to death in his own manner. On his defeat, his young daughter, Perigone, fled away, and hid herself amid a brake of wild asparagus, praying the plants, in childish simplicity, to conceal her, and promising never to root them up, or burn them. She lay among them so well sheltered that she escaped discovery by Theseus, till she was induced by the conciliatory tone in which he called upon her in his researches, to come forward to him. He subsequently married her; and their grandson, loxus, founded in Caria a colony who kept in memory the pledge of Perigone to the plants that had given her refuge.

The wild asparagus being full of prickles, yet agreeable and wholesome to eat, its sprays were used by the Baotians as wedding garlands, to signify to the bride, that as she had given her lover trouble in wooing her, so she ought to recompense him by the pleasantness of her manners in wedded life. We will accompany this reminiscence with the address of a dying poet to his beloved wife, which we translate from the Italian :

THE DYING POET TO HIS WIFE.
FROM THE ITALIAN OF REDAELLI.
(Odi d'un uom che more, &c.)
Hear my last accents spoken,
Thus in my dying hour;
And keep, as mem'ry's token,
My gift, this wither'd flower.

How dear to me this blossom
Thy thought can scarce divine;
I stole it from thy bosom

The day that made thee mine.

Long on my heart I wore it,

Pledge of affection's row; Ah! to thy heart restore it,

The pledge of sorrow now!

With love by time unshaken,

Remember when from thee This wither'd flower was taken,

And when restor'd by me.

TURNIPS are taken as an emblem of benevolence. Guillim says, that in

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heraldry they are symbolic of persons who relieve the wants of others. lumella writes that husbandmen are more religious than other men, for when they sow turnips they pray that they may grow for themselves and for others; the latter part of the petition is unnecessary in these days, when turnip fields seem to be considered common property, and are more unconscionably plundered than any other. Turnips came to us from Hanover. Though they have been produced in England of prodigious size, these are quite surpassed by monsters of which Pliny speaks (Lib. xviii. c. 13), that attained the weight of ninety pounds each. A turnip-field in blossom, with its tall branches of pale yellow flowers, forms a pleasing variety in the rural landscape.

This vegetable reminds us of the content and integrity of Curius Dentatus, who, after being three times consul in Rome, subduing the Samnites and Sabines, and expelling Pyrrhus from the Roman territories, retired to cultivate his little farm with his own hands, in cheerful poverty. Ambassadors from the Samnites came to offer him a large present of gold, to induce him to enter into the service of that nation. They found him sitting by the fire, in his humble cottage, preparing turnips for his supper. He rejected all their offers with firmness, and pointing to the turnips, said, “A man who can be satisfied with such a meal, has no need of gold. I consider it much more honourabe to subdue the owners of it, than to possess it myself."

The CARROT came to us at an early period from Flanders. The roots of caraway boiled, were often used as a substitute. When the carrot was more rare than at present, it was at one time a fashion among ladies to wear its graceful foliage in their caps and bonnets, and in their hair. The wild carrot (whose seeds enjoy some reputation as medicinal) is called by the English peasant, bird's-nest, from the hollowed and fibrous appearance of its cymes of small white flowers, when withered.

BEANS, that rank with us among the "ungenteel" vegetables, had a high share of honour in ancient times; indeed, Pliny (Lib. xviii. c. 12) ascribes to them the highest honour (maximus honos) amongst legumes, because bread

can be made from their flour. Boiled beans and bacon, an aliment thought by the Romans to conduce to strength, were offered on 1st of June to Carna, wife of Janus, the goddess of the vitals, in her temple on Mount Cœlius, at Rome. In the ludi seculares, or secular games, celebrated every hundred and tenth year, the Roman people carried to the Temple of Diana, on Mount Aventine, offerings of beans, with wheat and barley. In the Regifugium, or commemoration of the expulsion of Tarquin, the Roman chief-sacrificer offered oblations of bean-flower and bacon; and then the people hurried precipitately away, in order to denote the hasty flight of Tarquin.

In the divination by the casting of lots, called by the Greeks cleromancy, black and white beans were put into an urn to be drawn as the lots: hence the black and white balls used by moderns in balloting. Beans were used by the Greeks in the election of civic magistrates; and in the Roman saturnalia, that time of license and holiday, a king was chosen by the drawing of a bean by lot, from which is derived the custom of putting a bean into the twelfth cake, which constitutes him who finds it in his slice, king of the revels.

The celebrated Roman family of the Fabii-several of whom bore the surname of Maximus, and among them the great General called "the Shield of Rome," derived their name from an ancestor renowned for his successful cultivation of beans (in Latin, fabae). When Caius Marius was obliged to fly from Rome to Africa, and was about to sail from Ostia, he sent his young son to his father Mutius to obtain provisions. While at his grandfather's farm, a party of horse, who were in pursuit of young Marius, came in sight. The servant of Mutius had the presence of mind to conceal the lad under a load of beans in a cart, and to drive away slowly, as if taking his load home, by which means he saved the fugitive's life.

Pythagoras forbade his disciples the use of beans, for which prohibition various reasons have been given. Some suppose that it was to signify that they should not accept of official situations; the election to which was expressed by giving a bean. Others say, that it was in honour of the sacred lotus of Egypt (in which country the

philosopher learned his doctrines), and when he returned home he substituted for the lotus, which did not grow in Greece, the bean, as bearing some resemblance to the seed of the lotus. Another conjecture is, that Pythagoras believed the souls of the dead to be contained in beans, whose fragrant, papillionaceous white flowers were held to be funereal, on account of the black marks upon them; no other flower having spots so perfectly black. For this reason beans were thrown upon graves to propitiate the manes of the dead. From this association of beans with death, the Roman Flamen Dialis was forbidden to touch them, or even to pronounce their name, by which he would be reputed defiled. Beans, in the middle ages, were given as funeral doles, and on Mid-Lent Sunday were consecrated and given away. One species of bean, the scarlet-runner (phaseolus coccineus), has the merit of producing the most beautiful flower, by many degrees, in the kitchen-garden; its exquisitely brilliant scarlet hue, and elegant papillionaceous blossom would be esteemed an ornament to the flowergarden also, were it not for the fastidiousness of fashion.

As the bean, of which we have before spoken (vicia fuba), was deemed funereal, we will appropriate to it a suitable strain :

IN MEMORIAM. M. E. M.

And thou art gone! The envious grave
Hath hid thee from my weeping eyes;
Thy heart so warm, so true, so brave,

There silent, cold, and mouldering lies; Thy voice (sweet music once it made)

Is hush'd, no more to charm mine ear; Quenched is thy glance that brightly play'd; All's lost, so beautiful, so dear.

Oh! what a pang of loneliness

Comes o'er me when I murmur, "lost!" Gone from me in my heart's distress,

When love like thine was needed most. My cup, the draught of grief doth brim, The dreams of Hope no longer please; The very light of life is dim,

And tuneless are its melodies.

Yet not within thy narrow tomb

My throbbing heart may buried be,
Mourning within that rayless gloom
Beside thy frail mortality.
There vainly were my sorrows told,

No answering voice to sooth my care;
Thy dust alone the tomb doth hold,
Thy living spirit is not there.

Above the grave my heart shall rise,
To seek thee in that blessed sphere
Where the glad spirit never dies,

Where all unknown are sigh and tear.
Oh, loved one, now in realms of bliss,

What treasure hast thou been to me! 'Tis meet that where the treasure is, E'en there the heart shall also be.

The butterfly blossoms of the PEA crowned the Roman Lares, and mingled in the bouquet of the goddess Flora. Piso, the cognomen of the Calpurnian family, celebrated in Roman history, is derived from pisum a pea. Of this family were the Consuls Lucius Piso and C. Calpurnius Piso, who made the famous Calpurnian laws; the former, the law against persons in authority extorting money by threats; the latter, the law against the political intrigues of magis. trates, and the military Calpurnian law. Of the same race also was Piso, bled to death by order of Nero, for having conspired against him. A pea is put in the twelfth cake to designate the Queen, in contradistinction to the beau, the lot of the King, the reason for which we have before mentioned.

The wild sea-side pea (pisum maritimum) is found in several parts of Europe. During a dreadful dearth of provisions in 1555, this pea appeared in profusion on the Suffolk coast, between Oxford and Aldborough; and its produce saved many poor families from dying of hunger: their necessities must have been very great, as the seed of this pea is so bitter, that even birds neglect it. This vegetable has a creeping perennial root, striking deeply into the sand; its seed is smaller than that of the esculent pea.

There was a curious old superstition that woman should not be allowed to touch CUCUMBERS, when growing, as the yellow bell-like flowers of these tender vegetables would wither if handled by females; and that if a woman walked three times (with her hair dishevelled) round cucumber-beds infested by caterpillars, the latter would all die! Ancient herbalists recommended the pulp of the cucumber beaten with milk, for inflammations of the eyes.

Tartary is thought to be the native country of the cucumber, but it is said that no modern travellers have met

with it anywhere indigenous. It was early known in England; then lost during the Yorkist and Lancastrian wars; but restored in the reign of Henry VIII. The cool and juicy cucumber of Egypt stands first among the vegetables the want of which was so bitterly lamented by the Israelites in the barren wilderness.

In an old historical legend of Spain, a cucumber plays an unfortunate part as the occasion of violent passions, base treachery, and a deplorable loss of human life. In the tenth century, Don Gonzalo Gustos,* Lord of Salas † and Lara, was married to Donna Sancha, sister of Don Ruy (or Rodrigo) Velasquez, himself related to the house of Lara; and by Donna Sancha Gustos had seven sons, known in Spanish history as the Infants of Lara; for in early times the title "Infant" was not restricted to Spanish royalty. These were brave, handsome, and accomplished cavaliers; and all received knighthood on the same day from their father's kinsman, Don Garcia Fernandes. Their maternal uncle, Rodrigo Velasquez, who was nephew to Garcia Fernandez, married Donna Lambra de Burueca, heiress of Barbadilla. The wedding was solemnised at Burgos with great festivity; crowds of guests were invited to it, and among them the seven Infants of Lara, with their governor and preceptor, Don Nuno Salido.

On the arrival of the young knights, their mother, Donna Sancha (who had preceded them), requested them to remain quietly in the house, and not go out to the grand square where the cavaliers were engaged hurling canes at a mark (a game learned from the Moors), as she feared that among the great multitudes assembled some disorders would arise. Her sons obeyed her wishes, but their governor went out to the plaza to see the sports. Many cavaliers threw at the mark, but in vain; till a knight of Cordova, named Alver Sanchez, a cousin-germain of Donna Lambra, struck it successfully. Donna Lambra, a haughty and violent woman, exclaimed exultingly to the ladies around her, "Senoras, all of you, choose your lovers at

* Sometimes written Bustos.

+ Salas is a town in Old Castile, on a rising ground, seven leagues from the city of Burgos. Lara, also in Old Castile (four leagues from Burgos), a town with a strong castle.

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home; one knight of Cordova is worth thirty of the house of Lara.' Donna Sancha, who was sitting near the bride, replied to her, "Do not say that, since you have married Don Rodrigo of the house of Lara." Donna Lambra answered insolently, "Hold your tongue, Donna Sancha, you merit no attention; you, who have borne seven sons like a sow." At these words Don Nuno Salido quitted the square, much troubled in mind, and returned to the house. Six of the Infants of Lara were playing at chess and backgammon, but the youngest, named Gonzalo Gonzales, was sitting alone in a veranda, and he seeing the vexation on his governor's countenance, plied him with questions till Nuno told him the occurrence, requesting him, however, to take no notice of it, at least at that time.

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But the young man's indignation was not to be restrained. He mounted his horse, rode to the plaza, and perceiving a mark at which several persons were throwing without effect, flung his cane, struck it, and then exclaimed to the ladies around the bride, as a parody on the words of Donna Lambra, "Let all of you. (using a very coarse word) "choose you lovers at home; for one knight of the house of Lara is worth forty, yea fifty of the knights of Cordova." Donna Lambra, full of rage and confusion, immediately returned home; and finding the bridegroom, uttered many falsehoods to him, complaining that all the Infants of Lara had insulted her grossly, and threatened to tear her clothes; to put their hawks into her dove-cot, to beat her female attendants, and to kill the males in her presence; and she vowed that unless her husband avenged her she would turn Mahommedan, and go to live among the Moors. Don Ruy Velasquez, giving his bride too easy credence, without seeking an explanation from his nephews of Lara, promised her an ample vengeance.

In order to effect this, both husband and wife agreed to dissemble their feelings towards the Infants, whom they invited to accompany them on a visit to Barbadilla, the residence of Donna Lambra. One evening, after having spent the morning hawking on the

banks of the river Arlanza,* Donna Lambra and the seven brothers repaired to the garden to enjoy its shade; and Gonzalo Gonzalez, whom Lambra especially hated, was amusing himself at a fountain, bathing his falcon. The lady of Barbadilla privately gave orders to one of her servants to take a large cucumber, to steep it well in blood, and then to strike it in the face of the young Gonzalo. The choice of a cucumber, as the instrument of outrage, was particularly galling to a Spaniard it being considered peculiarly an Oriental vegetable, and a favourite with the Moors-steeping it i blood, to mark the face of Gonzalo, was an emblematic insinuation that he had Morisco blood in his veins, the greatest insult that could be offered to a proud Castilian, besides being a covert reflection on the honour of his mother. The cucumber, as symbolic of an Oriental origin, is used typically in a contemptuous sense in Spanish proverbs, e.g.-"Let him who reared the cucumber, carry it upon his back;"t that is, "Let him who rears a spoiled child, put up with its ill-condition." And, again, "I hated the cucumber, and it grew upon my back ;"‡ said when anything that a man most dreads or dislikes, befalls him.

Donna Lambra's servant obeyed the order of his mistress, who promised to protect him from its consequences; and having steeped a cucumber in blood, he came up suddenly, and struck the young Gonzalo in such a manner as to leave his face all smeared with gore. The seven Infants, all boiling with rage at this gross affront from a menial, drew their swords and pursued the man, who fled to the side of his lady, and caught hold of her robe for protection. The brothers demanded redress from Donna Lambra, but she bade them defiance; and they, carried away by their increased indignation, killed the domestic at her feet; and taking their mother, left Barbadilla, and returned home. Donna Lambra hastened to her husband, incensed him by a falsified narrative, in which she concealed the insult offered to Gonzalo; and represented the murder of her servant, while clinging to her robe,

In old Castile.

"Quien hizo el cohombro que se le trayga al hombro." "Aborreci el cohombro y nacio me en el hombro."

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