at its
broadest diameter.

_Use._--The flesh is remarkably white, and very mucilaginous in its
crude state. The roots are eaten either boiled or roasted, and require
rather more than half the time for cooking that is usually given to the
boiling or roasting of the common potato. When cooked, they possess a
rice-like taste and consistency, are quite farinaceous, and
unquestionably nutritive and valuable for food.

* * * * *

CHUFA, OR EARTH ALMOND.

EDIBLE CYPERUS. NUT RUSH.

Cyperus esculentus.

A perennial plant, from the south of Europe. The roots are long and
fibrous, and produce at their extremities numerous small, rounded or
oblong, jointed, pale-brown tubers, of the size of a filbert. The flesh
of these roots, or tubers, is of a yellowish color, tender, and of a
pleasant, sweet, and nut-like flavor. The leaves are rush-like, about
eighteen inches high, a little rough, and sharply pointed. The
flower-stalks are nearly of the same height as the leaves,
three-cornered, hard, and leafless, with the exception of five or six
leaflike bracts at the top, from the midst of which are produced the
spikelets of flowers, which are of a pale-yellow color.

_Propagation and Culture._--It is propagated by planting the tubers in
April or May, two inches deep, in drills two feet apart, and six inches
apart in the drills. They will be ready for harvesting in October. In
warm climates, the plant, when once introduced into the garden, spreads
with great rapidity, and is exterminated with much difficulty. In the
Northern and Middle States, the tubers remaining in the open ground are
almost invariably destroyed by the winter.

_Use._--It is cultivated for its small, almond-like tubers, which, when
dried, have somewhat the taste of the almond, and keep a long period.
They are eaten either raw or roasted.

"The plant grows spontaneously in the light, humid soils of Spain; and
is cultivated in Germany and the south of France. The tubers are chiefly
employed for making an orgeat,--a species of drink much used in Spain,
Cuba, and other hot climates where it is known. When mashed to a
flour,--which is white, sweet, and very agreeable to the taste,--it
imparts to water the color and richness of milk."--_Hort._

* * * * *

GERMAN RAMPION.

TREE PRIMROSE. EVENING PRIMROSE.

OEnothera biennis.

The German Rampion, or Evening Primrose, common in this country to