A New Vegetable.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 4952, 20 April 1891, Page 1

A New Vegetable.

The late .Shirley Hibberd editor of the well-known Gardeners' Magazine, ono of the most skilled and enthusiastic horticulturists of his day, introduced to public notice a year or two ago, a new vegetable to which he gave the name of "spirals" —the shape of the tubers being very like tlia'j of an elongated whelk. It will therefore be of some interest to gardeners, professional and amateur, to learn that a resident of this district received the other daj% from Baron von Meuller, Government botanist for Victoria, several roots of the new plant. In an accompanying letter he says By the latest mail I received tubers of Tuberifera, which are already sprouting. As this important kitchen vegetable thrives only in a cold clime, and as you may not yet have secured it, I send you some of the roots. The tubers are most tasty in frosty weather." On reference to the latest edition of the Baron s '' Boole of Select Extra-Tropical Plants, ' we find the stachys thus more definitely described : " Indigenous in China and Japan. The tubers of this herb are small, but pro duced in good numbers. Illustrated ill the Gardeners' Chronicle of JanuaTy, 1888. Mr P. Middleton recommends the tubers as an admixture to salad, and as a companion to radish. The roots bearing frost well can be relied on for fresh vegetable even in an English midwinter. The yield of tubers is comparatively large, and can in porous soil remain unattended to for years. Prof. Naudin remarks tliafc tho 'plant accommodates itself to all sorts of soil. Introduced by M. Railleux."