APPLE.PEAR.

ly ripe, they are not unwholesome. In diseases of the breast, says Dr. Willic, such as catarrhs, coughs, consumptions, &c. they are of considerable service; for these beneficial purposes, however, they ought not to be eaten raw, but either roasted, stewed, or boiled. With regard to their sensible properties, apples have been divided into spicy, acidulated, and watery. The first contain the least proportion of water, are of a most delicate flavor, and on account of their vinous qualities, are not apt to excite flatulence. Pippins, on the contrary, though affording · more nutriment, are more fibrous, and consequently more difficult to digest. These belong to the second class. Lastly, those sweet and tender apples, which are very sweet and palatable, are the least fit to be eaten in a raw state, unless with the addition of bread or biscuit.

To preserve apples well is obviously a great desideratum. Fessenden, from an English journal, recommends the use of dry pit sand. Glazed earthen jars are to be provided, and the sand to be thoroughly dried. A layer of sand an inch thick is then placed in the bottom of the jar; above this, a layer of fruit, to be covered with a layer of sand an inch thick, then lay a second stratum of fruit, covering again with an inch of sand. An inch and a half of sand may be placed over the uppermost row of fruit. The jar is now to be closed, and placed in a dry situation, as cool as possible, but entirely free from frost.

On the preservation of apples, the following excellent observations are from the pen of Noah Webster, Esq. "It is the practice of some persons to pick apples in October, and first spread them on the floor of an upper room. This practice is said to render apples more durable, by drying them. But I can affirm this to be a mistake. Apples, after remaining on the trees as long as safety from the frost will admit, should be taken directly from the trees to close casks, and kept dry and cool as possible. If suffered to lie on a floor for weeks, they wither and lose their flavor, without acquiring any additional durability. The best mode of preserving apples for spring use, I have found to be, to put them in dry sand, as soon as picked. For this purpose, I dry sand in the heat of summer, and late in October put down the apples in layers, with a covering of sand upon each layer. The singular advantages of this mode of treatment, are, 1st. The sand keeps the apples from the air, which is essential to their preservation, and, 2d. the sand checks the evaporation or perspiration of the apples, thus preserving them in their full flavor; at the same time, any moisture yielded by the apples (and some there will be) is absorbed by the sand; so that the apples are kept dry and all mustiness prevented. My pippins, in May and June are as fresh, as when first picked; even the ends of the stems look as if just separated from the twig."

PEAR. The pear tree is found in a wild state in Europe, as far north as lat. 51°. According to the editors of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, it is probable that the Romans introduced the cultivated pear into England. From the latter country, as well as from France, many fine varieties have been transferred to America. Some sorts are indigenous to the country.

In a wild state, the fruit of the pear tree has an austere and unpleas ant taste; but, when cultivated, it is highly grateful. The relative salubrity of pears, however, depends much on the state of ripeness or

PLUM. PEACH.

immaturity, in which they are used, as well as on their different properties. Unripe pears should not be eaten, and those which are liard, astringent, and difficult of digestion should also be rejected. As a general rule, the more juicy ones are more alimentary, and less objectionable, from the circumstance that they abound more in saccharine matter, which does not so much oppress the stomach. All the varieties, however, are more flatulent than apples, plumbs, or the generality of fruit. When on the eve of decay, they are especially obnoxious, and likely to produce cholera. Winter pears are, in general, unhealthy; and the more so, as they are commonly eaten at a period of the year, when the stomach requires stimulating, rather than cooling nourishment. Pears, when managed in a similar manner with apples for ma king cider, afford a pleasant liquor known by the name of perry.

PLUM. The tree which bears this fruit is found growing wild in Great-Britain, and other parts of Europe; but it is supposed to be a native of Asia. It is also indigenous in North America.

There are nearly three hundred varieties of plums. The origin of one kind, the Washington, which in richness of flavor, beauty, and other good qualities, is, perhaps, not surpassed by any, is too curious to be omitted. The parent tree was purchased in the market of NewYork, some time in the end of the last century. It remained barren several years, till during a violent thunder-storm the whole trunk was struck to the earth and destroyed. The root afterwards threw out a number of vigorous shoots, all of which were allowed to remain, and finally produced fruit. It is therefore to be presumed that the stock of the barren kind is the parent of this. Trees of this kind were sent to several gentlemen in England, a few years ago, by Dr. Hosack, of New York. The fruit appears to be as highly esteemed in England, as in this country.

Besides their utility as a culinary fruit, plums possess valuable medicinal properties. In a dried state they are called prunes, and are eminently useful in cases of costiveness, accompanied by irritation, that would be aggravated by powerful laxatives; but they ought not to be eaten after long fasting or for supper, unless mixed with other aliment, as they are apt to produce flatulency. With this exception, they suit almost every constitution, and produce both cooling and aperient effects; but when prunes do not operate, their power may be increased by combining them with a small portion of rhubarb or cream of tartar.

If plums be eaten in a fresh state, or before they are perfectly ripe, and in immoderate quantities, they induce colics, looseness, and similar affections in the stomach and intestines. The larger kinds, especially, ought to be used seldom, and with great precaution, being more dangerous than the smaller plums; because the former are rarely permitted to attain their maturity.

'PEACH. The peach tree is said to be a native of Persia in Asia, whence it was brought by the Romans into Italy, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. It was first cultivated in England, about the middle of the sixteenth century.

The alimentary properties of the peach are considerable. The better kinds are not only harmless, but often positively beneficial; especially in cases of weakness and derangement of the stomach. In dys

NECTARINE.-APRICOT.-CHERRY.

QUINCE.

enteric complaints, ripe peaches are innoxious, and even salutary. They are also useful for children, at the period of teething. Peaches which ripen late have fewer good properties than those which are more early; and, in general, the free-stone peach is better flavored, than the cling, though to this there are exceptions.

Peaches are often dried, in which state they will keep for a long time, and are exceedingly fine when stewed. In this state they are also sometimes used for pies.

NECTARINE. This, by some writers, is considered as the same fruit with the peach. It has, however, a smoother skin and firmer pulp. It is when of a good sort, and properly cultivated, thought to be superior to it. Few vegetable productions are more grateful to the palate even of the epicure.

APRICOT. The native country of the apricot appears to be Asia, where it is widely diffused. Some writers, however, think it a native of Africa, whence, they say, it was carried towards the north. The tree was first brought to England in 1524, by Woolf, the gardener to Henry VIII.

From the vinous and saccharine nature of this fruit, we may readily conclude that it is possessed of antiseptic, cooling, and nutritive properties; yet, unless fully ripe, it is apt to ferment and turn acid, in weak stomachs, especially those of persons who are subject to flatulency and eructations: hence apricots ought to be eaten in moderation, with the addition of a little bread, and rather before than after meals. In short, they are more useful to billious and plethoric, than to phlegmatic and hysterical individuals, or those troubled with hypochondrical complaints.

CHERRY. The cherry tree is said to have been originally found in Persia, whence it was introduced into Italy, as well as other parts of Europe, and is supposed to have been brought from Flanders into England, in the reign of Henry VIII. There are several varieties in the United States, which are thought to be natives of the country. The common red cherry, which, until within a few years, was almost the only sort cultivated among us, is quite indifferent; and, when eaten immoderately, is apt to produce colic, and other kindred diseases. The better sorts afford a refreshing summer fruit, highly grateful at the dessert, and excellent for pies, tarts, &c. A fine wine is made from the juice, and a spirit may be distilled from the fermented pulp. The gum which exudes from the tree, is equal to Gum Arabic; and Hasselquist relates, that more than two hundred men, during a siege, were kept alive for nearly two months, without any other sustenance than a little of the gum, taken sometimes into the mouth, and suffered gradually to dissolve.

QUINCE. The quince was introduced into Europe, according to Pliny, from the island of Crete. From the largeness of this fruit, and its splendid color, it is thought not improbable that it was the same with the apples of the Hesperides.

In the south of France, particularly on the borders of the Garonne, the quince is very extensively grown; and the peasants prepare from it a marmalade, which they call cotignac. The term marmalade is deriv

DRINKS.-WATER.

ed from the Portuguese name for the quince, marmelo. Gerard says, that in his time, quince trees were planted in the hedges of gardens and vineyards; and marmalade two centuries ago, seems to have been in general use, principally from a belief that it possesses valuable medicinal properties. The seeds of the quince are still used in medicine, on account of the great quantity of mucilage, which they yield to boiling water. The fruit is sometimes boiled and eaten with sugar, in which form it may be usefully employed in cases of dysentery. Five gallons of the juice of quinces, mixed with twenty-five pounds of sugar, and fermented, affords a delicious wine. Quinces are excellent in apple pies, in the proportion of one fourth quince to three fourths apple, with some thin slices of candied lemon-peal or citron.

SECTION III.

DRINKS.

Concerning drinks it may be observed, in general, that they are necessary to dilute and to assist the digestion and assimilation of the food, to preserve the fluidity of the chyle and of the blood; and, on many occasions, directly to replace the large quantity of watery fluid, dissipated by the cutaneous, pulmonary, and urinary secretions. Accordingly, if the stomach be oppressed by the solidity or acrimony of the food; if the circulating mass require dilution; or if there have been any extraordinary dissipation of the fluids by the different excretories, we are advertised of the necessity of taking drink by the appetite of thirst.

WATER. Water was formerly supposed to be a simple body, and was called one of the elements. But the researches of modern chemistry have proved beyond a doubt, that it consists of hydrogen and oxygen. When two volumes of hydrogen gas are mixed with one volume of oxygen, and the mixture inflamed in a proper apparatus, by the electric spark, the gases totally disappear, and the interior of the vessel is covered with drops of pure water, equal in weight to that of the gases consumed.

Pure water is transparent, and without either color, taste, or smell. At the temperature of 40° it is at its greatest density. A cubic foot of water weighs, except a trifling fraction, 1000 ounces; a cubic inch 252. 953 grains. A pint of pure water, wine measure, weighs, or is assumed to weigh, sixteen ounces avoirdupois.

At the temperature of 32° water becomes ice; the specific gravity of ice is 0,94; ice, of course, floats on water. Water exposed to heat in open vessels, boils at 212°. But water boils at different temperatures, depending upon the pressure of the atmosphere. At the top of Mont Blanc it boiled, according to Saussure, at 1870.

Water is the natural drink of man; and, indeed, of all animals. It is, also, the most universally used; and though others are taken by a

WATER.WINE.

great proportion of mankind, it forms the basis of all of them, considered merely as drinks. It is not only the safest, and best drink, but however it may be disguised, water is perhaps the only fluid, which can answer all the purposes for which drink is required.

WINE is an agreeable, spirituous, aromatic liquor, prepared by fermenting the juices of those vegetables, which contain saccharine mat

ter.

The kinds of wine are extremely various. The difference which exists between them is not, however, so much owing to a distinction in the species of grapes, as in the quality of fruit, produced by the varieties of soil, cultivation, and climate, to which they are subject. This likewise depends, in some instances, on the peculiar mode of fermentation, and the state of the grapes, from which the wine is produced.

Of all the kinds of wines that are consumed in England, none, it is said, are so much in request as red port. This has its name from the city of Oporto, in the neighborhood of which, the vines, producing it, are chiefly cultivated.

The difference in color betwixt red and white wines, does not so much depend upon the quality of the grapes, as upon the mode in which the wines are prepared. The juice of red grapes, if carefully pressed, and fermented separately from the skins, forms a white wine. If the skins be pressed so as to discharge the coloring matter, or if they be allowed to remain in the juice, during the fermentation, the wine assumes a red tinge.

White port, and Lisbon, are two kinds of white wine, which we receive from Portugal. The latter of which is now chiefly used.

French wines. Many excellent wines are produced in France. That which is usually considered the best, is Burgundy, a red wine of very delicate flavor, which derives its name from the province, where it is made. The wines from the neighborhood of Orleans, however, after having been matured by age, are much like Burgundy. Claret is the only French red wine, for which there is any great demand in England. It is thin and highly flavored, and is chiefly supplied from the neighborhood of Bordeaux. Some of the red wines of Champaigne are highly prized for their excellence and delicacy, though they occasion. ally, have a pungent and sourish taste.

No French white wine has so much celebrity as Champaigne. This is of two kinds: one of which called still, or quiet Champaigne, has gone through the whole process of fermentation; the other, which has the name of sparkling Champaigne, has been bottled before the fermentation was complete; this consequently works slowly in the bottle, and causes the wine, on the drawing of the cork, to sparkle in the glass. Frontignac and Muscadel, are white wines, the delicious productions of Languedoc.

It would not consist with our limits even to name the varieties of wine, which are produced in France. Almost every province has a wine peculiar to itself. The value of the wine crop is estimated at about thirty millions sterling. The department of the Gironde alone, produces wine to the value of two millions sterling.

Spanish wine. In the environs of Xeres, in Spain, is produced the