Page:Rural Hours.djvu/192

Rh vine, adlumia. This is the season for the climbing plants to flower; they are usually later than their neighbors. The Alleghany vine, with its pale pink clusters and very delicate foliage, is very common in some places, and so is the common clematis.

Observed, also, several vines of the glycine, Apios tuberosa, though its handsome purple flowers have not yet appeared. This plant has been recently carried to Europe by a French gentleman, sent out to this country by his government for scientific purposes. He supposes that it may be introduced as a common article of food, to take, in some measure, the place of the potato. The root has a pleasant taste, and is said to be much eaten by some tribes of Indians. A kind of one-seeded pea, growing in the western part of the county, Psoralea, was also carried to France, with the view of turning it to account in the same way. This last is not found in our neighborhood; but the glycine, or ground-nut, is not uncommon in our thickets. Whether the plan of making these a part of the common food of France will succeed or not, time alone can decide. It usually takes more than one generation to make a change in national diet. Potatoes were several centuries coming into favor on the Continent of Europe; and during the last scarcity in Great Britain, the Scotch and English did not take very kindly to the Indian corn, although it is certainly one of the sweetest grains in the world. After a change of this kind has once been made, however, and people have become accustomed to the novelty, whatever it may be, there is generally a sort of reaction in its favor, until presently no one can do without it. This has been strikingly the case with potatoes, in the way of food, and with tea and coffee in the way of drinks.

Wednesday, 11th.—Very warm. Thermometer 89 in the