To-day we have had our first dish of preserved French Beans out of the salt pan, before described; and they are really delicious, just as if they had been freshly picked in August.

I suppose everybody knows that Jerusalem Artichokes are much better if left in the ground and only dug up as they are wanted, though before hard frost they must be dug up and housed. This vegetable is amongst the most useful ones we have in the winter, as it can be cooked in such a great number of ways. It is one of the things much improved by growing from fresh seed, and not planting the old tubers over and over again. The Artichokes can be made into soup, can be puree'd like Turnips, or fried in thin slices like Potato chips. 'Dainty Dishes 'has one receipt for cooking them. The only way in which they are not very good is the ordinary English way-plain boiled, with a floury butter sauce. The best way of all is au gratin, like the Maccaroni-cheese in' Dainty Dishes '; only they require more sauce. Everything au gratin is very much improved by using half Parmesan, half Gruyere, and a very small piece of shallot. I used to think this plant, from its name 'Jerusalem 'being derived from the Italian Girasole, with its curious English amplification into 'Palestine Soup,'was perhaps the only Sunflower (Helianthus) that had not come from America, and might have been brought here by the Crusaders; but all this is not the fact. It does come from America; and a curious confirmation of the same is that the French name is Topinambour, a corruption of Topinambout, a native tribe in the Brazils, whence the plant comes.