Chives.—­This is the most delicate of all the onion family; it occupies the one end of the scale, while garlic presides at the other; and midway between these we find the spring onion, the shallot, and the onion itself.  It is a delightful salad herb which is too much neglected, and it is worthily entitled to cultivation in Australia.  It gives to the salad a piquancy and an agreeable pungent flavour, which, while it faintly recalls that of the onion, is yet free from the accentuated properties of the latter.  In addition to lending such an enhancement to salads, chives may be used for soups.  The plant itself is a hardy bulb, growing to a height of about eight inches, and it is the tender tops which are used for saladings.  It can be easily propagated, and will grow readily in all the cooler districts.

Tarragon.—­This used popularly to be known in the old country as “herb dragon,” whereas it is now vested with the newer title.  It is frequently to be found there is the country gardens, where it is in repute for the preparation of tarragon vinegar.  It, however, occupies a position second to none as a salad accessory.  It is one of the most odoriferous of the pot herbs, and gives to a salad a delightful aromatic warmth.  At present all that one can do in the concoction of a salad is to make use of the tarragon vinegar, which is so admirably put up by Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell.  Those who are fortunate enough to possess the plant itself should keep the leaves, as when dried they retain their flavour for some time.  It is recommended, however, that the young plants should be propagated each year by division of the roots, as the plants of the first and second years are more delicate than those of older growth.  It can easily be grown over the greater part of Australia, but I am not going to say more than that we are needlessly bereft of what we might enjoy.

In drawing attention to any matter connected with the subject of this chapter, a brief reference to mayonnaise sauce must necessarily find a place.  This may be used with all endless variety of salads, but it is particularly concerned in the preparation of chicken, and also of crayfish salad.  On looking through the cookery-books one gets perfectly bewildered with the different directions laid down by the various authors.  This mayonnaise sauce, however, is so very important that it becomes an absolute necessity to know the successive steps in its preparation, for, though easily made, yet there is a right and a wrong way of going about it.  Through the kindly offices of that accomplished aristologist, Dr. A. Burne, I was enabled to have some practical instruction in making mayonnaise sauce at the hands of the chef of the Cosmopolitan Club, and I will endeavour, therefore, to give an account of how he went to work.