178 Bulletin 67. 



been in the country some years and have been regularly sold by 

 reputable seedsmen both of Europe and America. The second 

 group would include those which are brought in by the Chinese 

 gardeners about some of the great cities, and which are almost 

 unknown to the American planter or catalogue reader. I have 

 taken some pains to secure these plants of the celestial gardeners, 

 and my experiences have been often better suited to narrative than 

 to instruction. The Chinese gardener, upon his scrupulously 

 tilled bit of land, is suspicious of an intruder and he hesitates 

 to part with his seeds for fear of disastrous competition ; but we 

 have, first and last, I think, been able to secure and grow nearly 

 ever}^ vegetable which is grown by the Chinese about New York and 

 Boston. And there are few of them which are worth transferring 

 to our gardens. 



But with the Chinese names and descriptions, things have not 

 gone so smoothly. The Chinese language abounds in dialects 

 and the gardeners whom I have visited either could not or would 

 not write the Chinese characters ; or, if they had, matters would 

 not have been simplified. I finally received great aid from Mr. 

 Wah Hang, of Boston, upon whom I am glad to place the respon- 

 sibility of most of the Chinese characters in the following pages. 

 I have also had the advantage of valuable suggestions from Mr. 

 L. Wing, of the Chinese Consulate in New York City. 



I. Cabbages and Mustards. 



Pe-Tsai. {Brassica Pe-Tsai.^ 



The Pe-Tsai, or Chinese cabbage, is no longer a novelty in 

 American gardens, although it does not appear to be well known 

 and its merits are not understood. Its cultivation and peculiarities 

 were described in France so long ago as 1840 by Pepin, who says 

 that, while the plant had been known in botanic gardens for 

 twenty years, it was brought to notice as a culinary vegetable only 

 three years before he wrote. It appears to have attracted little 

 attention in Europe until very recent years, however, and it is 

 still included in the second edition of Paillieux & Bois' " Kitchen 

 Garden of a Virtuoso,"* 1892. It began to attract attention in 

 the United States probably about ten years ago. 



*Le Potager d'un Curieux, Paris. 



