128 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



agricultural shows, last year, it excited a 

 good deal of attention, as a fodder plant, 

 and the bunches exhibited were much ad- 

 mired. In order to add it to our own col- 

 lection, we have obtained a sample packet of 

 seed, from Mr. J. W. Clarke, of Whittlesea, 



Cambridgeshire, who is importing it from 

 France, for the benefit of agriculturists 

 generally, and who is ready to supply the 

 seed in any quantity. The best time to sow 

 it is the second week in May, but it may be 

 sown as late as the middle of June, a*4« 



make fine specimens by the end of July. If 

 left to mature its growth without cutting, it 

 forms noble tufts of strong canes, ten feet 

 high, covered from head to foot with grace- 

 ful, grass-like foliage, quite tropical in 

 character, and surmounted by bold heads of 

 blossom. A liberal use of guano or nitro- 

 phosphate, is advised by Mr. Clarke, who 

 says that he cuts it three times during the 

 year, for use in the farmstead, in the place of 

 other green crops. [Price, 5s. per sample.] 



SENECIO MIKANLE. 



This promises to prove useful as an orna- 

 mental climber, and if so, will be valuable as 

 an addition to the very limited class of half- 

 hardy plants available for walls, trellises, 

 &c. Its succulent stems are clothed with 

 ivy-like foliage, of a shining green, with 

 axillary corymbs of sweet-scented, yellow 

 flowers. It is of rapid growth, and easy of 

 preservation during winter, and will pro- 

 bably succeed in any soil or aspect. It was 

 introduced from Mexico some years since, 

 but has hitherto scarcely become known as a 

 decorative plant. Mr. W. Thompson, of 

 Tavern-street, Ipswich, is now sending out 

 plants, and we believe it is in considerable 

 demand. We are not acquainted with the 

 plant in a flowering state, but, when our 

 specimens bloom, we purpose to figure them 

 in these pages. [Price 3s. each, post free.] 



COME-AT-ABLE SALADS. 



When my garden fails me in supplying a 

 sallad, I turn to the hedgerows. Last spring, 

 an army of sings ate up my lettuces as fast 

 as they grew — faster, indeed — and we were 

 precious hard up for a bit of something 

 green. One morning, when lamenting over 

 my loss, I spied in a waste corner, a fine 

 crop of dandelions, and I remembered once 

 having to grow them for a family, when 

 they were forced, and made that delicious 

 salad, known as Barbe de Capuchin, which 

 fetches a shilling a punnet in Coven t Garden. 

 So I got a lot of tiles and flower-pots, and 

 turned them over the dandelions ; the pots 

 had their holes stopped, to keep out the 

 light, and in ten days we had a splendid 

 jorum of blanched stems, and, as fast as 

 young and promising plants appeared, we 

 clapped the pots over them, and so had 

 delicate salads for several weeks. At other 

 t imes I have used the young, delicate tops 

 of the hedge-mustard, the young tops of 

 forage, which taste like cucumber ; and, 

 would you think it ? the sprouts of lettuce 



stems are capital, when chopped up with 

 any other things of a salad nature. 



Whenever you run short of materials for 

 a sallad, take a cold potatoe, a little cold 

 boiled cabbage, some cold haricot beans, if 

 you have them, a slice of raw cucumber, 

 a little small-salad, a pinch of forage, and a 

 little mint, and with oil, &c, &c, you have 

 all that you can desire. The delicate, 

 sprouting tops of wallflowers, very plentiful 

 just now, make a good addition to a salad, 

 so do dahlia blossoms, the tops of the com- 

 mon nasturtium, the inside leaves of the 

 dock, which children eat as " sorrel ;" and, 

 upon my word, the young shoots of the vine 

 have a delicious flavour, and are very whole- 

 some; the young sprouts of horseradish, 

 blanched, are also very palatable. There 

 are many other useful things, but to enume- 

 rate them would be superfluous when you 

 have so many able writers on such subjects, 

 and so, having named such as seem to have 

 escaped attention, I subscribe myself, 



An old Gardener. 



