THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 169 
an excellent plan to fill a rather large bed with plants put about a 
foot apart each way, and to draw from it as early as the plants are 
large enough to send to table. Atkins’s Matchless, and other 
of the small-growing early sorts, are the best, and if the seed is sown 
in the last week of July, and the plants put out as early as possible, 
the crop will be most useful for supplying the table before the early 
summer cabbages turn in. Sometimes cabbages raised from seed 
sown in July will bolt in May ; but, as a rule, they will be of a nice 
size for cutting, and if even they do start, they may be turned to 
good account, by being cut and sent to the kitchen just as they are 
beginning to move. 
Another useful vegetable for April and May is the Winter 
Spinach, which should be sown in larger breadths than is usually 
the case in middle-class gardens. To insure a good supply of 
spinach throughout the spring, three sowings of the Prickly Seeded 
must be made in the course of the autumn, the first about August 7, 
the second a fortnight afterwards, and the third the first week in 
September. 
It must not be forgotten, that the Asparagus is one of the very 
first of the April and May vegetables. To yield a constant supply 
the beds must be of large size, and as an inducement to owners of 
middle-class gardens to plant this vegetable more extensively, I would 
direct special attention to the fact that it may be grown with less 
expense than is generally considered to be necessary. As a matter 
of fact, it may be planted in ordinary soils, without their undergoing 
any preparation beyond receiving a dressing of manure, and being 
trenched over two spit deep. After the plants are well established, 
keeping the beds free from weeds, and applying a moderate dressing 
of manure annually in the winter, are all that is necessary to main- 
tain them in a productive state for an indefinite period. 
I have not referred to potatoes and other vegetables in the root- 
house, but I think sufficient has been said to show that by a proper 
course of cropping the table may be well supplied with excellent 
vegetables in April and May without the aid of a forcing pit, or, 
indeed, any other expensive appliance. 
A NOTE ON EARLY-FLOWERING PELARGONIUMS. 
zea) WAS much interested in Mr. Oubridge’s paper on the 
-4| cultivation of Gauntlet geranium, for this fine old 
variety is one of the most useful the amateur could 
| grow for supplying flowers during the winter and 
= spring. ‘The early-flowering pelargoniums generally 
are special favourites of mine, for I have long been conviaced that 
they are unsurpassed for producing a rich display of colour in the 
conservatory during the spring months. A higher recommendation 
than this it would be impossible to give them, and therefore to say 
more in their favour is quite unnecessary. ; 
T shall not attempt to pen an elaborate essay on their cultivation, 
June. 
