340 GARDEKIXG FOR PLEASURE. 



NASTURTIUM, INDIAN CRESS (Tropceolum majus). 



A highly ornamental plant, cultivated in flower gardens 

 as well as in the kitchen garden. The shoots and flowers 

 are sometimes used in salads, but it is mainly grown for 

 its fruit or seed pods, which are pickled in vinegar and 

 used as a substitute for capers. The plant is of the 

 easiest culture. Sow in shallow drills in May. The tall 

 variety will reach a hight of ten or fifteen feet if fur- 

 nished with strings or wires, and makes an excellent 

 screen for shade, or for quickly covering up and conceal- 

 ing any unsightly place. The dwarf variety is grown 

 like Peas, and staked with brush, or grown on the 

 garden trellis. 



OKRA OR GUMBO {Ahelmoschus esculentus). 



A vegetable of the easiest culture. Sow in drills in 

 May, three feet apart for dwarf and four feet for tall 

 sorts, in drills two or three inches deep. The long pods, 

 when very young and tender, are used in soups, stews, 

 etc., and are very nutritious. 



ONION {Allium cepa). 



Onions are raised either from ''sets," which are small 

 dry Onions grown the previous year, or from seeds. 

 When grown from the sets, they should be planted 

 out as early in spring as the ground is dry enough to 

 work. Plant them in rows one foot apart, with the sets 

 three or four inches apart. \V hen raised from sets, the 

 Onions can be used in the green state in June, or they 

 will be ripened off by July. When raised from seeds, 

 these are sown at about the same distance between the 

 rows, and when the young plants are an inch or so high, 

 they are thinned out to two or three inches apart. It is 

 important that Onion seed be sown very early. In this 

 latitude it should be sown not later than the middle of 



