148 THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 







LEMON, GARDEN. The Garden Lemon is of the 

 Melon family. See Melon. 



LENTIL (Lens esculenta) is an annual leguminous 

 plant grown for its seeds, used either fresh or dried. 

 It is exceedingly nutritious, and is of great importance 

 in the orient arid in southern Europe, but is not well 

 suited to our northern climate. 



Soil. Light and dry. 



Distances. Drills about eighteen inches apart. 

 Thin to three inches apart in the rows. 



Depth. About one inch. 



Sow when the ground is fit. 



Culture. Preserve the surface-mulch. 



Harvesting. When the stems become yellow and 

 the pods turn dark in color, pull the whole plant and 

 dry in the sun. Pick off the pods when dry. 



Store the pods whole, as the Lentils do not keep 

 so well when shelled. 



LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa) is our best-known salad 

 plant, grown for its leaves, which are seldom eaten 

 cooked. It is an annual short-season plant, often used 

 as a succession or companion crop, to follow or precede 

 another crop, or to use the intermediate spaces of a 

 wide-spaced crop while that is coming to maturity. 

 Thus, being hardy, it may precede tender crops, or its 

 heat-resistant varieties may follow strawberries, or may 



