hap, 



BEET: POUR VARIETIES or IT. 183 



A method has been discovered of preserving all the thyrsi 

 or leaves of the lettuce in pots, the object being to have them 

 fresh when wanted for boiling. Lettuces may be sown all the 

 year 19 through in a good soil, well-watered and carefully ma- 

 nured ; 20 two months being allowed to intervene between sow- 

 ing and transplanting, and two more between transplanting 

 and gathering them when ripe. The rule is, however, to sow 

 them just after the winter solstice, and to transplant when the 

 west winds begin to prevail, or else to sow at this latter period, 

 and to plant out at the vernal equinox. The white lettuce is 

 the best adapted for standing the rigours of the winter. 



All the garden plants are fond of moisture ; lettuces thrive, 

 more particularly, when well manured, and endive even more 

 so. Indeed, it is found an excellent plan to plant them out with 

 the roots covered up in manure, and to keep up the supply, the 

 earth being cleared away for that purpose. Some, again, have 

 another method of increasing their size ; they cut them 21 down 

 when they have reached half a foot in height, and cover them 

 with fresh swine's dung. It is the general opinion that those 

 lettuces only will admit of being blanched which are produced 

 from white seed; and even then, as soon as they begin -to 

 grow, sand from the sea-shore should be spread over them, 

 care being taken to tie the leaves as soon as ever they begin 

 to come to any size. 



CHAP. 40. BEET : FOUR VARIETIES OF IT. 



Beet 22 is the smoothest of all the garden plants. The Greeks 

 distinguish two kinds of beet, according to the colour, the 

 black and the white. The last, which is the kind generally 

 preferred, has but very little seed, and is generally known as 

 the Sicilian 23 beet; just as it is the white lettuce that is held 

 in the highest degree of esteem. Our people, also, distinguish 

 two varieties of beet, the spring and the autumn kinds, so 



19 The usual times for sowing the lettuce are before winter and after , 

 February. 



20 An excess of manure is injurious to the lettuce. 



21 As already stated in a previous Note (p. 179), lettuces when cut dov?n 

 will not grow again, with the exception of a few worthless lateral branches. 



22 From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. vii. c. 4. 



23 Not the Beta sicla of modern botany, Fee thinks. The black.beet 

 of the ancients would be one of the dark purple kinds. 



