334 SALAD PLANTS. 



four sides of a square or parallelogram, in the manner of a 

 common hot-bed, providing for a due inclination towards the 

 south. Over these put frames of glass, as usually provided 

 for hot-beds ; adding extra protection by covering with straw 

 or other material in intensely cold weather. Thus treated, 

 the plants will be ready for cutting two or three weeks earlier 

 than those in the open ground. 



When grown for its roots, the ground must be prepared in 

 the manner before directed ; and the seeds should be sown, 

 in October, in drills fourteen or fifteen inches asunder. In 

 June following thin out the young plants to two or three 

 inches apart ; keep the ground loose, and free from weeds, 

 during the summer, and in October the roots will have 

 attained their full size, and be ready for harvesting, which is 

 usually performed with a common subsoil plough. After 

 being drawn, they are washed entirely clean, sliced, and dried 

 in the shade, when they are ready for the market. 



Use. The Dandelion resembles Endive, and affords one 

 of the earliest, as well as one of the best and most healthful, 

 of spring greens. It is also sometimes blanched and used as 

 salad. The roots, after being dried as before directed, con- 

 stitute an article of considerable commercial importance, be- 

 ing extensively employed as a substitute for, or mixed in 

 various proportions with, coffee. 



It may be grown for greens at trifling cost ; and a bed 

 twelve or fourteen feet square will afford a family an abun- 

 dant supply. 



Under cultivation, and even in its natural state, the leaves 

 of different plants vary in a marked degree from each other, 

 not only in size and manner of growth, but also in form. 

 Judicious and careful cultivation would give a degree of per- 

 manency to these distinctions ; and varieties might undoubt- 

 edly be produced, well adapted for the various purposes for 

 which the plant is grown, whether for the roots, for blanch- 

 ing, or for greens. 



