608 MISCELLANEOUS VEGETABLES. 



The Bell-pepper is early, sweet and pleasant to the taste, 

 and much less acrid or pungent than most of the other sorts. 

 In many places, it is preferred to the Squash-pepper for pic- 

 kling, not only because of its mildness, but for its thick, 

 fleshy, and tender rind. 



In open culture, sow in May, in drills sixteen inches apart, 

 and thin the plants to twelve inches in the drills. 



In England, they are pickled as follows : The pods are 

 plucked while green, slit down on one side, and, after the 

 seeds are taken out, immersed in salt and water for twenty- 

 four hours, changing the water at the end of the first twelve. 

 After soaking the full time, they are laid to drain an hour or 

 two, put into bottles or jars, and boiled vinegar, after being 

 allowed to cool, poured over them till they are entirely cov- 

 ered. The jars are then closely stopped for a few weeks, 

 when the pods will be fit for use. In this form, they have 

 been pronounced the best and most wholesome of all pickles. 



Bird-Pepper Stem fifteen to eighteen inches high ; leaves 

 very small ; flowers white, about two thirds of 

 an inch in diameter ; pods erect, sharply conical, an inch and 

 three quarters long, about half an inch in diameter, and of a 

 brilliant coral-red when ripe. 



The variety is late. If sown in the open ground, some of 

 the pods, if the season be favorable, will be fit for use before 

 the plants arc destroyed by frost ; but few will be fully per- 

 fected unless the plants are started under glass. 



The Bird-pepper is one of the most piquant of all varieties, 

 and is less valuable as a green pickle than many milder and 

 thicker-fleshed sorts. It is cultivated in rows fourteen inches 

 apart, and ten or twelve inches asunder in the rows. If sown 

 in the open ground, make the rows the same distance apart, 

 and thin the young plants to the same space in the rows. 



The " Cayenne Pepper-pot" of commerce is prepared from 



