THE PEA. 613 



tribe, and indeed of the Cmciferae generally. Coleworts are generally- 

 gathered by pulling them up by the root, by which the sap is retained 

 better than if the heads were cut off. If after gathering any of the 

 varieties it should be suspected by the cook that the heads contain 

 slugs, caterpillars, or earth-worms, by plunging them into salt and 

 water for a minute or two the vermin will be driven from their 

 hiding-places among the leaves and left in the water. All the kinds 

 may be preserved in a growing state through the winter under an 

 opaque roof, the sides being opened on the south side on fine days ; 

 and the heading kinds by burying in the soil. Being gathered, 

 none of the kinds will keep fresh above two or three days ; but 

 chopped into small pieces, and put in a cask in layers, each layer 

 sprinkled with salt, a liquor is formed, immersed in which the cabbage, 

 turnip, and every other cruciferous plant, will keep through the winter, 

 and thus is formed the sauerkraut of the Germans. To save seed of 

 any variety, select the finest specimens, and take care that no other 

 brassicaceous plant is in flower at the same time within a considerable 

 distance of it ; and the more specimens there are planted together 

 of any one variety for the purpose of seeding, the less liable they are 

 to become adulterated. A solitary brassicaceous plant can never be 

 depended on unless many miles indeed remote from any other ; 

 whereas a body of fifty or so will produce the sort generally true, even 

 although not far from other varieties. The seed will keep four or five 

 years ; but as after a year it is liable, in common with other seeds, to 

 the attacks of the weevil (Curculio, L.), it ought to be exposed every 

 winter during severe frost in a thin layer for an hour or two, which will 

 completely destroy vitality both in the eggs and the insects. The 

 place of the cabbage tribe, in a rotation of crops, may be after or 

 before the leguminous tribe, or the Alliacea3. 



Substitutes for the cabbage tribe are to be found in the Cruciferae 

 generally, the tender leaves of almost all of which may be used as 

 greens, and the embryo heads of flowers as substitutes for broccoli. 

 Among the best substitutes are the leaves of the turnip when running 

 to flower, the wild cabbage, and the garlic cress or sauce-alone. 

 (Erysimum Alliaria, L. ; Alliaria Adan.) The spinaceous and aceta- 

 riaceous esculents may also, in general, be used as greens. Mettles 

 are a very common substitute, and an excellent one when gathered 

 tender. 



Leguminaceous Esculents. 



The leguminaceous esculents of British gardens are chiefly the pea, 

 bean, and kidney-bean, all of which thrive best in a deep free soil. 

 In every garden they occupy a larger space than any other rotation 

 crop, but they do not occupy it long ; the main crops arriving at matu- 

 rity in from three to four months. 



The Pea. 



The Pea (Pisum sativum,L.) is a tendrilled climbing annual, a native 

 of the south of Europe, but arriving at maturity in the course of the 



