THE SUCCORY. 665 



from falling into the heart of the plant. The curled endive, if care- 

 fully earthed up, will blanch tolerably well without being tied ; but the 

 broad-leaved variety, from its looser growth, hearts and blanches much 

 better when bandaged. The blanching, when the weather is hot and 

 dry, will sometimes be completed in a week ; but late in autumn and 

 during winter it will require a fortnight or a month. As soon as it is 

 properly blanched, it should be taken up for use, as it will rot after- 

 wards in a week or less, more especially if much rain fall. Sometimes 

 blanching is effected by laying a flat tile on the plants; setting tiles or 

 boards on each side of them, and bringing them together at top in 

 the form of a ridge, so as to confine their growth and exclude the light ; 

 or covering them with garden-pots or blanching-pots, in the manner of 

 sea-kale. In the north of Spain the blanching of endive is generally 

 effected by covering the heart of the plant with a fragment of tile ; 

 " over this a light covering of earth is sifted. The fringed edges of 

 the exterior leaves are carefully freed from earth, and exposed to light ; 

 having small bits of tile laid over that portion of the soil from which 

 they protrude, to render the blanching perfect, and produce what the 

 gardeners particularly pride themselves on viz., a plant of endive white 

 all over, excepting the edges of the outer leaves, which should show 

 about two inches of green." 



The best method to have fine blanched tender endive every day 

 throughout winter, is to take up all plants sown late and planted in suc- 

 cession, and place them in dry frames, pits, orchard-houses, peach-houses, 

 late vineries, or such dry places, away from frost or wet. Plant deep and 

 thick ; there will then be always plenty well blanched, without further 

 trouble. The new Batavian, if it can be procured, is so much like a 

 lettuce in growth and flavour, that for winter and early spring no one 

 should be without it. Also the beautiful thick -curled moss endive, 

 the most delicate and beautiful of all the varieties, blanches itself 

 through its density. 



A crop may be preserved through the winter either by covering it 

 where it stands by thatched hurdles raised on props ; by hoops and 

 mats ; by removing it with balls to an open airy shed ; by covering it 

 with dry litter, taking it off" every fine day or, what is best of all, 

 covering it where it stands with frames and sashes, taking the latter 

 off every fine day. During the period that the endive is covered, 

 tying up for blanching must go regularly on with every plant about 

 ten days or a fortnight before it is to be gathered. 



The endive is little troubled with insects; but snails and slugs 

 attack it, as they do the lettuce, in every stage, and require to be kept 

 under by frequent waterings with lime-water. 



Seed may be saved as in the lettuce, and it will keep good four or 

 five years. 



The Succory. 



The Succory, Chicory, or Wild Endive (Cichorium Intybus, L.) 

 (Chicoree sauvage, Fr.), is a cichoraceous fusiform- rooted perennial, 

 a native of England, in chalky soils, in open situations. It is much 



