480 THE PARKS AND GAKUENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XXVIII. 



coming in so freely at all points. The glasses are nearly sixteen 

 inches in diameter, and about as much in height. For the winter- 

 work they are sometimes placed on sloping beds with a sunny 

 aspect ; the beds being wide enough to accommodate three or 

 four lines of glasses. In early autumn these beds are made and 

 the plants placed upon them, so that they can be readily covered 

 by the bell-glasses when the time comes at which growth is 

 checked in the open air. It should be added that the ground 

 chosen is very rich and light, and the Lettuces are sown at 

 intervals of a fortnight or so, to secure a succession. The plants 

 put out in September for the early and mid-autumn supply may 

 not require to be covered if the weather be fine ; and if they 

 should happen to require it, the glasses are tilted up a little as 

 before described. But when the sun begins to fail and the cold 

 rains to check growth, about the end of October, then the crop to 

 be cut in the following month must be covered ; and when towards 

 Christmas the frost begins to enter the ground, the glasses must 

 be firmly pressed down, and a deposit of leaves and litter j)laced 

 around and between them. 



Thus, while everything else is at rest in the grip of ice, the 

 plants will be kept perfectly free from frost, receiving abundant 

 light from above, and growing as fresh as early summer leaves. 

 A deeper layer of the surrounding litter will be necessary in case 

 of severe frost. Covering the glasses a little more than half-way 

 up with a rather compact body of leaves and litter, effectually 

 secures the contents from sharp frosts. When very severe winters 

 occur, mats made of straw are spread over the tops of the glasses ; 

 and should heavy falls of snow occur while these mats are on, 

 they will enable the cultivator to carry it away bodily ; it should 

 on no account be allowed to melt on the beds or in the alleys 

 between. In late spring the cloche is not required, nor is it used 

 for any except those crops that require artificial assistance. Thus 

 the March and April supply is planted in October on a bed of 

 light soil, with a surfacing of an inch or so of thoroughly-rotten 

 manure or leaf-mould. These little plants are allowed to remain 

 all through the winter unprotected ; and when in spring the most 

 forward Cloche Lettuces are cut, the glasses are immediately 

 placed over the most advanced of the little ones that have remained 

 exposed. By that time they have begun to start up, encouraged 



