214 KITCHEN GARDEN. 



whole year. The first sowing is made in January, in some 

 sheltered situation, or under hand-glasses, or in February 

 on a gentle hotbed. The seedlings are transplanted as soon 

 as the weather will permit. A second sowing may be made 

 in the beginning of March, and another in April. Of all 

 culinary crops, lettuce is reckoned the least exhausting, 

 some gardeners, indeed, regarding it as tending to enrich 

 rather than impoverish the soil : it may therefore be raised 

 on the fruit-tree borders. Besides the ordinary compart- 

 ment, the seedlings may be planted on celery ridges, be- 

 tween rows of slight crops of other vegetables, and, in short, 

 in any odd corner which may occur. To obtain a winter 

 supply, a sowing of some of the more hardy varieties, such 

 as the Black-seeded green, or Bath Cos, and the Brown 

 Dutch, is made in August or September, and the plants are 

 pricked out in October along the bottom of walls, or under 

 glazed frames. 



Endive ( Cichorium Endivia) is an annual plant, a na- 

 tive of China, from which it was introduced in 1548. It 

 is the lettuce of winter, the blanched hearts being used for 

 salads and in soups. The varieties most commonly culti- 

 vated in England are the Broad-leaved Batavian and Small 

 Batavian, the Green Curled-leaved and the White Curled- 

 leaved. By the French, the former are called Scariotes ; 

 the latter, dehor ees. A sowing may be made in the be- 

 ginning of June, and another in July, the seeds being scat- 

 tered very sparsely, that the plants may not come up in 

 clusters. The seedlings are transplanted into a rich soil, 

 where they are arranged in rows twelve or fifteen inches 

 asunder, and at the distance of ten inches in the row. 

 Sometimes they are planted in drills to facilitate the opera- 

 tion of blanching. The later crop should be placed in a 



