220 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



spontaneously in streams, and beds should be established 

 wherever there is a good spring of running water. A little 

 spot of low ground, capable of being irrigated, can be turn- 

 ed up with the spade in the spring, and sown with seed, or 

 set out with plants. The water may be turned on and off 

 at pleasure, and all the further culture consists in keeping 

 them clear of every kind of weed, and preventing their be- 

 ing injured or destroyed by drought. 



It may be here observed that the wild Pepper Grass 

 (Lepidium virginicum), which grows spontaneously almost 

 everywhere in the United States, is a species of cress. 

 See Farmers' and Planters' Encyclopcedia, article Ameri- 

 can Cress. 



Of Rhubarb (Rheum), several species and many varie- 

 ties are cultivated for the purpose of supplying materials 

 for tarts, the foot-stalks of the leaves being well adapted 

 for that purpose, and coming into use at a most convenient 

 season, when apples are becoming scarce. R. rhaponticum 

 with red stalks, and palmatum with green, were the spe- 

 cies first employed, and these are still occasionally used ; 

 but the sorts now preferred are seminal varieties, mostly 

 allied to R. hybridum and R. undulatum. The follow- 

 ing are worthy of notice : — 



Wilmot's, Buck's 



Gigantic, Culbertson's. 



Elford. 



Of these, the editor of the Horticultural Register prefers 

 the first two, the former as being excellently suited for 

 forcing, and the latter as growing to a large size without 

 ranknesi. The stalks of Buck's Early and the Elford are 

 of :i bright scarlet color, which they retain even when 



