4:88 



THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. 



[Chap. V. 



esteemed one of the best varieties which form heads. Recollect that some 

 sorts of lettuce will not head, witli all your care, but the leaves may be made 

 more tender by tying tliem up, so that tiicy will grow blanciied. One of tiic 

 best sorts of non-heading lettuce is the Ice Cos, the leaves of which are 

 brittle, growing long, narrow, and dark-green, and of somewhat an icy ap- 

 pearance. 



There are also four other sorts of Cos lettuce — the Paris Green, Paris 

 White, Florence or Golden, and Spotted Cos — each of wliicli you will 

 be told is best by the person who grows it, and no other. Tlie hardiest sort 

 is the Brown Dutch, which may be started in autumn, and slightly protected 

 so as to endure winter, and grow early in spring. It will form a loose head, 

 but is not generally grown for heads, but for the early young leaves ; tlie other 

 sorts being preferable to it for heading. One of the largest varieties is called 

 Large India ; it is less curled than tlie Silesia, and the leaves are whiter, 

 slightly edged with pink. This kind endures the summer heats well, and 

 forms large, round heads, which cut solid and crisp. There are several 

 other sorts, but what we have said of these is enough to show that there is a 

 great variety in this family of garden plants. 



To grow good lettuce, the utmost care must be used in preparing tlio 

 ground. The soil should be made as fine as the seed, and as rich as good 

 garden mold can be. The seed should be sown every fortnight from Feb- 

 ruary to June, to get a succession of young plants. The ground must be 

 kept loose between the rows, and it pays well to water with guano in a weak 

 solution. 



An ounce of lettuce seed will grow plants enough for half a dozen families. 

 It would require a bed about ten by twelve feet to sow an ounce of seed, 

 and it would produce some 5,000 plants. 



552. Mustard is often grown for salad, the white or yellow seed variety 

 being very good for that purpose. It should be sown in the fall, or it may 

 be started in spring, in a hot-bed or warm southern exposure, in rows 

 six inches apart, and no matter how thick in the rows, as it is to 

 be cut when two inches high. The black seed kind is often sown for 

 greens, as well as to grow seed for use or sale. It ripens seed in July or 

 August. 



553. Nasturtium. — This is another salad plant, when very young, though 

 generally grown for its fruit, which is used for pickling. The pods are 

 gathered before they ripen for this purpose, and some use the flower-buds, 

 esteeming them as good as capers. The orange-colored flowers are also used 

 for garnishing dishes. For salad, sow the dwarf variety early in spring, in 

 drills an inch deep, along borders of beds, so that what is not cut for salad 

 may grow for ornament. 



55-t. Garden-CresSt — This is a favorite salad plant, and in this character 

 only the seminal plants are used. It is very liardy and prolific, and may 

 be sowed once a week, from the opening of the ground in spring until the 

 close of the season. Old rich garden soil is the most congenial to it, but 



