234 



CRUCIFERjE. LXXXIII. BRASSICA. 



that Cauliflower may now fairly be claimed as peculiarly an 

 English product. Till the time of the French Revolution quan- 

 tities of English cauliflower were regularly sent to Holland and 

 the Low Countries, and even France depended on us for cauli- 

 flower seed. Even now, English seed is preferred to any other. 

 For the early supply of the London market, very great quan- 

 tities of Cauliflower are fostered under hand-glasses during 

 winter and the first part of spring ; and to hehold some acres 

 overspread with such glasses, gives a stranger a favourable idea 

 of the richness and luxury of the capital. (Neill.) 



The following are the names of the varieties most in culti- 

 vation : 



1 Early, for the first early crops. 



2 Later or Large, for principal early and main crops. 



3 Red Cauliflower, having the stalks or heads of reddish- 

 purple colour, esteemed more hardy than the others, and good 

 for an early crop. 



Very little difference in quality has been discovered between 

 these three varieties. Their distinctions are too trifling to merit 

 the attention of practical horticulturists. Like the rest of the 

 tribe they are apt to sport into degenerate varieties. " An 

 action for damages was brought in Westminster Hall, against 

 a poor but unfortunate gardener for selling cauliflower seed, 

 which only produced long-leaved cabbages." This circumstance 

 has been particularly noticed by Linnaeus. 



Propagation and Soil. The Cauliflower is raised from seed, 

 of which half an ounce is sufficient for a seed-bed four feet and a 

 half wide by ten in length, or a bed of 40 square feet. The 

 soil for the seed-bed may be light, but for final transplanting it 

 can hardly be too rich, the Cauliflower, like the vine, being re- 

 puted " a rough feeder." Cleanings of streets, stables, cess-pools, 

 &c. ought therefore to be liberally supplied during the growth 

 of the plants, when very large heads are desired. 



Times of sowing. The early and main superior crop, brought 

 to fruit by the longest nursery attendance ; the late summer 

 succession crop, raised by the shortest course, and the Michael- 

 mas crop, obtained at die least expense, are sown respectively 

 at three different periods. The principal sowing is made about 

 the end of the third week in August, or about the middle of the 

 month, to stand over the winter under frames, hand-glasses, or 

 half sheltered in warm borders, for the early and main superior 

 crops next summer. A secondary sowing in February or 

 March, for succession and late inferior crops, but in order to 

 bring the plants up early and to forward them twelve days or a 

 fortnight in their growth, it will be well to sow them in a mo- 

 derate hot-bed. Make the bed about twenty inches or two feet 

 thick of dung, on which put a frame, then lay four or five 

 inches in depth of rich earth over the bed. Sow the seed on 

 the surface, cover it a quarter of an inch thick of like rich 

 earth, and then set the glass on. As soon as the plants appear, 

 let them have air every day by tilting the glass a consider- 

 able height, and in mild weather the lights may be taken 

 quite off in the day-time, for if kept too close it would cause 

 them to grow up weak. But where there is not the convenience 

 of a frame, cover the bed at nights and in bad weather with 

 Dutch mats over hoops or long sticks, sprinkle them with water 

 occasionally if the weather be dry. Those sown in March re- 

 quire the same treatment as the February sowings. Cauliflower 

 for a successional crop may be sown any time in the month of 

 May on a sheltered border, about the end of this month a second 

 sowing may be made for the last crop of the season, on a free 

 open spot of light earth ; these last will come into use the fol- 

 lowing autumn or winter. 



Mr. W. Ball finds that if cauliflower-seed is not sown till the 

 last week in August, and that if the seedlings are not transplanted 

 till the middle or near the end of November, before the hard 



weather sets in, no sort of covering is nece ssary, nor any other 

 protection than that afforded by a wall having a south aspect ; 

 in such a border, and without any covering, young cauliflower- 

 plants have uniformly stood well for many successive winters, 

 and have always proved better and sounder plants for spring 

 planting than such as have had additional shelter. The seed- 

 lings protected with glass-frames generally grow too gross in 

 the stems, which become partly blackened, and the plants being 

 thus unhealthy are not fit for planting out. Late raised seed- 

 lings which spend the winter in the open border, uniformly 

 become the largest and finest table cauliflowers during the 

 summer, though they certainly do not come in quite so early. 

 Cauliflower plants, it is probable, are often killed with too much 

 attention. Seedlings raised in autumn seem to be very tenacious 

 of life. (Caled. hort. mem. 3. p. 192.) 



A method of producing Cauliflower pretty early and with 

 great certainty is this ; the plants are set in small pots in the 

 winter season and kept in any convenient part of the floor of a 

 vinery or other glazed house. In the beginning of March they 

 are taken out of the pots with the ball of earth attached, and 

 planted in the open ground. If they be here protected against 

 severe frosts with bell-glass covers, they come into head in the 

 course of April, if the weather prove favorable. (Neill.) The 

 following method of obtaining a crop of early cauliflower is re- 

 commended by an anonymous correspondent in Loudon's Gar- 

 dener's Magazine. From a seed-bed which has been sown two 

 or three days after rather than before the customary period, 

 select a score or two of healthy plants ; pot them singly in the 

 smallest sized garden-pots in rich loamy compost, water and 

 plunge them in a cold frame, shading for a short time until they 

 have taken root. Afterwards give them air daily, drawing on 

 the lights at night and defending them from severe frost with 

 mats, water frequently with tepid manured water, and keep clear 

 from decayed leaves and weeds. Examine the state of the roots 

 from time to time, and as they become in the least degree matted, 

 immediately shift in forty-eight sized pots with the before-men- 

 tioned compost, and replace them carefully in the same frame 

 and attending to them as before. When the root have nearly 

 filled these last pots, shift into thirty-twos, and in due time they 

 will ultimately require twenty-fours, or if they have grown ra- 

 pidly even eighteehs. After being firmly established in these, 

 they may be removed into a vinery, peach, or other forcing-house, 

 there to remain till the end of March or beginning of April, 

 when they may be turned out into the open air between the 

 asparagus-beds or any other warm or sheltered spot. They 

 will require to be put in very deep and protected by hand-glasses, 

 or at least by boughs of trees, that they may not suffer from the 

 sudden transition of weather or inclement skies. It is hardly 

 necessary to add that the whole success of this method of culture 

 depends entirely on the plants receiving no check in any stage of 

 their growth, either from want of timely repotting, water, air, 

 of sufficient protection from frost ; while in the house if not 

 supplied with water in pans they are very liable to button, and 

 thereby wholly defeat the end in view. 



Crop to stand the winter. For the early and general crops 

 next summer, make considerable sowings from the middle till 

 near the end of August, to stand the winter, some being finally 

 planted out the same year in warm borders in October or No- 

 vember under hand-glasses, and the others pricked out into 

 frames and warm borders for planting out finally in the spring 

 into the open ground to succeed the hand-glass heads or for the 

 general summer-crop. Sow in a bed of rich light mellow earth. 

 After sowing give occasional light waterings in dry weather, and 

 shade in hot sunny days till the plants come up, when these 

 have leaves an inch or an inch and half broad in September, 

 prick them into intermediate beds three or four inches apart, 



