156 THE AMERICAN GARDENER. [Chap. 



and August) ought to be under the South feace, so 

 as to get as much coolness as possible. 



242. PENNYROYAL. A medicinal herb. It w 

 perennial. A little patch, a foot square, is enough. 



243. PEPPER. See Capsicum. 



244. PEPPER GRASS. See Cress. 



245. POTATOE. Every body knows how to 

 cultivate this plant ; and, as to its preservation 

 during winter, if you can ascertain the degree ol 

 warmth necessary to keep a baby from perishing, 

 you know precisely the precautions required to pre- 

 serve a potatoe. As to sorts, they are as numerous 

 as the stones of a pavement in a large city ; but, 

 there is one sort earlier than all others. It is a 

 small, round, white potatoe, that has no blossom, 

 and the leaf of which is of a pale green, very thin, 

 very smooth, and nearly of the shape and size of 

 the inside of a lemon cut asunder longways. This 

 potatoe, if planted with other sorts in the spring, 

 will be ripe six weeks sooner than any other sort. 

 I have had two crops of this potatoe ripen on the 

 same ground in the same year, in England, the se- 

 cond crop from potatoes of the first. Two crops 

 could be raised in America with the greatest facili- 

 ty. But, if you once get this sort, and wish to 

 keep it, you must take care that no other sort grow 

 with it, or near it ; for, potatoes of this kind mix 

 the breed more readily than any thing els-e, though 

 they have no bloom ! If some plants of this bios- 

 somless kind grow with or near the other kinds, 

 they will produce plants with a rough leaf, some of 

 them will even btow, and they will lose their quali- 

 ty of earliness. This is quite enough to prove the 

 fallacy of the doctrine of a communication of the 

 farina of the flowers of plants. 



246. POTATOE (Sweet.) This plant is culti. 



