IV ] THF. AMERiCAX GARDENER. 157 



rated in much the same way as the last. Heat is 

 what it chiefly wants; and great care indeed must 

 be taken to preserve it in winter. 



247. PUMPKIN. See Cucumber. The culti- 

 vation is the same, and every body knows the dif- 

 ferent qualities of the different sorts, and how to 

 preserve and use them all 



248. PURSLANE. A mischievous weed that 

 Frenchmen and pigs eat when they can get nothing 

 else. Both use it in salad, that is to say, raw. 



249. RADISH. A great variety of sorts. Sown 

 thin in little drills six inches asunder. Sown as 

 early as possible in the spring, and a little bed 

 every three weeks all summer long. The early 

 scarlet is the best. Radishes may be raised early 

 in a hot-bed precisely as cabbage-plants are. 



250. RAMPION. This is the smallest seed of 

 which we have any knowledge. A thimble full, 

 properly distributed, would sow an acre of land. 

 It is sown in the spring, in very fine earth. Its 

 roots are used in soups and salads. Its leaves are 

 also used in salads. A yard square is enough for 

 any orarden. 



251. RAPE. This is a field-plant for sheep ; 

 but it is very good to sow like White Mustard, to 

 use as salad, and it is sown and raised in the same 

 way. 



252. RHUBARB. This is one of the capital 

 articles of the garden, though I have neven seen it 

 in America. The Dock is the wild Rhubarb, and 

 if you look at, and taste, the root, you will see the 

 proof of it. The Rhubarb plant has leaves as broad 

 and long as those of the burr^dock. Its comes forth, 

 like the dock, very early in the spring. When its 

 leaves are pretty large, you cut them off f lose to 

 the stem, and, if the plant be fine, the stalk of the 



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