70 AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 



But the form of any rooting or heading vegetable may, by 

 neglect of proper treatment, reapproximate to the natural form 

 of the plant in its uncultivated state, becoming branched and 

 fibrous in its roots, as figures 80 c, d, page 186, or thin and 

 wiry, as Fig. 76 c, p. 131, Fig. 78 a, p. 161, and in danger of 

 losing character entirely as a fleshy vegetable, and running to 

 a mere tap or brush root. The cabbage or lettuce, on the other 

 hand, when its head assumes the form of a cone, is approxi- 

 mating to a loose, headless growth, like that of the kale, or the 

 rape, or the wild lettuce. 



For the purposes of this work, it may suffice to note the in- 

 termediate stages between the wild form and that which we 

 have designated as the flat (Fig. 80 h, p. 186) ; and it will per- 

 haps be convenient if, for the present, we assume this to be the 

 maximum of the change which cultivation has effected. 



The advantages of this form are that it matures quickly, 

 scarcely ever fails to yield a crop, and, in root crops, is easily 

 gathered, even after some other forms may have been frozen in ; 

 that it measures well, i. e., seems to yield largely ; and that, 

 whether in the lot or in the market, it " shows for all it is 

 worth." Its disadvantages are, that it really yields but light- 

 ly or moderately, and that it is " unprofitable" in the hands of 

 our cooks. Some of them would peel it to semi-transparency. 



The shape intermediate between the flat and the globe, the 

 cheese form, as it is sometimes called, or, in the language of 

 Geometry, the flattened spheroid (Fig. 80 g, p. 186), has about 

 all the advantages we have enumerated for the flat, without 

 any drawback upon them farther than that, in general, it may 

 be expected to mature a little later. 



The round or globe form (Fig. 80/), it would seem, should be 

 regarded as the standard of excellence, since it affords a larger 

 amount of solid contents in proportion to its surface than any 

 other ; but, notwithstanding, this might be taken to imply 

 that it would also yield largely ; such is not generally the fact. 

 Roots that .take this form have almost always, too, a habit of 

 underground growth, looking as if they were moulded by the 

 equal pressure of the earth upon them, and this renders them 

 comparatively difficult to gather, especially in frosty weather ; 



