164 GARDENING. 



mometer, and having this advantage over any other, 

 that it is sure to be always at hand. 



In four weeks the plants will be fit for use, and, 

 if well managed, will give buds for three weeks to 

 come. But it may be useful to notice, that the 

 mode of taking these differs from that used for 

 plants raised in the natural way. If you employ a 

 knife, you cannot fail to destroy many young plants 

 (on account of the closeness with which they stand 

 to each other) ; but the mode by which you do least 

 mischief is to thrust your finger down along side 

 of the bud. and break it off at the root. 



We shall close this article with the description 

 of a method practised in France, which will prob- 

 ably be new to most of our readers, and which, we 

 think, may be usefully employed as part of the hot- 

 bed method just described. We quote from the 

 N. Cours d'Agriculture, art. Asperge. " M. Sequen, 

 of Baz-Sur-le-Seine, introduces the bud, the day it 

 shows itself, into the neck of a broken or cracked 

 bottle, through which it alternately mounts and de- 

 scends until it completely fills the whole cavity. 

 One of these plants is sufficient for a dish, weighs 

 14 oz., and is as tender and well flavoured as the 

 buds taken in the ordinary way. The neck of the 

 inverted bottle is pressed into the earth as far as it 

 will go, and other means employed to keep it up- 

 right ; a condition necessary to the success of the 

 experiment." 



The BEAN (Faba), a genus of plants according to 

 Tournefort and Jessieu, and a species [of Vicia] ac- 

 cording to Linna3us and other botanists. Olivier 

 found it growing spontaneously in Persia, and con- 

 siders it a native of that, or of some neighbouring 

 part of Asia. 



The ancients had many ridiculous prejudices in 

 relation to this vegetable. In Egypt, to look at 

 it was an act of uncleanness. In Greece, Pythag 

 eras forbade its use ; and at Rome, the Flamen Di 



