198 GARDENING. 



Keep them clean, and water them (if the weather 

 be dry) often, but lightly. To have a succession of 

 this fruit throughout the summer, you must occa- 

 sionally renew the sowings. A few of the largest 

 plants should be left for seed, and when the fruit be- 

 gins to rot is the time for taking it. Cut off the 

 plant and dry it in the shade, for seed immediately 

 removed from the pulp is rarely good. 



The family connexions of this plant (the Sola- 

 nums) have made some persons question its salubri- 

 ty, but, as we think, without reason. If in certain 

 cases it prove indigestible, of what fruit may not 

 the same be said, particularly if eaten to excess ? 

 The general impunity with which our southern 

 neighbours use it, even habitually and largely, is 

 in itself a sufficient guarantee of the safety with 

 which it may be, occasionally and temperately, em- 

 ployed here. 



MUSTARD (Sinapis). Two species of the mustard 

 are objects of garden culture : the black, which is 

 cultivated for the seed, and the white, which is a 

 good substitute for spinach, and which is sometimes 

 used with pepper-grass as an ingredient in salads.* 

 Both species grow well in a great diversity of soils, 

 and with a small portion of labour ; but the richer 

 the soil and the greater the care, the more vigor- 

 ous will be the plants. 



If the seed of the first species be our object, we 

 should remember that, as the pods do not either 

 form or ripen but in succession, we must not delay 

 our harvest until all have been matured ; as in this 

 case we should lose the seed soonest ripe (which 

 is always the best), for the sake of preserving that 

 which is later and worse. The best rule, therefore, 

 is to pull up or cut off the crop as soon as the stems 



* In Spain, and throughout the south of Europe, the seed of 

 the white species is preferred for the fabrication of mustard ; 

 because giving a whiter and milder flour than the seed of the 

 black. 



