AMERI CAN GARDENER. 171 



breed more readily than any thing else, though 

 they have no bloom ! If some plants of this 

 blossomless kind grow with or near the other 

 kinds, they will produce plants with a rough leaf,, 

 some of them will even blow, and they will lose 

 their quality of earliness. This is quite enough to 

 prove the fallacy of the doctrine of a communi- 

 cation of the farina of the flowers of plants. 



246. POTATO. (Sweet). This plant is 

 cultivated 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 cul- 

 tivation is the same, and every body knows the 

 different 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 garden. 



