172 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



251. RAPE. This is a field plant for sheep r 

 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 capita! 

 articles of the garden, though I have never 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. It comes forth, like the dock, very early 

 in the spring. When its leaves are pretty large, 

 you cut them off close to the stem, and, if the 

 plant be fine, the stalk of the leaf will be from 

 eight inches to a foot long. You peel the outside 

 skin from these stalks, and then cut the stalks up 

 into bits about as big as the first joint of a lady's 

 third finger. You put these into puddings, pies, 

 tarts, just as you would green gooseberries and 

 green currants, and some people think they are 

 better than either : at any rate, they are full six 

 'weeks earlier. The plant, like the dock, is hardy 9 

 is raised from seed, from the roofs, will grow in 

 any ground, though best in rich ground ; and the 

 same plants will last for an age. It is a very 

 valuable plant, and no garden ought to be without 

 it. I should think, that a hundred wagon-loads 

 of the stalks are yearly sold in London A bunch 

 which you can clasp with your two hands sells 

 for a shilling or two in the very early part of the 

 season ; and that is nearly half a dollar. This 

 circumstance sufficiently speaks its praise. 



253. ROSEMARY is a beautiful little shrub. 

 One of them may be enough in a garden. It is 



