Tender and Hardy Plants 239 



ilar care: and these plants should be thrown together 

 in groups. 



It is important that the intending cultivator classify 

 the plant with reference to climate or season. Some 

 vegetables are essentially hot -season or semi-tropical 

 plants: of such are corn, tomato, cucumber, all mel- 

 ons, squashes and pumpkins, beans, okra, eggplant, 

 red pepper or capsicum, sweet potato. These plants are 

 injured or killed by light frost. They are commonly 

 classed as "tender." They should not be set in the 

 open until danger of frost is past. Other vegetables 

 are cool-season or mid- temperate plants: of such are 

 all root crops, potato, all onion-like plants, pea, spinach, 

 all cole crops, lettuce, celery, cress, asparagus, rhubarb. 

 They are classed as "hardy," since, when properly grown 

 and handled, they will withstand considerable frost. 



There are three general methods or schemes of clas- 

 sifying kitchen -garden vegetables: (1) A classification 

 based primarily on the uses to which the crops are put. 

 The most perfect illustration of this classification is 

 Loudon's (Cyclopcedia of Gardening), of which he re- 

 marks : " Though no such arrangement can be absolutely 

 perfect, from the circumstance of some of the plants 

 being used for different purposes, yet, by bringing to- 

 gether such as present most points of union something 

 better than a mere alphabetical catalogue is formed." * 

 This scheme, somewhat modified, is used by Burr in his 

 "Field and Garden Vegetables of America," the only 

 American work which has classified the subject. (2) 



* London's classification, with minor modifications, is printed on p. 258 of 

 the fourth edition of "The Horticulturist's Rule-Book." 



