CAULIFLOWER. 171 



part of the stem, which is the part used. The seed may be 

 sown in the beginning of June, and the seedlings trans- 

 planted in July ; the vegetable is thus fit for use at the 

 approach of winter. Of the Chou-rave the French have a 

 cut-leaved variety, which is considered as rather earlier 

 than the common sort. 



CAULIFLOWER. This is cultivated for the sake of the 

 flower-buds, which form a large, dense cluster or head, and 

 afford one of the most delicate products of the kitchen gar- 

 den. There are three varieties, the Early, the Late, and 

 the Reddish-stalked ; but these seem to present scarcely 

 any well-marked distinction ; the earliness or lateness de- 

 pending on the time of sowing. Of late a sort called the 

 Large Asiatic has come much into use. 



The sowing, for the first or spring crop, is made in the 

 latter half of the month of August ; and in the neighbor- 

 hood of London, the growers adhere as nearly as possible 

 to the 21st day. A second sowing takes place in Febru- 

 ary on a slight hotbed, and a third in April or May. 



The cauliflower being tender, the young plants require 

 protection in winter. For this purpose they are sometimes 

 pricked out in a warm situation at the foot of a wall with 

 a southern exposure, where, in severe weather, they are also 

 covered with hoops and mats. Perhaps a better method is 

 to plant them thickly in the ground, under a common hot- 

 bed frame, and to secure them from cold by coverings, and 

 from damp by giving air in mild weather.* For a very 



* During the severe and protracted snow-storm of 1838, Mr. Robert Mil- 

 ler, market-gardener at Gorgie, was completely successful in preserving his 

 cauliflower plants in the open border, by the simple expedient of heaping 

 snow over them to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet. Occasional 

 slight thawings were followed by intense frosts, when the cold was from 20 

 even to 10 Fahr. But the only effect was the glazing of the surface of the 



