CHAP. I. CULINAKY VEGETABLES. 131 



edge of the tank, so that the bottoms may be immersed ; the 

 water, penetrating through the holes, will keep the roots of the 

 cress continually wet. As the water sinks in the tank, which it 

 will gradually do during the Cold season, lower at the same time 

 the pans into it. 



Cochlearia Armoracia. 



HORSE-RADISH. 



Horse-radish has been now for some years grown, but can 

 hardly be said to have been cultivated in India. As exhibited 

 at the Calcutta annual vegetable shows, it is always in the 

 condition of a number of fibrous roots of different degrees of 

 thickness, twisted in every kind of crooked form, instead of being, 

 as it ought to be, one single straight stout stick. 



The mode of cultivation adopted in England is to bury 

 pieces of the root, an inch and a half long, a foot deep in the 

 ground, which, by a year or two after, will grow up and reach 

 the surface, and then be fit for taking up for use.- I have tried 

 this method here, but not been successful with it, as the pieces 

 of root I deposited below the ground I found in a very short 

 time perished. 



The plan I then resorted to, with perfect success, was as 

 follows : 



Place round the sides of a flower-pot, filled with mould, well 

 lightened with silver-sand, pieces of the roots, of the thickness 

 of a quill, and two inches long. These being kept watered, 

 quickly sprout and form rooted plants. Dig holes a foot and 

 a half deep, ten inches wide and a foot apart, on a piece of 

 high ground. Fill the lower half foot with well-manured soil, 

 and the remaining upper foot with a light mellow soil, and put 

 one of the plants in each. When they have been established 

 about a week or two, remove the earth from the roots, and 

 clear away all the small fibrous roots that have formed, leaving 

 only one main root to proceed downwards. Eepeat this three 

 or four times at intervals, removing the earth deeper each time 

 for the purpose. When the main root has descended about a 

 foot deep, which it will do in a very short time, by being 

 cleared of all fibres upon it but those at its very extremity, 

 it will have reached the rich soil at the bottom of the hole. 

 Kemove then the uppermost foot of soil, -and fill in with silver- 

 is 2 



