136 GARDEN PLANTS. TART IT. 



can be brought to produce heads of any size. The fine-looking 

 Cauliflowers sold in the Calcutta bazars, as well as the large 

 specimens sent to the horticultural shows there, are always 

 raised from acclimated seed. This seed, I understand, is com- 

 monly obtained from Patna, that being about the most southerly 

 locality in the plains of India where it can be matured. It 

 bears a high price at Calcutta, where as much as two rupees is 

 demanded for one rupee's weight of it. 



The directions given for the cultivation of Cabbage apply alike 

 for that of the Cauliflower, except that the Cauliflower requires, if 

 anything, a richer soil and a more liberal supply of manure. 



In the vicinity of Calcutta, plants raised from imported seed 

 grow to a great size, and do not form heads till late in the 

 season, even if they ever form them at all, and then only of 

 about the siz6 of a tea- cup. These, however, will be found of 

 very delicate flavour, and in my opinion superior to those raised 

 from acclimated seed. 



Mr. Errington, head-gardener to the Agri-Horticultural 

 Society, communicated to me likewise the curious fact, that a 

 large quantity of Cauliflower seed he received a year or two 

 ago from the North- West, and sowed in the Society's garden, 

 proved equally unsatisfactory as that from Europe and America 

 usually does, and produced heads no larger than a wine-glass. 



Some cultivators strongly recommend the removal of the 

 lower leaves, as of great efficacy in causing the plants to form 

 flower-heads. 



A method I have found very successful in the cultivation of 

 this vegetable has been to put out the plants, when very young, 

 singly into small pots, and when they have outgrown these to 

 shift them into others just about large enough for them to 

 complete half their growth in ; and when the Kains are over 

 to transfer them to their places in the open ground. If planted 

 so deep that the whole of the stem is buried beneath the soil, 

 very little, if any, earthing-up will be required afterwards. JBy 

 exposing the plants to the sun a few days before removal from 

 the pots, they will not flag or in any way suffer on being put 

 out into the open ground. This may seem an unnecessarily 

 troublesome mode of proceeding. I am, however, inclined to 

 believe that it is one which involves less trouble than any other. 

 The pots can be kept in a place where the plants are protected 



