164 GAKDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



Lactuca sativa. 



LETTUCE. 



There are two kinds of Lettuce, the Cabbage-lettuce and the 

 long upright kind called the Cos-lettuce. It is a matter of 

 taste which of these two is to be preferred. For sweetness and 

 tenderness the Cos, when in perfection, will perhaps be the 

 favourite. This kind affords also a very delicious dish when 

 stewed. Of the two kinds, moreover, there are several varieties, 

 many of which possibly are excellent, when seed is obtained 

 true to its name. Of the Cos kind I have never seen any very 

 favourable specimens in this country, except those I have raised 

 of the variety called Carter's Giant White. There is no vege- 

 table of which the cultivator should be more careful about 

 obtaining superior seed than the Lettuce. For the Cold season 

 crops country seed should be entirely rejected, and none but 

 that of European produce sown. 



A commencement of sowing may be made at the beginning 

 of October. The seed is rather small, and in some cases will be 

 in the ground perhaps a month or two before the whole that has 

 been sown germinates. It is very liable to the depredations of 

 insects, of the red ants in particular, which devour it greedily ; 

 it is therefore a good plan to make the sowing in a large shallow 

 seed-pan, and isolate this by placing it upon an empty flower-pot 

 standing in a vessel of water. Another seed-pan of equal size 

 inverted upon the one in which the sowing is made will keep 

 the soil from drying too rapidly. The soil used should be made 

 light and mellow by mixing with it leaf-mould and a little sand. 



The plants should be pricked out as soon as they have made 

 their second pair of leaves, and planted out, at about eight or 

 ten inches apart, in a piece of ground of a light rich soil. 



When plentiful, the seed may also be sown broadcast in the 

 open ground : those will be by far the finest Lettuces which 

 grow up on the spot where sown, as they always suffer more or 

 less from transplantation. 



If two or three plants be reserved and allowed to run to seed, 

 the seed thus saved may be sown almost immediately, and a 

 supply of plants secured, which if grown in a spot tolerably 

 sheltered from the sun and excessive wet, will come into use 

 during the Hot and Kain seasons. 



