618 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



PART III. 



3594. Preventive device. " If in a patch of ground where cabbages are to be planted 

 some hemp-seed be sown all round the edge, in the spring, the strong smell wiiich that 

 plant gives in vapor, will prevent the butterfly from infesting the cabbages. The 

 Russian peasantry, in those provinces where hemp is cultivated, have their cabbages 

 within those fields, by which they are free from caterpillars." (J". Buscli, in Hart. Trans. 

 vol. iv. 569.) 



3595. The principal disease to which the cabbage is liable, is the club in the root. The 

 cause is doubtful, but most probably it proceeds from the puncture of an insect in 

 depositing its eggs. The part swells and becomes a tubercle as large as a gooseberry, 

 and sometimes the size of a hen's egg. When it has attacked plants before transplant- 

 ation, the root on which it appears should be cut off before planting ; in the case of 

 transplanted crops there is no remedy but taking up, cutting off, and re-transplanting. 

 Some in planting apply ashes, lime, &c. at the roots, but nothing of this sort has been 

 found of much advantage. In general, frequent transplanting (as pricking out twice or 

 oftener before making the final plantation) is a palliative, as it promotes fibrous roots, 

 and the club attacks chiefly those which are ramose. 



SECT. II. Leguminous Plants. 



3596. The leguminous esculents are of great antiquity as culinary vegetables ; the 

 British islands are supposed to be less favorable to them, than to most others, all the 

 diadelphous plants of Linnaeus, or leguminosae of Jussieu, thriving best in a dry atmo- 

 sphere, and comparatively arenaceous soil. These, it must be allowed, are more com- 

 mon in other countries than in ours. The space occupied by this tribe in the kitchen- 

 garden, during the spring and summer months, is very considerable ; probably amount- 

 ing to an eighth part of the open compartments, and warm borders ; but towards autumn, 

 as the crops ripen, it is given up to be succeeded by other crops, chiefly of the cabbage and 

 turnip tribes. These, independently of other circumstances, having fibrous or surface- 

 roots, succeed well to the tap-roots of the bean and pea. In cottage gardens, the bean 

 is very profitably grown among cabbages and potatoes ; and the pea and kidneybean 

 may occupy a space to be filled up in October with winter greens. We shall take them 

 in the order of the pea, bean, and kidneybean. 



SUBSECT. 1. Pea. Pisum sativum, L. (Lam. III. i. 163.) Diad. Decan. L. and 

 Leguminosce, J. Pois, Fr. ; Erbse, Ger. ; and Pisello, Ital. 



3597. The pea is a hardy annual, a native of the south of Europe, and cultivated in 

 this country from time immemorial. It was not very common, however, in Elizabeth's 

 time, when, as Fuller informs us, peas were brought from Holland, and were " fit 

 dainties for ladies, they came so far, and cost so dear." It is a climbing plant, with the 

 legumes, or pods, commonly produced in pairs, the seeds contained in which are the part 

 of the plant used. 



3598. Tlie use of the pea is familiar in cookery. In one variety, called the sugar-pea 

 (pois des couches, Fr. ?), the inner tough film of the pods is wanting ; and such pods, when 

 young, are frequently boiled with the seeds or peas within them, and eaten in the manner 

 of kidneybeans. This variety is comparatively new, having been introduced about the 

 middle of the 1 7th century. 



3599. The varieties of the pea are numerous : the principal are 



Early Charl ton ; an excellent earl; sort 



nearly equal to the genuine frame 

 Early golden Charlton 

 Early Nichol's golden Charlton 

 Common Charlton 

 Earlv single-blossomed 

 Reading Hotspur ; long pods 

 Dwarf marrowfat ; large, long pods 

 Tall marrowfat ; most large, long pods 

 Green marrowfat, Patagonian 

 Knight's wrinkled, or marrow ; a white- 



blossomed, tall, luxuriant grower; the 

 fruit of excellent flavor, cream-colored, 

 and shrivelled when ripe and dried 



Spanish moratto ; largish 



Prussian blue ; great bearer 



Egg; largish 



White rouncival ; large, fine pods 



Green rouncival ; ditto 



Grey rouncival ; ditto 



Tall sugar ; large, crooked pods 



Dwarf sugar 



Crown, or rose ; of tall, strong growth; 



producing its blossom and fruit in a 



bunchv tuft at top 

 Leadman's dwarf; a great bearer, but of 



small pods ; good for a latter crop, or 



as required for succession 

 Spanish dwarf; of low growth, small pod 

 Early dwarf frame; for forcing 

 Nanterre, or earliest French pea. 



3600. Estimate of sorts. " The varieties, besides differing in the color of the blossoms, height of the 

 stalks, and modes of growth, are found to have some material differences in hardiness to stand the winter, 

 time of coming in, and flavor of the fruit. The Charltons are not only very early, but great bearers, and 

 excellent peas for the table ; and are therefore equally well fitted for the early crop, and forward succes- 

 sion crops, and inferior to few even for the main summer crops. The frame-pea may, indeed, be raised 

 without the assistance of heat for a forward crop ; and, if a genuine sort, will fruit a few days sooner than 

 the Charlton : but it grows low, and bears scantily. The Hotspur is hardy and prolific, and makes returns 

 nearly as quick as the Charlton, and about a fortnight before the marrowfat. The sorts already specified, 

 therefore, embrace the best for sowings made from the end of October till the middle of January, and for 

 late crops raised between the middle of June and the beginning of August. The fine flavor of the marrow- 

 fat is well known. A few dwarf marrowfats may be sown in December and January, as mild weather 

 may occur : but the time for sowing full crops of the larger kinds of peas, is from the beginning of 

 February till the end of April. Knight's pea, one of the newest varieties, is very prolific, and retains its 

 fine sweet flavor when full grown. The egg, the moratto, the Prussian blue, and the rouncivals, the large 

 sugar, and the crown, are all very fine eating peas in young growth ; and, like the marrowfat, may be 

 sown freely, according to the demand, from the third week of February, till the close of April, and, in 

 smaller crops, until the middle of June. For late crops, in addition to the early sorts already mentioned, 

 the dwarf sugar, Leadman's dwarf, and Spanish dwarf, are very suitable. The Leadman's dwarf is 

 *nnll delicious pea, a great bearer, and in high request at genteel tables : but an the fruit is long in coming 



