'268 



HORTICULTURE. 



Kitchen 

 Garden. 



ply of the article generally at hand, as the back-door of 

 the garden opens to the sea- shore. 







Sca-Cale. 



Sca-Cale. 357. Sea-Cale, (Crambe maritima, L. ; Tetradyna- 

 mia Siliquosa ; nat. ord. Cruciferce), is a perennial 

 plant, growing naturally on many of the sandy and 

 gravelly beaches of the west of England, and also among 

 cliffs on the sea coast of Essex and Sussex. It is not 

 mentioned by Lightfoot in his Flora of Scotland ; but 

 it grows on the shore of the Frith of Forth at Caroline 

 Park, near Edinburgh. It is figured in English Bo- 

 tany, t. 92*. The roots are spreading (rather than 

 creeping, as they are commonly described) ; the whole 

 plaul is smooth, glaucous, or covered with a fine bloom ; 

 the lower leaves large and waved ; the stalks rise near 

 two feet high, producing white flowers, followed by 

 spherical seed-pods, resembling peas, each containing 

 oniy a single seed. 



358. The common peoplei particularly on the west- 

 ern shores of England, have for time immemorial been 

 in the practice of watching when the shoots begin to 

 push up the sand or gravel, in March and April, and 

 cutting oft' the young shoots, which are thus blanched 

 and tender, and using them as a pot-herb. It was 

 toward the middle of the 1 8th century, however, be- 

 fore sea-cale was introduced into the kitchen-garden. 

 About the year 1767, it was first brought into general 

 notice in the neighbourhood of London by the late dis- 

 tinguished Dr Lettsom, who cultivated it in his gar- 

 den at Grove Hill. In the " Gardeners Dictionary" 

 published in 1774-, by James Gordon at Fountain- 

 bridge, are contained directions for the cultivation of 

 this vegetable, and for blanching it by covering the 

 beds four inches deep with sand or gravel. A good 

 many years afterwards, a detailed account of its cul- 

 ture was given by the Rev. Mr Laurent, in the third 

 volume of Young's Annals of Agriculture. The late 

 Mr Curtis, well known for his botanical writings, next 

 published a tract recommending it ; and in the first 

 volume of the Transactions of the Horticultural Socie- 

 ty of London, there is a very good paper on its cultiva- 

 tion, by Mr John Maher, gardener at Edmonton. It 

 is now become a pretty common vegetable in Covent 

 Garden market, and has even begun to appear on the 

 green stalls of the Scottish metropolis. 



359. The bed or quarter intended for sea-cale is 

 trenched deep, at least two feet. The soil should be 

 sandy and light, but at the same time mixed with fine 

 rich mould ; and it may here be noticed, that of all ma- 

 nures for this crop, drift mare or sea-weed is the best. 

 The plant may be propagated either by offsets or pieces 

 of the roots having two or three eyes or buds attached 

 to them, or by seeds. The latter mode is generally 

 preferred. The seeds are sown in March, perhaps 

 about two inches deep. Three seeds are sometimes set 

 in a triangular form, six inches apart, leaving a space 

 of two feet between the triangles. If the quality of 

 the seed is any wise doubtful, two or more are com- 

 monly put in each hole, to make sure of a crop, any 

 superfluous plants being afterwards thinned out. Dur- 

 ing the first summer, the only culture necessary is hoe- 

 ing, to keep the plants clear of weeds. In November, 

 some gardeners cover the whole bed with rotten dung, 

 in the way that is often practised with asparagus. This 

 is raked off in the spring, and the surface of the earth 

 stirred with the asparagus fork. During the second 

 year, the same plan is followed. In the third year, 



most of the plants will be strong enough to be blanch- Kitchen 

 ed for use. 



360. The blanching is accomplished in different ways. 

 For a long time the only provision for this purpose 

 was to make the shoots pass through several inches of 

 soil before reaching the surface, and afterwards draw- 

 ing up the earth to them as they advanced. It was an 

 improvement to use sifted coal-ashes for the earthing 

 up, and a farther improvement to use old tree-leaves 

 for that purpose. Some cultivators placed hoops over 

 the beds, and covered them close with mats. Large 

 flower pots, such as are denominated No. 1, inverted 

 over the plants, were found very useful in forwarding 

 the etiolation, and in keeping the plant crisp and clean. 

 Blanching pots with handles -were afterwards used ; 

 and a figure of one of these is given, in the London 

 Horticultural Transactions, vol. i. plate 1. A very great 

 improvement in the constructing of blanching pots was 

 suggested by Mr R. A. Salisbury, Secretary to the 

 London Horticultural Society, the making them iu 

 two pieces, or with moveable tops or lids. Such are 

 now used in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and 

 are found exceedingly convenient ; a figure of one of 

 them may be seen Plate CCCXII. Fig. 5. These pots 

 should be nearly as wide at top as below, in order to 

 give room for the cutting of such shoots as are ready, 

 without breaking the others ; and the covers should fit 

 very nicely, so as to exclude light and air as complete- 

 ly as possible ; the pot in this way serving not only for 

 blanching, but to a certain extent for forcing. It is 

 necessary to have from thirty to fifty such covers; each 

 affording only as much as will form a dish, during 

 the season. Sir George Mackenzie, Bart, whose name 

 has more than once been mentioned as a horticul- 

 tural improver, has described (Scottish Hort. Mem. 

 i. 313) a simple and easy mode of blanching practised 

 in his garden at Coul. This consists in covering the 

 beds with clean dry straw, which is changed when it 

 becomes wet or heavy. Oat straw, when it is broken 

 in the thrashing- mill, is found to be well suited for this 

 purpose. 



361. It is justly remarked by Nicol, that vegeta- 

 bles are seldom improved by forcing; but that sea- 

 cale is perhaps an exception ; the forced shoots pro- 

 duced at midsummer being more crisp and deli- 

 cate in flavour than those procured in the natural 

 way, in April or May. ' Certainly no vegetable is 

 more easily or more cheaply forced. It is done ia 

 two ways ; either in the beds in the open air, or in 

 hot-bed frames or flued pits. In the open air beds, 

 the operation consists merely in placing blanching 

 covers over the plants as soon as the leaves are de- 

 cayed in the end of autumn ; and then covering up 

 the whole bed with stable- dung, packing it closely be- 

 tween the pots, and heaping it over the tops of them 

 to the depth of six inches or more. In the course 

 of December the sea-cale vegetates, and advances in 

 proportion to the heat generated by the fermentation of 

 the covering of dung. In general, it is fit for cutting 

 in January and February. If the heat of the litter at 

 any time decline, a portion of new stable dung is mix- 

 ed with it. The advantages of having blanching pots 

 with moveable lids, are, in this kind of forcing, very 

 great: the temperature may more easily be ascertained, 

 by lifting a lid in one or two parts of the bed, and in- 

 troducing a thermometer : in the same way, it is easy 

 to examine whether the shoots be ready for cutting, and 

 to select the most forward from several stools, with- 

 out materially disturbing the dung and dissipating the 



