KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. ClIAP. 



are not so compact as the others, will be less white, and 

 drawing towards a cream colour. Now observe, it is the 

 compact, the smooth, the white head, of which you ought 

 to save the seed ; and, though it will bear much less seed 

 than a loose head, it will be good : you can rely upon it j 

 and that is more than you can upon any seed that you 

 purchase, though it come from Italy, whence this fine 

 vegetable originally came. There remains to notice only, 

 that the sun is apt to scorch the heads of cauliflowers, 

 and to make them of a brownish hue, which prepares 

 them for rotting if much wet afterwards come upon 

 them. To protect them from this, bend and break down 

 a couple of the large outer leaves, which will be protec- 

 tion against both sun and wet while the head is arriving 

 at maturity. 



138. CELERY. There are three sorts of celery, the 

 white, the red, and the solid. The bottoms of the leaves 

 of the two former, become hollow j that is to say, of 

 the outside leaves ; and it is desirable that the part which 

 is eaten should not be very hollow ; but the solid celery 

 is, by no means, of so tine a flavour as the other. The red 

 is hardier than either of the other two j and, like most 

 other hardy things, it is not so good as the more tender. 

 It is too strong ; and has a smell and taste somewhat ap- 

 proaching to the hemlock. Celery is a winter plant ; but, 

 us its seed lies very long in the ground, it ought to be 

 sowed early. It is difficult to make come up j and, 

 though it might do very well to sow it in a warm place 

 in the month of March, the easiest way, is, to sow it 

 r.pon a little bit of a hot-bed, though not on a greater 

 extent of ground than might be covered with a hand- 



