KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. CHAP. 



To save the seed of the parsnip, let four or five of the 

 plants stand through the next summer, or remove them 

 to a more convenient spot. They will bear a great quan- 

 tity of seed. When it turns ripe, cut the seed stalk off, 

 lay it upon a cloth in the sun until perfectly dry j then 

 take off the seed, put it in a paper bag, and put it in a 

 very dry place : it keeps well for only one year. 



169. PEA. This is one of those vegetables which all 

 people like. From the greatest to the smallest of gar- 

 dens, we always find peas, not to mention the thousands 

 of acres which are grown in fields for the purpose of 

 being eaten by the gardenless people of the towns. 

 Where gardening is carried on upon a royal, or almost 

 royal scale, peas are raised by means of artificial heat, in 

 order to have them here at the same time that they have 

 them in Portugal, which is in the months of December 

 and January. Beneath this royal state, however, the next 

 thing is to have them in the natural ground as early as 

 possible ; and that may be, sometimes by the middle of 

 May, and hardly ever later than about the first week of 

 June. The late king, George the Third, reigned so long, 

 that his birth- day formed a sort of season with gar- 

 deners 5 and, ever since I became a man, I can recol- 

 lect that it was always deemed rather a sign of bad gar- 

 dening if there were not green peas in the garden fit to 

 gather on the fourth of June. It is curious that green 

 peas are to be had as early in Long Island, and in the 

 sea-board part of the state of New Jersey, as in England, 

 though not sowed there, observe, until very late in April, 

 while our's, to be very early, must be sowed in the month 

 of December or January. It is still more curious, that, 



