KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



and many other plants, they continue to blow long after : 

 part of their seed is nearly ripe. Therefore, if you were 

 to stop till all the seed ripened, before you gathered 

 any, you would stand a chance to lose the whole ; for i 

 the birds would have eaten the first seed long before all 

 the flowers were off the plant. The best way, therefore, 

 is to pull up the plants when the first seed is ripe ; and 

 that gives you plenty of time to put the whole plant to 

 lie and wither in the sun, without which, too, it is very 

 difficult to get the seed out of the pods. A very good 

 way is, first to make the whole plant, pods and all, dry 

 in the sun, and then to hang the plant up by the heels in 

 some dry and airy place, and rub the seed out of the pods 

 as you want it. In the pod, it will keep a great many 

 years, perhaps twenty, and, perhaps, fifty j but, out of 

 the pod, it will keep well, not above two. 



175. RAMPION. This is the smallest seed of which 

 we have any knowledge. A thimble-full, properly dis- 

 tributed, would sow an acre of land. It is sowed in the 

 spring, in very fine earth. Its roots are used in soup 



and salads. Its leaves are also used in salads. A yard 

 square is enough for any garden., 



176. RAPE. This is a field-plant for sheep j but it is 

 very good to sow like white mustard, to use as salad, and 

 it is sowed and raised in the same way. 



177. RHUBARB. The dock, which is a mischievous 

 weed, is the native English rhubarb. Its name is found 

 in the list of seeds in Chapter IV., because that list is 

 the same as the list in my American Gardener j and, in 



