Ko. 144.] 611 



may be cultivated in the same way, remembering to leave the 

 chief part of the stems uncovered by the earth. The bulbs 

 may be kept sound and nutritious until very late in the spring, 

 even later than those of the Swedes. 



Brussels Sprouts (Chou de Bruxelles), from France. This is a 

 variety of cabbage, but is little cultivated in this country. It 

 rises two or three feet high, and produces, from the sides of the 

 stalk numerous little sprouts resembling cabbage heads one or 

 two inches in diameter. The leaves, which look like the Savoy, 

 should be broken down in the fall to give the little heads room 

 to grow. They are used for fall and winter greens, and being 

 quite hardy, should be sown and treated like Scotch kale. 



Sea Kale (Crambe maritima), from England, a hardy perennial, 

 cultivated for its blanched shoots, which are cooked like aspara- 

 gus, and is esteemed as a delicate and wholesome vegetable. 

 The seeds are sown early in the spring, about an inch deep in 

 fourteen inch drills. When the plants are a year old they are 

 transplanted in straight rows, five feet apart and eighteen inches 

 asunder along the rows. It is necessary that the ground should 

 be thoroughly trenched and manured. Late in the fall, when 

 the leaves have separated themselves from the crown, heap over 

 each plant a shovelful of clean sand or ashes, and earth up a 

 ridge a foot and a halt high over the row^s, from a trench dug 

 along the space between them, and beat it smooth with the back 

 of the spade. In the spring, after the cutting is over, the earth 

 should be leveled into the trenches, so as to expose the crowns 

 of the plants, and a good coat of strong manure dug in around 

 them. It is adapted to the coldest climates, and deserves to be 

 more extensively cultivated. 



Lettuces. — Of lettuce, three varieties were received from Ger- 

 many, the " Blood Red," " Spotted," or Tiger," and the " Aspa- 

 ragus lettuce." There were three kinds also from France, the 

 *' large brown slowrgrowing" (Laitue grosse brune paresseuse), 

 'With greyish green leaves, marked with pale brownish spots, hav- 

 ing very large and regular heads, slightly tinged with red at the 

 top; "Roman pale-colored marsh" (Laitue Romaiue blonde 



