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GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



LETTUCE.— (Lactuca saliva.) 



Lettuce is a hardy, annual, composite-flowered plant, 

 generally considered a native of Asia. The Cos lettuce, 

 however, came from the Greek island of Cos, in the 

 Levant. It has been cultivated in England since 1502. 



Of the two great families of lettuce, the Cos varieties, 

 which grow upright and of an oblong shape, and require 



Fig. 125. 

 blanching, though more esteemed in England, do not gen- 

 erally succeed so well in this country, except at the South, 

 where they may be sown early in October. The cabbage 

 varieties are more hardy and free growing, and better 

 adapted to our common gardens. 



The following are good cabbage lettuces: 

 Butter or Early White Cabbage. — Heads small, 

 white, crisp, and closely cabbaged; leaves pale yellowish 



