Chap. XXVIII.] SALADS IN PARIS. 481 



by the early spring sun, and from the moment they receive 

 the additional warmth and steady temperature of the cloche they 

 commence to unfold their fresh and juicy leaves, and finish by 

 becoming great-hearted and tender products. In the first instance 

 three or five little plants may be put under each glass, and these 

 thinned out and used as they grow, so that eventually only one is 

 left, which often grows almost too big for the glass. No water 

 is required, as the ground possesses sufficient moisture in winter 

 and spring, and evaporation is prevented by the glasses and the 

 protecting litter that covers the little spaces between them. 

 Thus a suitable moisture is kept up at all times, and the con- 

 ditions that best suit Lettuces are preserved by the simplest 

 means. 



With the same glasses the various small saladings may be 

 grown to perfection. Thus, for instance, if Corn Salad be desired 

 perfectly clean and fresh in mid-winter, it may be obtained by 

 sowing it between the smaller Lettuces grown under these 

 glasses ; and so with any other small salad or seedlings that may 

 be gathered before the more important crop requires all the 

 room. These bell-glasses will be found of quite as much advantage 

 in the British garden as they are in France ; they will render 

 possible the production of as fine winter salads in our gardens as 

 ever the French grew ; they will enable us to supply our own 

 markets with a commodity for which a good deal of money now 

 leaves the country ; hence their adoption is important for all who 

 care for delicate winter salads. At present the home-grown produce 

 is so inferior at that season, that it is generally avoided, and 

 rightly so ; for Lettuces when hard and wiry from alternations 

 of frost, sleet, and rains — slug-eaten and half-covered with the 

 splashings of the ground, above which they hardly rise — are not 

 worth gathering. And though they may be grown well in frames 

 and pits, the method herein described is, when properly carried 

 out, better and simpler than that. To understand the cloche and 

 its use will not suffice ; it is well to observe the culture of the 

 varieties suited for each season. 



CuLTTjKE OF THE Lbttuce Petite Noike. — This kind is grown to 

 an enormous extent ; these are the Lettuces sent from Paris 

 to Covent Garden throughout the autumn and winter. Few, 

 however, sow it before the first days of September. It is sown 



