THE KITCHEN-GAEDEN. 25 



Buist's early red and Downing's collossal are the best. Palmatum is 

 the variety the root of ■which is so extensively used in medicine. It 

 may be grown here as well as in Scotland, India and China. This plant 

 requires a light, deep and rich soil. There is no obstacle to the cultiva- 

 tion of this interesting plant. It will stand unprotected as far north as 

 the St. Lawrence, and yield annually a large crop. North of that limit 

 all that is necessary for its preservation is to throw over it, during win- 

 ter, a quantity of dry leaves, to keep off intense frost, and, as spring 

 opens, to clear away the litter and cultivate the ground. If there are 

 three months of good sun, it is all the plant requires to mature it. 

 Wherever oats will grow, the rhubarb will thrive ; only give it depth 

 of soil for its roots, and manure to stimulate its luxuriance. In southern 

 latitudes it must be planted in moist situations, and under the shade of 

 buildings, to ward off the scorching rays of the sun at mid-day, and in 

 dry periods it must be watered freely. The whole of this continent, 

 from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay, may enjoy the luxury of this 

 vegetable. 



It may be forwarded by placing an invferted barrel or tub over it, 

 before the ground freezes in autumn, covering with heavy litter, or by 

 covering the plant itself from six to twelve inches with the same ma- 

 terial. 



Salsifj'', called by some oyster-plant, is good in soups, or to eat like 

 the parsnip. It is cultivated like the parsnip, and like it, stands out the 

 whole of an American winter. 



Spashi — Varieties : early bush scollop, green striped bush, early 

 crookneck, large cushaw, vegetable marrow, winter crookneck, Lima 

 cocoa-nut, acorn, or California. 



Cultivated precisely like the melon and cucumber, which see. 



Spinach. — Every one knows how good and useful a plant this is. It 

 is certainly preferable to any of the cabbage kind in point of wholesome- 

 ness, and it is of very easy cultivation. There is, in fact, but one sort 

 that I know any thing of, though the seed is sometimes more prickly 

 than at other times. To have spinach very early in the spring, sow on 

 or about the first week in September, in drills a foot apart, and when 

 the plants are well up, thin them to six inches. They will be fine and 

 strong by the time that the winter sets in ; and as soon as that time 

 comes, cover them over well with straw, and keep the straw on till the 

 breaking up of the frost. Sow more as soon as the frost is out of the 

 ground, and this will be in perfection in June. You may sow again in 

 May, but the plants will go off to seed before they attain to much size. 

 If you save seed yourself, • save it from some of the plants that have 

 stood the winter. 



Tflmato. — Varieties : large red, large yellow, pear-shaped, cherry- 

 shaped. 



The seed should be sown early in March, in a slight hot-bed, and the 

 plants set out in the open ground, if-settled warm weather, in the early 

 part of May. In private gardens it will be necessary to plant them n^ar 

 a fence, and to provide trellises for them to be trained to ; they wjU, 

 however, do very well if planted four feet distant from each other 

 every way. 



