MV GARDEN. 



solidity of stem, and in tenderness. No kind is worth growing unless it 

 is solid, as a pithy stem is very disagreeable. We grow chiefly a kind 

 called Ivery's Nonsuch, but add one or two other kinds every year from 

 the seedsmen's catalogues. There are one or two dwarf kinds of great 

 excellence. There is a variety of celery with 

 a bulbous root, called Celeriac (fig. 140), much 

 used at Vienna and in other parts of the Con- 

 tinent, but little grown in this country. The 

 seed is sown like that of celery, and planted 

 out in rich ground. The bulbs are boiled, cut 

 into slices, and served with oil and vinegar. 

 It forms a very delicious salading for winter 

 us^. The bulbs which I have observed in the 

 market-places abroad are much larger than those which have been 

 produced in my garden ; nevertheless some should invariably be grown. 

 In Scotland, celeriac forms no bulbs, and has only fibrous roots. 



In some years the growth of celery is difficult on account of the 

 ravages of a leaf-eating grub (see Insects), which lives between the two 

 skins of the leaf and which causes the plant to rot. The only remedy 

 is to pick off the part of the leaf affected, taking care to remove 

 as leaf as possible. 



Fig. 140. — Celeriac, ^ diam. 



Fig. 141. — Cucumber, \ size. 



Cucumbers {Ciicumis sativa, fig. 141) form an article of salading 

 which we have all the year round. Even in winter we obtain 

 cucumbers when the sun vouchsafes to shine, but when it does not 

 appear for weeks our plants go to grief For winter use we plant in 

 August, and prefer Rollison's Telegraph. It is a httle difficult to get 

 seeds of the true kind, and hence we frequently propagate by cuttings 

 or layers, as a shoot six inches long, cut off at a joint and placed in 

 cocoa-nut fibre, very freely roots, and soon makes a flowering and 

 fruiting plant. In the same way a layer may be made of a larger 

 shoot with perfect success. 



