SALAD PLANTS. 



lOI 



About the beginning of May plants may be placed in cold frames 

 with hot dung underneath, and they will give fruit all the summer. At 

 the end of May certain kinds may be sown in highly manured ground 

 out of doors, but they have never succeeded well in my garden. I 

 have particularly observed this mode of cultivation at Sandy in 

 Bedfordshire, where hundreds of tons of cucumbers are produced 

 annually for market. Sandy is on the Greensand, which is a stratum 

 subsequent to the chalk. The -ground is highly manured, and patches 

 of cucumbers are surrounded by seeding onions, which give a slight 

 protection from the wind without producing any shade. In fine years 

 the produce is almost fabulous. The kinds we prefer indoors, for 

 flavour, are Sion House and the Telegraph, for both summer and 

 winter use. We sometimes grow, in summer, Pearson's Long Gun ; 

 occasionally changing these kinds for other varieties. 



Cucumbers, pumpkins, and vegetal marrows have the male (b) and 

 female (a) flowers separate (fig. 142). It is indispensable to set melons. 



Fig. 142. — Cucumber. 

 A, Female Flower ; B, Male Flower. 



Fig. 143.— Cattell's Alliance Beet, ^a diam. 



it is advisable to set vegetal marrows ; but it is reckoned preferable 

 not to set cucumbers unless the seed is wanted for future growth. 

 A cucumber should have no seeds in its interior, or it is pithy and 

 not good to eat, Gardeners select varieties yielding but little seed, 

 and hence it is not easy to procure seed of the best sorts. 



A small kind of cucumber, called a gherkin, is used for pickling^ 

 but they do not grow readily. When we obtain a crop, they form 

 a most excellent pickle. 



