‘442 
the two pieces. The great difficulty in cooking 
is to avoid the flavour of smoke; with this object 
in view the fruit is sometimes cooked between 
two plates. 
Another mode of preparation consists in peel- 
ing the fruit, placing it in a frying-pan, scoring 
it across and across, filling the incisions with 
fine Florence oil, and then sprinkling with salt, 
pepper, nutmeg, and grated bread. When half- 
cooked a little aromatic vinegar is poured over 
the fruit, which is then served garnished with 
Parsley or Chervil. 
To ripen the fruit perfectly the seeds should 
be sown in January or February, in pans of rich 
soil, placed in a temperature of from 65° to 70°. 
When the young plants have made two 
leaves, they may be potted off singly 
into small pots, from which they should 
be shifted on till in 8- or 10-inch pots, 
in which they may be fruited. The 
plants ought at all times to receive 
abundance of water, and manure-water 
may be occasionally given until the fruit 
has nearly attained its full size, after 
which the application should be discon- 
tinued. The plants ought to be grown 
with a single stem, which must _ be 
pinched to encourage the production of 
two branches, which should themselves 
be stopped to make them throw out 
laterals. When four fruit are set, no 
more fruit or laterals should be allowed to form, 
or the fruit will be small. 
The Parisian market-gardeners adopt the fol- 
lowing mode of cultivation. They sow in 
December or January. A hot-bed is prepared, 
the heat of which should be from 68° to 77°. It 
is surrounded with a good lining, and covered 
with a layer of vegetable mould about 5 inches 
in thickness, and when the requisite degree of 
heat is attained the seeds are sown. The sashes 
are covered at night with a good straw-mat. A 
fortnight or three weeks after sowing, a second 
bed, not so hot as the first, is prepared. This 
is covered with vegetable mould, and when the 
seed-leaves are well developed the young plants 
are pricked out into this second bed, and after 
some time they are again taken up and replanted 
in the same bed, but at the distance of 8 or 9 
inches from each other. The covering up of 
the sashes at night is still continued, and as 
soon as the young plants begin to grow a 
little air is given if the temperature will 
permit. 
In March another hot-bed is prepared and 
covered with vegetable mould. When the heat 
THE GARDENER’S ASSISTANT. 
is from 60° to 68° four egg-plants are planted 
under each 43-feet sash. They do not get air 
for several days, in order that the plants may 
more readily take fresh root, after which a 
little air is given by pushing the sashes either 
up or down, and these are opened wider as the 
season advances, so that they may be taken off 
in the month of May. The further attention 
they require consists in watering when neces- 
sary, and in cleaning the leaves, which are often 
attacked by scale or by red spider. By these 
means fruit fit for gathering may be obtained 
about the end of June or beginning of July, 
and the plants continue to bear good fruits till 
October. 
Fig. 1193 —Endive. 
Endive (Cichoriam Endivia) (fig. 1193). A 
hardy annual, common in the Mediterranean ’ 
region. It is closely related to the common 
Chicory. In habit it resembles a Cabbage 
Lettuce, the leaves spreading in a rosette from 
a short fleshy stem. It requires less warmth 
than the Lettuce, and is therefore useful as-a 
salad in late autumn and winter. It also serves 
as an ingredient in some other culinary pre- 
parations. 
Cultivation.—A light rich soil is suitable for 
the growth of Endives, and a position exposed 
to full sunshine. A small sowing of seeds may — 
be made in May. The first main crop may be 
sown about the middle of June. The principal 
crops for winter use require to be sown in the © 
middle and end of July. Lastly, a sowing to 
come in late may be made in mid-August. 
The seeds should be sown thinly, on a bed of 
rich earth raked fine, in shallow drills 4 inches 
apart, covering lightly with fine soil. In dry 
weather the seed-beds should be watered through 
a fine rose till the plants make their appearance. 
The plants, as they advance in growth, should 
be thinned out to 3 or 4 inches apart in the 
