HEEBS AND SIMALL SALADS. 



51 



green-house treatment with proper care. Even A. 

 Forleyense, although growing more rapidly in a 

 stove temperature, is not difficult to manage in a 

 green-house, and cut fronds from plants so treated 

 keep fresh much longer than those furnished by 

 Ijlants grown in heat. As a matter of course, plants 

 themselves from the cooler 

 quarters stand much better 

 either for the temporary 

 or permanent decoration 

 of apartments, &:c. Pro- 

 vided the atmosphere is 

 fairly well charged with 

 moisture, syringing over- 

 head should not be prac- 

 tised, as the species with 

 densely - packed pinnules 

 often become discoloured 

 and much disfigured by 

 the water remaining among 

 the clustered fronds. 



Many of the Maidenhairs 

 are amongst the easiest of 

 ferns to raise from spores ; 

 and as good plants, by pro- 

 per management, can be 

 obtained in less than a 

 year by this method, re- 

 course to it, in preference 

 to dividing the roots, is 

 depended upon by growers 

 on a large scale. The 

 fronds with ripe sporangia 

 should be cut and placed 

 on a sheet of white paper 

 in an airy place for a 

 day or two. The spore - 

 cases burst, and allow the 

 spores to fall on the 

 paper, when they may be 

 sown at once. Well- 

 drained pots should be 

 filled with loam and sand 

 made quite firm at the 

 top, and well watered. 

 The spores should be sown 



on the damp surface, and then the pot placed in 

 a saucer of water in a shady place, and a piece of 

 glass put over the top. If the saucer be kept full of 

 water, capillary attraction will suffice to keep the soil 

 moist enough, and the danger of washing away spores 

 by watering overhead will be avoided. After the 

 spores have germinated the glass should be partially 

 raised, to allow more air ; and the young prothallia 

 can be pricked off into small pots, and treated like 

 any tender seedlings. 



HERBS AND SMALL SALADS. 



By William Earley. 



Adiantum Capillus-veneeis 



IN view of furthering the original intention of this 

 work, to make it a book for " ready reference," 

 it is deemed expedient to 

 place the many varieties 

 of kitchen - garden grown 

 plants, known variously 

 as herbs and the minor 

 forms of salad plants, in 

 one alphabetical list 

 together, this being the 

 more convenient, especi- 

 ally when it is considered 

 that accordingly as 

 individual tastes vary, so 

 are varieties of herbs 

 proper, used and utilised in 

 salad mixture as desirable 

 ingredients. 



As the two terms are not 

 too well understood by 

 some growers, it may be 

 convenient to explain them. 

 Herb — i.e., Latin herba — is 

 simply a plant with soft or 

 succulent stalk, which dies 

 to the root every year, as 

 grasses do. Salads arc 

 simply all kinds of raw 

 herbs dressed for use as 

 such, and are therefore thus 

 simply separated from all 

 vegetables used for culinary 

 purposes, though some are 

 useful for both. 



It will be observed that 

 no hard-and-fast rule exists 

 in regard to any. The term 

 herb must therefore be read 

 in the sense of being a useful 

 and convenient mode of 

 nomenclature rather than 

 as being exact, for even 

 the dwarf-shrub-formed Thjone and Sage are con- 

 sidered such. 



Angelica {Angelica officinalis). French, Angc- 

 liqne ; Germain, £>/gelwurtz ; Itsdisin, Angelica. — This 

 is a stately biennial plant belonging to the Umbel- 

 liferous order, and an inhabitant of Lapland, besides 

 being indigenous in this country. Under a proper 

 system of culture it will thrive and exist beyond the 

 wonted time of biennials proper. The plant grows 



