Lettuce 



107 



The Cos lettuces, or Eomaines, produce rather loose 

 heads, but the midribs are usually very broad and in the 

 interior of the head are likely to be somewhat blanched. 

 Gardeners sometimes tie up the heads at the top to further 

 the blanching, but the plants must be watched carefully to 

 avoid rot. Eomaine is grown the same as other lettuce, 

 but it is likely to stand longer in the field before running 

 to seed. Sown late, it makes very acceptable autumn 

 salad. 



For market, the lettuce plant is cut just above ground, 

 the outer leaves are removed and the heads or bunches are 

 shipped in ventilated crates or barrels. The plants should 

 not be cut for this purpose in the middle of the day, for 

 they soon wilt. 



Seed of lettuce is groAvn extensively in California. 

 Yields vary with the variety and the handling; one pound 

 of marketable seed may be had from 30 to 60 plants. 



The Lettuce Plant 



Lactuca. Compositcr. Genus of weedy herbs, perhaps 100 

 species in many parts of the world, some of them native in 

 the United States and Canada and others introduced weeds ; 

 annuals, biennials, perennials. 



L. sativa, Linn. Sp. PI. 795. L. Scariola, Linn. var. sativa, 

 Clarke, Compos. Ind. 263. 1876. Garden Lettuce. Annual 

 erect smooth herb with milky juice, producing a rosette or 

 cluster of radical leaves; stem 3-4 ft. high, leafy, branching 

 above, the many slender branches bearing numerous clasping- 

 conduplicate cordate mostly acute bracts : radical leaves (used 

 in salad) various, 5 to 10 in. long, thin, spreading, roundish 

 to oblong to obovate to Ungulate, obtuse and usually very blunt, 

 margins plane or undulate, entire or sinuate-dentate, often 

 somewhat lobed or erose toward the narrowing base, the petiole 

 very short or none, the blade with many prominent ribs aris- 



