IV.] THE AMERICAN GARDENER. 135 



the propagation and cultivation of all the sorts are 

 the same. 



218. DANDELION.— This is a well-known and 

 most wicked garden weed, in this country as well as 

 in England ; and I am half afraid to speak of using 

 it as food, lest I should encourage laziness. But, 

 there may be people without gardens, and without 

 the means of purchasing greens in the spring; and 

 to them what I am about to say may be of use. 

 The Dandelion is as early as the earliest of grass ; 

 and, it is one of the very best of greens, when it is 

 young. It is a sort of wild Endive. The French, 

 who call it (from the shape of its leave) Dent de 

 lion, or Lion^s tooth, use it, bleached, as salad, and, 

 if fine, large and well bleached, it is better than 

 Endive, much more tender, and of a better flavour. 

 It is very common in rich pasture land in England ; 

 and cattle and sheep, particularly the former, pre- 

 fer it, as far as my observation has gone, to every 

 other plant in the pastures. It is full of milk-co- 

 loured juice, and fuller of it than either the Endive 

 or the Lettuce. In the spring (June) 1817, when! 

 came to Long Island, and when nothing in the shape 

 of greens was to be had for love or money, Dan- 

 delions were our resource ; and I have always, 

 since that time, looked at this weed with a more 

 friendly eye. 



219. DOCK. — I have frequently mentioned the 

 leaves of this weed as being sold in the market at 

 New York. This weed and the Dandelion are the 

 gardener's two vegetable devils. Nothing but oh- 

 solute burning, or a sun that will reduce them to 

 powder, will kill their roots, any little bit of which 

 will grow, and that, too, whether lying on, or in^ 

 the ground. Both bear seed in prodigious quanti- 

 ties. — The Dock (which is the wild Rhubarb) puts 



