80 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



and weeds, such as Good King Henry, Goosefoot, or myles, 

 yield leaves little inferior to spinach. The New Zealand 

 Spinach, lately introduced, is very productive and good, 

 and may be sown in May. Two or three plants, which 

 spread each three or four feet around, will give a tolerable 

 supply for Sunday dinners. - 



^.—Lettuce, 



Lettuce contains a little sugar, and a great deal of water 

 and fibre ; besides a very bitter milky juice, in the stems, 

 which, when dried for medicinal purposes, and taken in 

 doses of three or four grains, produces sleep, and in an 

 immoderate dose, would prove fatal like laudanum. This 

 milky juice, however, does not seem to exist in any quan- 

 tity in the parts of lettuce used, which are wholesome, 

 good, and profitable. 



The soil for lettuce must be light and well maniired, and 

 the situation very open, or the crop will not be fine. The 

 time of sowing is from the last week in February, if the 

 weather will permit, successively every fortnight, till the 

 first of May, after which the plants will run to seed rather 

 than form hearts. Another successive sowing maybe made 

 from the beginning of August, every week, till the middle 

 of September. 



The sorts for the spring sowings are the green, white, 

 and Bath cos, the Marseilles, or Prussian endive-leaved, 

 and the black-seeded gotte. If any artificial heat is at 

 command, to forward the plants which are fit to prick out 

 in March, it will be an advantage. For the first August 

 sowing the same sorts will do ; but for the later sowings 

 the Grand Admiral, the Hammersmith green cabbage, 

 brown cos, and black-seeded gotte lettuce, are the hardiest 

 for standing the winter, though, except the black-seeded 

 gotte, and the brown cos, they are by no means so good as 

 the others, which, without covering with fern-leaves, 

 hoops, and mats, or with glass, will seldom outlive sharp 

 frosts. Plants for standing through the winter should 

 always be planted out from the seed-bed, as, if they do 

 not receive this check, they will grow too large and tender 

 before the frosty weather appears, and will almost inevit- 



