VEGETABLES — DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 275 



Its thick and pulpy skin renders it best for pickles ; more 

 mild than most varieties. It is a biennial.. 



Cayenne, or Long Pepper.— Is a perennial, with small, 

 round, bright red, tapering fruit, extremely pungent. Of 

 this there is a large and small fruited sort, both excellent 

 for pepper sauce, and to grind as a condiment. 



Large Sweet Spanish is a large, mild variety of an- 

 nual pepper, much used in pickling. 



Tomato Pepper is of two sorts, red and yellow, both 

 tolerably mild ; frui^ tomato shaped. 



Culture. — Capsicum likes a rich, moist loam, rather light 

 than otherwise. Guano and fowl manure are excellent 

 fertilizers for peppers. 



For early plants, sow the seed in drills, one inch deep 

 and six inches apart, under glass, in February, at the 

 South, or in March and April in the Northern States, and 

 transplant after the frosts are entirely over, when three 

 or four inches high, into good soil, in rows eighteen inches 

 apart each way. Sow at the South, also, in the open ground, 

 as soon as the settled warm weather comes on, say the 

 last of March or first of April, and thin them out to the 

 proper distance. An ounce of seed will give two or three 

 thousand plants. They should be transplanted in moist 

 weather only, and must be watered until well established. 

 Shading a few days at midday, after transplanting, is very 

 beneficial. Cultivate and earth up their stems a little. 



Seed. — A plant bearing the earliest and finest fruit 

 should be selected. The varieties should be grown as far 

 apart as possible. When ripe, the pods are hung up to 

 dry, and kept until the seed is wanted for sowing. 



Use. — These plants are very much used in all hot 

 climates, where they enter as a seasoning into almost 

 every dish. The large kinds for pickling should be gathered 

 when full grown, and just before turning red. They are 



