298 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



most forward piece is then cleared 

 by pulling the plants up by their 

 roots, and in this state they are 

 packed in hampers and conveyed to 

 market. The Dwarf Green Curled 

 and the Batavian are the kinds 

 chiefly grown, but the former sort 

 is that which is grown in the greatest 

 quantity. The produce from the 



earliest sowings is ready for market 

 early in August and onwards until 

 Christmas, and even later. A few 

 growers house plants for winter and 

 spring supply, but now, when they 

 have to compete in the market with 

 the French, the prices obtained 

 scarcely remunerate them for their 

 trouble and house-room. 



Uses. — The leaves are eaten boiled or in salad. In England 

 we make no such good use of Endive as a boiled vegetable as the 

 French do. Many vegetables as we have, the distinct flavour of 

 certain varieties of Endive when cooked should make them as 

 welcome as table vegetables as they are in France. 



Green Curled Summer Endive.— Under this name, two 

 very distinct varieties are very extensively cultivated, namely, 



the Paris and the Anjou. 

 The Paris, or Italian, 

 variety is the older of 

 the two kinds. It has 

 its leaves arranged in a 

 dense rosette, full even 

 at the centre, and from 

 12 to 14 in. in diameter. 

 The leaves are very 

 much divided in the 

 upper half into slender 

 segments, which are not 

 much curled. The lower 

 half of the leaf is a rib 

 or stalk over i in. wide, 

 and a faint rosy colour, 

 especially at the base. 



The Ajy'ou variety 

 began to be very 

 generally cultivated about twenty years ago, and is superseding 

 the other variety, to which it is very much superior. It forms 

 a rosette nearly as broad as that of the Paris variety, but much 

 denser and more convex in shape. The leaves are very numerous, 

 and closely crowded together ; the leaf-stalk or rib is entirely 

 white at the base, h in. or more broad, and edged on the lower 

 half with white thread-like leafy segments. In the upper half 

 of the leaf the midrib widens perceptibly, is often more or less 

 contorted, takes a green tint, and is furnished with very finely 

 cut leafy appendages, which are only slightly curled, and are a 

 clear green colour, changing to a butter-yellow in the heart of 



Green Curled Paris Endive. 



