CHAPTER XX 



THE KITCHEN GARDEN 



Much as I love the flower garden and the wood- 

 land, I am by no means indifferent to the interest 

 and charm of the kitchen garden. For though its 

 products are for the most part utiUtarian, they all 

 have their life-histories, and on the rare occasions 

 when I am free to take a quiet stroll for pure 

 pleasure of the garden I often take it among the 

 vegetables. I cannot help thinking of what immense 

 importance in our life and health and well-being 

 are the patiently gained developments of even one 

 alone of the many families of kitchen-garden plants. 

 When I have seen in rocky places on our English 

 and other coasts, a straggling plant with broad glaucous 

 leaves, I have always looked upon it Avith sincere 

 respect ; for this wild plant is the parent of all 

 the members of the great Cabbage tribe. And then 

 I think of the many hundreds of years that it has 

 been patiently cultivated, until little by little it has 

 been driven by careful selection and keen observation 

 into the many forms it now takes in our gardens 

 and on our tables. For not only do the different 

 shapes of Cabbage, of all sorts and sizes — round, 



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