496 



THE CULTURE OF SALADS. 



little frames to the very edge of each. At the end of 

 January or beginning of February the last forced crop of 

 Petite Noire is planted,, under cloches placed on a gentle 

 hotbed a foot deep^ and covered with about four inches of 

 the same mould-like manure^ the bell glasses as usual being 

 placed in three ranks. The bed for them may be made 

 wide enough for six (three lines on each side of a narrow 

 alley)^ or for three only. In this January or February 

 plantings four plants of Petite Noire are planted under each 

 cloche^ and one Cos in the middle. The tender Petites 

 Noires are good to gather in February and March; the 

 Cos remains a little later^ nearly filling up the glass^ and 

 forming one of those superb Lettuces to be seen in all our 

 great towns in early spring, and which are usually supposed 

 to come from some paradisiacal climate^ instead of the hard, 

 cutting, and most ungenial winter climate of Paris. Cer- 

 tainly the climate that would produce them without garden- 

 ing skill at the periods spoken of should be as mild and 

 smiling as that in which 



" O'er the four rivers the first roses blew." 



Laitue Verte Maraichere. — This Lettuce is sown about 

 the first fortnight in October in the open air or on a sloping 

 bed under a cloche. It is pricked out, and twenty or thirty 

 are generally placed under one glass, which is taken ofi" every 

 time that the weather permits. As it often happens that, 

 in spite of the care taken with it, this Lettuce will grow too 

 tall, it is generally taken up, and immediately transplanted 

 during the course of the month of November. For this pur- 

 pose a new sloping bed is prepared and the plants are pricked 

 into it immediately, in which case only eighteen or twenty 

 are put under each glass. From this moment they receive 

 the same care as the other Lettuces sown at the same time. 

 Towards the end of December or the beginning of January 

 planting in frames and under cloches is begun. In the 

 former case eight rows are placed in each frame, each row 

 consisting of twenty-five plants, so arranged that there is 

 alternately a Petite Noire and a Cos lettuce in each row. 

 Under the cloches they are arranged so that there are four 



