678 



ACETARIACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



1514. rar/e^^e*.— Those at present considered the best are, the Italian., a 

 dwarf growing variety, the best for an early crop ; the red solid, syn. Man- 

 chester-hardy, which grows to a large size, single plants having measured 

 four feet six inches in height, and weighed nine pounds ; Seymours solid, very 

 solid, and fine-flavoured ; Seymour's superb white, very solid, large size, good 

 flavour, and well adapted for early crops ; the turnip-rooted, syn. celeriac 

 (Celeri-rave, Fr., and Knoll- sellerie, Ger.\ has rough irregular shaped roots, 

 about the size of the fist ; it is generally cultivated in Germany, but in 

 England is considered coarser than the kinds of which the blanched stalks 

 are used. Upright or stalked celery, when well grown, has the stalks solid, 

 and not hollow or piped, as is frequently the case — thoroughly blanched, crisp, 

 tender, and of a delicate flavour. The roots of the celeriac should be solid, 

 tender, and delicate. To attain these qualities both sorts require to be grown 

 with rapidity, in very rich soil, kept very moist at the root, but dry about 

 the leaves. 



151-5. Propagation and culture. — The celery, like other culinary biennials, 

 is only propagated by seed, and half an ounce is sufficient for a seed-bed four 

 and a half feet by ten feet, of the stalked or upright sorts ; but for celeriac, 

 as it is a spreading plant, half the quantity of seed will suffice for the same 

 space. The seed is long in commg up, often a month ; and this is one 

 reason why the first sowing is generally made on heat. As the celery 

 grows naturally in marshy soil, and as such soils are always rich in vegetable 

 matter, and when near the sea must be slightly saline, these circumstances 

 affbrd a guide for its culture in the garden ; in which it can never be brought 

 to a large size, without constant and abundant supplies of water during the 

 whole period of its growth. The flavour, however, is better when it is 

 grown of smaller size, and with less water. In general, three crops are 

 enough even for a large family : the first should be sown in the end of 

 February, to transplant in June, and to come into use in August ; the second 

 is sown in the end of March, to be transplanted in July, and to come into use 

 in September ; and the third is sown about the middle of April, to be trans- 

 planted in the first week of August, and to come into use in October or 

 November, and last till March. The plants raised by every sowing, when 

 about two inches high, should be pricked out into rich soil two inches or 

 three inches apart every way, and again transplanted into a nursery planta- 

 tion, also in rich soil, about six inches apart every way. Those for the 

 earliest crop may be pricked out in a small hotbed, and transplanted into a 

 warm border ; but those for the others do not necessarily require artificial 

 heat. As the earlier crops of celery are very apt to run to flower, and as this 

 tendency in herbaceous plants, and especially annuals and biennials, is known 

 to be checked and retarded by destroying the tap-root, and encouraging the 

 production of fibrous roots (699 and 1308) ; some excellent growers of 

 celery adopt the following process with their plants : — The seed-bed, whe- 

 ther for an early or a late crop, is formed of fresh, dark, loamy soil, mixed 

 with old rotten dung, half and half, and placed on a hotbed. The nursery 

 or transplanting bed is formed with old hotbed dung, very well broken, laid 

 six inches or seven inches thick, on a piece of ground which has lain some 

 time undisturbed, or which has been made hard by compression. The 

 situation should be sunny. The plants are set six inches apart in the dung, 

 without soil, and covered with hand-glasses. They are watered well when 

 planted, and frequently afterwards. By hardening the soil under the dung 



