224 
SEA KALE. 
blooming another season ; the "earliest and 
strongest of these shoots may be stopped to 
cause them to throw out additional branches. 
We may remark, that pruning and repotting 
a plant should never be done simultaneously, 
as it tends to weaken the plants. The follow- 
ing is the course of treatment which produced 
one of the best plants of the species which we 
have ever seen : — when first taken in hand the 
plant was six inches high, growing in a five- 
inch pot. In February, 1844, it was repotted 
into an eleven-inch pot : the soil used was a 
mixture of Shirley and Wimbledon peat earth, 
mixed with Reigate sand, large pieces of char- 
coal, and small pebbles : the soil was used in 
a very rough state. The plant was placed in 
a warm and moist greenhouse, until it com- 
menced to grow freely ; it was then removed 
to a low pit, where it was kept all the summer 
and allowed free ventilation, and occasional 
shading in bright sunshine. When the days 
were dull, or the evenings dewy, the lights 
were removed entirely. During September 
and October the plants were fully exposed to 
the sun : that season it did not produce many 
flowers, and these were removed before they 
opened. The following February it was re- 
moved to an eighteen-inch pot, and was kept 
growing in the greenhouse : during its growth 
it was occasionally watered with a weak solu- 
tion of soot and Potter's guano, used perfectly 
clear. Towards the end of the summer the 
plant was freely exposed out doors, and dur- 
ing the ensuing winter was literally loaded 
with flowers. 
This species of Heath is one of the best 
suited for the mode of training into pyramid- 
formed specimens, which has been recc-m- 
mended as furnishing suitable objects for 
decorating straight broad walks in conserva- 
tories, or for placing on formal terraces, or, 
indeed, in any other situation where their 
formality would be in unison with the objects 
surrounding them. Pyramids of from four to 
ten feet high, and not more than two or three 
feet in diameter at the base, may be grown in 
a very few years, by following the simple plan 
of always retaining one strong upright lead- 
ing shoot, and keeping all the laterals shortened 
in when quite young, so as to furnish the side 
branches. Such plants are certainly inappro- 
priate except in situations which are highly 
artificial ; but there is an air of novelty and 
uncommonness about them that seems to re- 
commend them to notice. There can be no 
obstacle in the way of growing plants with a 
straight, upright, clean stem, and a round com- 
pact head, like that of an orange-tree, with 
which it would well associate, but we have 
never heard of this having been tried. In the 
form of young plants, from six inches to a foot 
high, furnished with several branches, and 
nicely bloomed, this variety of heath is a fa- 
vourite in the flower-market.. 
SEA KALE. 
The ground requires to be rich and well dug 
twelve inches deep ; a line may then be drawn 
and a slight drill made, in this drill seeds may 
be dropped, two or three in a place, a foot 
apart ; a succession of drills may thus be 
drawn in like manner, and the seeds dropped 
in : these being all covered in with the soil 
drawn out of the drill,, the next step is, when 
they are up and have begun to grow, take out 
the weak and leave single plants, which will 
be then a foot apart in the rows, and three 
feet from row to row. The first season you 
have only to keep them free from weeds, and 
if the weather be very parching while they 
are young, they should have a good watering. 
When they have died down, the weeding 
should be continued, for weeds not only injure 
the crop, but also look unsightly. The plants 
come up stronger the second season, and will 
only require the earth to be stirred between 
them, and the weeds constantly kept under. 
Before the}' have died down so as to hide the 
rows, short stakes should be driven into the 
ground at each end of every row to shew 
where they are ; and some time in the autumn 
there must be alleys dug between the rows, 
eighteen inches wide, and the soil taken out 
must be put on the top of the plants, so as to 
leave nine inches of eartli above the crown. 
The tops of the rows are not to be rounded, 
but flat; all through the winter little need be 
done, but as the plants rise up in the "spring 
they will disturb the soil at the top, and when 
that cracks is the time to cut the Kale ; this 
must be done by removing the soil round the 
plant and cutting them close above the crowns, 
for if cut too low the plants will be injured 
for the next season, and perhaps may not 
recover at all, so as to be fine again. The 
earth may be drawn away with a trowel into 
the alleys, level with the tops of the plants, 
which are then to be allowed to grow again 
without earthing up. Once cutting is enough. 
As the. Kale will not all come through at one 
time, they require watching every day as the 
season of coming through arrives, and if 
the first few are ready the others soon follow, 
so that the whole piece must be examined 
every day, and those which are breaking the 
ground must be cut ; at any rate they must not 
be allowed to come through the ground, for 
they become strong and ill tasted. When the 
whole are cut the ground must be levelled, 
and they will sprout out strong again, and are 
to grow all the season. Pick off the flowers 
always if the seeds are not wanted, for the 
flowering and seeding weakens the plants more 
