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THE ATMOSPHERE. 189 
and the Turnip rooted kinds for summer. For winter, a frame may be sown the end of September and 
a fortnight later ; and the next sowing may be upon a south border. 
Of Beet-root a sowing made the beginning- of May in drills will give a supply. 
Celery is one of the most important crops ; its use for cuUnary purposes, as well as salads, renders 
its being of good quality a great desideratum. It is much in request in large families, both for stew- 
ing and salads, and forms a most important item of the kitchen garden. The first sowing must be 
made about the middle of February, in pits in heat, or on a slight hotbed ; as soon as the plants are 
large enough, they should be pricked down upon four inches of rotten dung, laid upon an impervious 
bottom, which causes them to produce a dense mass of fibrous roots when taken up for replanting in 
trenches. The distance at which Celery is planted, is generally regulated by the ground and con- 
venience ; but, like all other vegetables, if it is to be fine it must not be crowded ; it requires plenty of 
water dm-ing its growth, and should have a spit of good rotten dung or leaf-mould to grow in. The 
routine cnltm-e is so well known, that it would be superfluous to detail it. The latest crop may be 
sown about the middle of April ; intermediate sowings bemg also made between it and the first. 
Chervil is an annual which only requii-es snccessional sowings for winter ; some may be sown in 
pots about the end of July. 
Tarragon is much in request by French cooks for flavouring soups and mixing in salads. It in- 
creases readily by slips or cuttings. Like the Pentstemon gentianoides, it should never have its tops 
cut ofi' in winter, but when it has shot a little, in spring, remove them. A store of pots must be pro- 
vided for winter supply, and gently forced. 
Every tyro is famihar with the culture of Small Salad ; and that of Cucumbers is so fully before 
the world in many able treatises, that those who wish for information may consult them. 
Endive when well blanched is a most useful winter salad. Snccessional sowings should be made of 
it fi-om the middle of June to the middle of August, and in the early part of November a quantity 
should be taken up and protected in cold fi'ames, or pits. It blanches in a very superior manner if 
potted and introduced into a Muslu-oom house. 
Chicory should be sown in April or May in drills, and should be six or eight inches apart. The 
roots may be taken up in the autumn cutting off the tops, and placing them in layers of rather dry soil 
in a Mushroom shed. It soon produces new leaves, which when well blanched are of a most mild and 
agreeable flavour. 
The flowers of the Nasturtium, and the leaves of the Burnet are sometimes used in salads ; and 
the common Corn salad is an agreeable addition which is much valued in France, where greater atten- 
tion is paid to salads generally than we give them in this country. 
In growing produce of this kind, the judicious gardener will ever have occasion to exercise his 
mind in the various processes of accelerating, retarding, increasing, or diminishing his supply to meet 
the demand of the establishment. It is truly said that ' ' there is no rule without exceptions ;" and ' 
however judicious a course of practice may be for one family, it may ill suit the wants of another. 
The great point to attend to in keeping up a supply of any kitchen garden crop, is to make frequent 
sowings, and to be as £i-equently planting out small proportions. The aim of a gardener should be to 
produce a regular and moderate supply, rather than to have an excessive quantity of any one thing at 
one time. 
THE ATMOSPHERE. 
By E. J. LOWE, Esq., F.E.A.S. 
BEFORE entering into a popular history of the various phenomena belonging to our atmosphere, 
it is necessary that the reader should be made conversant with the atmosphere itself, in order to 
be the better prepared to receive information on the respective subjects which it is essential that 
cultivators of plants should miderstand. 
The atmosphere is a sabtle invisible fluid sm-'rounding us on all sides, and is, as it were, an envelope 
to the earth's surface ; without it neither animals nor plants could have any existence ; indeed, without 
an atmosphere, much of the light which we now enjoy would vanish — for, we shoirld only be able to 
see objects when we faced the sun. On tmming our backs to that luminary, all would be darkness, 
except the feeble light of the stars, which would shine even at noon-day ; and those sheltered valleys, 
in which such numerous tribes of plants delight, would be shrouded in a midnight blackness. 
Atmospheric air is a mixtm*eof oxygen and azotic gas, in the proportion of 79 of azote (or nitrogen) 
to 21 of oxygen, besides which the air contains a very small quantity of ammonia, water in an 
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