CHAP. VI.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 189 
the last a calcareous soil, and sheltered 
situation. 
Savoury and Basil .—-Winter savoury is 
a hardy under-shrub, and summer savoury 
an annual — both natives of the south of 
Europe, and cultivated in England since 
about 1650. Basil is an annual, a native 
of the East Indies, introduced about 1548. 
Jill these aromatic herbs may be purchased, 
admirably dried, in small cases, at Mrs. 
Johnson’s, in Covent Garden market. 
Cucumbers require a hotbed to grow them 
to perfection; but the smaller kinds for 
pickling are sometimes planted in the open 
ground. The seed should be from two to 
four years old, and it should be sown in 
pots plunged in a hotbed, not below 58° at 
night, nor above 65° in the day. When the 
plants come up, they should be pricked out 
into pots, three in each pot, and watered, 
the earth in the pots and the water being 
both previously kept under the glass for 
some time, that they may be both of the 
same heat as the plants. When the plants 
are about five weeks old, they are generally 
removed to a larger hotbed, with a two 
