14 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
of tlie hotbed, but they soon recover from the check if the weather is warm; 
on the other hand, if it is not so, they are some time before they become 
again established. The final planting is made successively, choosing the 
strongest plants, and thus a successional production is secured. 
Sowings are made out of doors from the first fortnight in June. The pre¬ 
cise time varies some days, according to the warmth of the season; and the 
fact must never be lost sight of, that if the ground is not warm enough the 
plants will be apt to run to seed. Afterwards sowings are made every fort¬ 
night ; the seeds are sown very thinly to avoid pricking out into nursery- 
beds, and the plants are thinned out as soon as they have made them first 
leaves. The main winter sowings are made from the 10th of July to the 
end of that month, at intervals of a few days, in order to secure a suc¬ 
cession. 
The market gardeners keep but little Endive through the winter, for 
their buildings are too small, and they could not bestow upon it the neces¬ 
sary degree of attention.' It is in private establishments, almost exclusively, 
that Endive is kept during the winter, and in these the usual practice is to 
take it up with a fork before frost, in the end of October, in November, and 
sometimes even in December if there has been no severe frost, and, pressing 
the ball about the roots with the hands, to place it in a cellar or under a 
frame. In the first case the plants are planted close together in sand, and 
in the second in old leaf mould, and they soon become blanched, but do 
not remain long fit for use. M. Boulingre, however, a gardener at Chau- 
connin, showed the writer Endive in excellent condition in April. He lifts 
his Endive on a fine sunny day, and with as large a ball as possible, places 
it in an airy shed, but does not press the plants closely together, and after 
some days, when they are dry, he takes them into a cellar where there are 
shelves one above the other, about 14 inches apart. On these he places 
some very dry wheat-straw, and on this the Endive plants, heads down¬ 
wards and rather closely together, but the air which circulates among them 
prevents their rotting. Every fortnight the Endive is looked over, and any 
that may chance to be rotten is removed, and any straw that may be damp 
is replaced with fresh. If, notwithstanding, there is a strong tendency to 
rot, the ball of earth is cut through the middle so as to take off the roots 
which pump in the moisture from the air and occasion the rottenness. The 
external air, particularly in winter, being full of moisture, must be ex¬ 
cluded from the cellar, and every time this is entered the door must be at 
once shut; all crevices, likewise, by which air could find its way in, should 
be made air-tight; In this way M. Boulingre keeps Endive till the end of 
April, by which time that which is forced comes in. 
GARDENING NOTES DURING THE YEAR 1866 . 
It often strikes me that gardeners might soon make a reform in the “ fat 
catalogues ” now yearly issued by seedsmen, by only ordering seeds of a few of 
the best varieties of each kind of flower and vegetable, and especially those which 
they have found best adapted to their soil and situation. By selecting the best 
varieties of Peas, Beans, Cauliflowers, Broccolis, and of annual and perennial 
flowers, and rejecting all doubtful, new, and synonymous sorts, the seed- 
growers would soon find that it would not pay them to grow so many kinds 
merely to swell their lists. 
The cultivation of spring flowers has progressed considerably in the past 
