216 
IMPROVEMENT OF CULINARY VEGETABLES. 
of the common sorts, are universally forced. This is only practicable, 
however, with those whose leaves, pods, or tubers, are useable in any 
stage of their growth, as radish, some sorts of lettuce, potatoes, carrots, 
and dwarf kidney-beans; to which may be added, sea-kale, rhubarb, 
mushrooms, and all sorts of small salad and seasoning herbs. These, 
it may be observed, are all used in their young and tender state, and 
when their flavour, rather than their bulk, is all that is wanted. 
From the foregoing observations it will appear, that all plants of 
congenial natures are susceptible of sexual impressions from each 
other ; that all our highly-improved varieties have been chiefly 
obtained by accidental impregnation, through the agency of winds or 
bees; and that, from so much being acquired fortuitously, much more 
may reasonably be expected from the manual assistance of practical 
experience. 
Wherever, therefore, it may be desirable to improve by diminishing 
or increasing bulk, the pollen of the tvvo extremes should be inter¬ 
changed. The same rule applies with respect to every other property 
of cultivated plants, namely, precocity, flavour, crispness, colour, and 
hardiness; so that whenever any of these properties are sought to be 
transferred, the usual means of exchanging the pollen is to be had 
recourse to. For instance, it might be an improvement to have cauli¬ 
flower as hardy as some species of broccoli; now if the selected sort of 
broccoli was managed so as to flower at the same time with the cauli¬ 
flower, and the pollen exchanged, seeds of each ripened, sown, and 
planted out, we suspect,—indeed we are certain,.—that a great many 
mongrel varieties would be the result; still there would be a chance 
that some of the half-breds, mostly resembling the cauliflower, might 
probably partake of a portion of the hardihood of the broccoli; and if 
not wholly on the first, a second or third trial might accomplish the 
object in view. 
It is needless to point to other improvements of the like kind; they 
will readily occur to every one in the least conversant with gardening. 
Our object in saying so much, is more with the view of directing the 
attention of practical men to the subject, than laying down rules for 
their guidance. 
