242 
ON ACCELERATING THE FLOWERING OF PLANTS. 
The right management of the cauliflower aims at two concomitant 
results, early, and at the same time large flowers. The seed for the 
principal spring crop is therefore not sowed till after the middle of 
August, when the nights are lengthening and the growing season on 
the decline. The young plants then partake of the torpor which seizes 
all vegetation. In this state they are protected through the winter, and 
all means used to increase the bulk of the plants in order to have bulky 
flowers. These means are protection from frost by coverings of hand¬ 
glasses or glazed frames, a rich compost of soil to grow in, and liberal 
supplies of water when necessary. Under this treatment the plants 
develop themselves slowly but sturdily; and, favoured by the genial 
advancing season, begin to yield their heads during May and June. 
Now, although it be desirable to have cauliflowers as early in the 
spring season as possible, yet, from the peculiar character of the plant, 
and of that part of it w T hich is eaten, it cannot be forced to yield large, 
though nothing so easy as to cause it to yield early flower-heads, as 
before observed, either by neglect or design ; for, by keeping the plants 
under glass, too closely crowded together, and in poor and perfectly 
dry soil, the whole will probably run to flower in March and April. 
The reason appears to be this—the plant, like all others, is composed 
of two constitutional principles; the first are the exterior appendages 
of the flower, the second is the chief essential, the flower itself. These, 
however closely connected and necessary to each other, are capable of 
being acted on separately, according as one or other is more or less 
excited. If the appendages receive rich and moist nourishment, and 
be placed in a moderate temperature, they become very much amplified, 
and progress before the fructiferous principle, the latter pausing, as it 
were, to gain lateral bulk; and when the former have gained such a 
size as will enable them to exercise their functions in perfecting the 
flowers and seed, then the flower follows of course. But on the other 
hand, if the appendages be stinted in the requisite supplies of rich 
food, water, space, fresh air, &c., they are arrested in growth, and the 
vitality residing more powerfully in the interior than on the exterior of 
the system, the centrally placed flower receives the whole vigour of the 
plant, and consequently is prematurely impelled into view. 
This appears to be the cause why all the Brassicce tribe of plants are 
apt to “ button” or “ run away,” as it is commonly called; and why 
so few can be forced to yield their thickened stems, as the turnip; their 
accumulated leaves, as the cabbage; or their flowers, as the plant just 
described. 
But there are other descriptions of plants whose flowering and seed¬ 
ing may be accelerated by early sowing and forcing, either by simple 
