187 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 29, 1858. 
comes in, on both, sides of tbe channel, to reap a share 
of the game without incurring the cost. Nurserymen 
who have been forced into plying this game have told 
me over and over again, to raise the hammer against it. 
But I merely mention it to-day, and at this season, 
while it may be fresh in the recollection of those of 
my readers who played a stake this season for their 
flower-beds. D. Beaton. 
HOW IS A TENDENCY TO BLOSSOM 
PROMOTED AND RETARDED? 
This is a question which has seldom been mooted 
in the present form; and, although it is a somewhat 
I difficult theme to handle, I shrink not from the task. 
| I well know that the subject may, by some, be con¬ 
sidered a dry one : doubtless it is ; but we have readers 
who esteem these hard crusts. But, in truth, it is a 
matter which has a broader bearing than many might, at 
first sight, imagine ; and I feel, before I commence, that 
more than one paper may be employed in endeavouring 
| to throw light on this somewhat intricate subject. Why 
vegetables “bolt,” to use a technical phrase,— in 
other words, blossom before they are expected ; why 
flowering, or ornamental plants are made to blossom 
in profusion by one man, whilst by another they are 
termed difficult; why some trees fruit, and others, 
apparently under similar conditions, are barren ; and, 
to close, why some shrubs flower and others do not;— 
these are questions which may not be disposed of in a 
flippant way. Such is the position of this question: 
and here 1 must confess to the recklessness or be¬ 
wilderment of that honest and free-hearted Hibernian, 
■who, when asked where he was going, said he did not 
know until he got there. 
The subjects of the vegetable kingdom may be thus 
grouped for practical purposes :—vegetables, flowers, 
fruits, shrubs. Trees w r e will leave to the forester. 
Vegetables. —I need not run over the whole range 
of our culinary vegetables. I, therefore, must typify 
them by such things as Celery, Lettuce, Cabbage, 
Cauliflower, and Spinach. A discussion concerning 
these will at once throw light on the rest. I take 
them in order. Celery sometimes “bolts.” What is 
the predisposing cause ? If anyone was to ask me, 
what would be the readiest mode of compelling the 
young Celery plants to “ run,”—that is, to blossom,— 
I should answer, “ Sow them early; transplant them 
in very rich soil, and let them stand thus before being 
finally planted, until they are nine inches in height;” 
—such will be sure to “run” betimes, in the autumn 
or winter. Lettuces that endure the winter, com- 
| monly called early spring Lettuces, are notorious for 
j being a long time in use without advancing to the 
blossom state; and why ? Simply through the com¬ 
parative absence of those exciting causes which cause 
plants to assume the blossoming condition. But 
Lettuces sown in May, on rich soil, and transplanted 
when stout plants, will, in general, “ run ” before 
they make good hearts. The only way to obtain 
good-hearted Lettuce in the heat of summer is to sow 
them in drills, on the richest soil in the garden,—if 
loamy so much the better. Here they may be thinned 
out to the proper distance, and, with waterings when 
necessary, they will produce heads as fine as in spring. 
The Lettuces are a short-lived race, and any check 
| after rapid growth, during the exciting heats of 
j summer, will be sure to induce this blossoming habit. 
In the cool of autumn, and early spring, they bear 
transplanting well; for that kind of elaboration which 
tends gradually to the production of blossoms goes on 
very slowly, the exciting causes of heat and light 
being at a low point. 
And now we come to the Cabbage. These are not 
so notorious for bolting as some other vegetables, and 
their tendency to run to blossom is at all times in¬ 
creased by any spurious mixture in their blood. How 
this occurs is not particularly plain, but certain it is, 
that they are more excitable when such is the case. 
But the true Cabbages, sown at particular periods, | 
are unsafe in this respect. Let anyone sow his best 
kind in the last week of July, and the probability is, 
that they will all, or many of them, bolt in the suc¬ 
ceeding April. The fact is, that they grow with too 
much rapidity in the month of September ;—too fast 
to form a heart in that young state ;—and, being trans¬ 
planted, which they must be, at the end of that month, 
they receive a sudden check on the heels of grossness, 
and this check at once lays the foundation for the 
blossoming principle. But how different the result, 
if the Cabbage be sown in the middle of August,— 
only three weeks later. By the period the young 
plants are up,—say, the early part of September,— j 
the summer heat has declined ; consequently, the 
plants grow more steadily, and are shorter jointed; 
and, the over-exciting causes being reduced to a fair 
equilibrium, the whole tendency of the plant is to 
produce what is termed heart, and a good Cabbage is 
the result. 
In passing on to Caulijloivers , I may observe, that | 
these are liable to “ button,” a technical phrase ; and, 
I beg it to be understood, that I am by no means the : 
inventor of this term. It has been used by our great 
grandsires,and, still being acceptedby practical persons, 
I do not feel myself in a position to coin new terms. 
I will, however, endeavour to show that science itself 
recognises the facts connected with it, although she 
employs another kind of phraseology to express it. 
The term buttoning signifies forming a blossom-bud, 
or tiny head, whilst the plant is young. One man 
sows Cauliflower seed, genuine, in the third week of 
August, in order to produce early spring Cauliflowers j' 
in May and June. He sows them on rich soil, and 
transplants them—what he calls strong fine plants—in 
October, in frames or glasses, providing again very j 
rich soil for them ; for all the world, says lie, knows j 
that the Cauliflower requires a generous soil. But, 
how puzzled may this man be, to find in March, or 
April, that out of a dozen handglasses, containing half j 
a hundred permanent plants, he will not have much 
more than a score of Cauliflowers after all his pains. 
Another man will sow his Cauliflowers at the same 
time, on poor soil, or one of a moderate character, and I 
transplant them on similar soil, and not one will 
button ; yet they were from the same samples of seed. 
Here, then, is another case in point. The fact is, that 
if Cauliflowers, like Celery, are once allowed to become 
gross, in the seed-bed, or where they are transplanted, 
and are removed afterwards, they are sure to possess a 
tendency to button. 
Spinach is another susceptible vegetable in this way, 
and the last I shall name in this section. This plant is 
very much excited by heat alone, irrespective of rich 
soils. Indeed, in this case at certain seasons, rich soils 
are averse to that speedy bolting, or running to 
blossom. Spinach sown in August stands the winter ; 
and, be it ever so strong, it scarcely makes an effort to 
run to blossom until April or May. But the same 
kind, sown in the first week of June, will produce a 
very different plant. The former, stout, robust, and 
exceedingly prolific of foliage, also averse to a blossom¬ 
ing tendency ; the latter, just producing a few leaves, 
with a highly attenuated stem, and rushing forward to 
blossom with celerity. This plant is, perhaps, one of 
the best we possess, for exhibiting to a student the in¬ 
fluences of those laws which govern the vegetable 
kingdom, by presenting to him, in their extreme 
