140 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
kitchen-garden produce lias to be cooked, and 
is'not available in the raw state. 
There is a prejudice against^Lettuces on 
account of the milky juice which they contain ; 
and if people were condemned to live upon 
lettuce alone, they might have good cause to 
complain. It has been said) that^the green 
curled kale, so important anhtem in the Scottish 
dietary, corrects the heating tendency of the 
oatmeal; and the matter is not open to dis¬ 
pute, for oatmeal and kale, and potatOs and 
milk, certainly feed the vast majority of the 
people—and that both well and economically. 
We are told that when the Northern and 
Western nations returned from the Crusades, 
they brought the Eastern fashions and luxuiies 
along with them, and discarded some views 
and customs they once held, for the habits and 
manners of the foreigner. In nothing has this 
been so clearly seen as in the fruits and 
vegetables introduced from time to time, so 
that we now possess a very large portion of 
the plants that can endure our climate ; and 
these exotics are many of them staple articles 
of our food, drink, and commerce. 
Among the small fry of cottage garden 
comforts, we place the Lettuce, whether Cos 
or Cabbage, as an agreeable vegetable, vastly 
improving our evening meals, and that at a 
mere trifle of cost; for although lettuces 
can be transplanted when young into any 
spare ground as a second crop, it is always 
less trouble, if the circumstances permit, to 
sow the seeds where the crop is to stand, and 
afterwards to thin them out. A fine large 
lettuce can be grown on a square of 9 in. on the 
side, or say, sixteen to the square yard. This, 
of course, relates to lettuces full grown, but one 
object of this paper is to try to get people into 
the way of eating lettuces boiled, as in Spain 
and elsewhere, and in that case half-grown let¬ 
tuces are quite as eligible as full-grown ones. 
This gives quite a new idea of the crop, for if 
the season is far advanced, so that there would 
not be time to get turnips or coleworts to any 
size, there would be time enough for a crop of 
lettuces, and' they might be sown or planted 
thicker in such a case. Any plant that is ten¬ 
der in the raw state, as lettuce, celery, &c., is 
certain not to be tough when properly boiled, 
and in the sunny South, where greenyegetables 
are scarce, and most things get sun dried, boiled 
lettuces are properly esteemed. 
There is, indeed, no doing anything well in the 
way of cookery, unless you have a field or garden 
to fall back upon. A few mushrooms gathered in 
a pasture-field at grey dawn are, when in good 
hands, certainly second to nothing save beef¬ 
steak pudding in flavour ; and ketchup, often 
to be had for little or nothing but the trouble 
of gathering, is worthy of all praise. In the 
case of the cottager’s garden, the hard-hearted 
cabbage is able to supply half the dinner; and 
he that dines on bacon and home-grown beans 
has good cause for thankfulness. 
It is not my intention to disparage second 
crops, where they can be got, such as turnips 
after a crop of early peas, but the short-lived 
lettuces come in where few other crops would 
be available, and the richer the ground the 
more crisp and high in quality will the lettuces 
be. They are topers for wet, and enjoy the hot 
sun, so that where there are heat and wet there 
will be no lack of lettuces, both for the salad- 
bowl and the vegetable dish. There was an 
old-fashioned custom among kitchen gardeners 
when sowing the main crop of onions to 
sprinkle a pinch of lettuce-seed at random 
over the beds, and these, having plenty of room, 
would come to be fine plants early. Under 
the name of London Lettuce, the Manchester 
and other Northern markets are supplied with 
early lettuces from the South and from 
foreign parts, and these realise high prices.— 
Alex, Forsyth, Salford. 
MARKET PLANTS.—VI. 
The Large-flowered Pelargonium. 
GwDF anything like statistics of the number of 
<51 rp plants of the Pelargonium grown every year 
< ^ v ^ > for the London markets could be collected, 
they would astound by the vastness of their 
totals. It is one of a few leading market 
plants, and being an invaluable decorative sub¬ 
ject, is in much demand. This is not to be 
wondered at, for the plants are well and cleanly 
grown, very large for the size of the pots in 
which they are grown (48 size), finely bloomed, 
of good and striking varieties, and veiy much 
beyond in point of finish the Pelargoniums 
usually seen in an amateur’s greenhouse. Pro¬ 
bably no market plant is seen to better advant age, 
and is, on the whole, better finished than a Pelar¬ 
gonium. How such a splendid plant—splendid 
in its luxuriant growth and head of bloom— 
can be grown to such perfection in so small a 
pot is a surprise to many. At the Whit-Mon- 
day show of the Royal Horticultural Society, 
