The seed is sown in March or April, in a small bed. In the course of the following September, in showery weather, the seedlings are transplanted into another bed, which has been deeply dug, or rather trenched to the depth of a foot and a hall, the roots being long and striking deep, while at the same time they are branched ; so that each plant should have a foot or fifteen inches of space. Next season the young shoots, with their leaves and tops, are cut for use as they spring up, leaving perhaps one head to each plant, to keep it in vigour. The bed continues productive in this way for many successive years. The first spring cutting may be got somewhat earlier, by taking the pre caution of covering the bed with any sort of litter during the severity of Winter.
Herb Patience.
351. Garden Patience, or Patience Dock, (Rumex Pail entia, L. ; Hexandria Trigynia ; Polygonete, Juss.) is a pe rennial plant, a native of Germany. The leaves are broad, long and acute pointed, on reddish foot-stalks; the stems, when allowed to spring up, rise to the height or four or five feet. In old garden patience was much culti vated as a spinach. It is now very much neglected, part ly perhaps on account of the proper mode of using it not being generally known. The leaves rise early in the spring; they are to be cut while tender, and about a fourth part of coMmonsorrel is to be mixed with them. In this way pa tience dock is much used in Sweden, as we have been in formed by the late Sir Alexander Seton of Preston, who had an estate in Sweden, and frequently resided there. This mixture may be safely recommended as forming an excellent spinach dish. Garden patience is easily raised from seeds, which may be sown in lines in the manner of common spinach, or white beet. the plants be regular ly cut over two or three times in the season, they continue in a healthy productive state for a good many years.
Boiled Salads.
UNDER this title (not perhaps strictly correct, as salad Under this title (not perhaps strictly correct, as salad may be considered as implying rawness in the vegeta ble) we include a few plants which cannot well be ranked as pot-herbs, and yet are generally boiled before being pre sented at table. One of the chief of these is Asparagus.
352. (Asparagus officinalis, Hexandria Monogynia ; ?hparagi, Juss. ; the Asperge of the French, and Spargel of the Germans.) This is a perennial plant, which occurs native in some parts of England, as scar Bristol, and in the Isle of Portland ; and it has been observed sparingly in one place in Scotland, Seaton Links, East Lothian. It is fi gured in" English Botany," t. 339. In its native state it is so dwarfish in appearance, even when in flower, that none but a botanist, attending to the minute structure, would consider it as the same species with our cultivated plant. The roots consist of many succulent round bulbs,
forming together a kind of transverse tuber; numerous sterns arise, with alternate branches, subdivided into al ternate twigs ; the leaves arc very small, linear and bristle shaped ; the flowers yellowish-green, the berries red. The whole plant, with its fruit, is very elegant in appearance, and is often placed in chimneys as an ornament intie au tumn months. The carlf„shoots, when about three or four inches high, are greatly esteemed for the table. For the sake of these, the plant has been cultivated in gardens for ages.
Them are two varieties, the Red-topped and the Green topped; the former commonly rising with a larger shoot, but not reckoned so delicate in flavour as the green sort.
353. Asparagus is propagated either by seeds, or by year-old plants purchased from nurserymen or market gardeners. It is best to raise the plant from seed; and it is of considerable importance to procure the seed from an experienced and attentive gardener: for seed gathered Iron the strongest and most compact shoots, is found, as might naturally be expected, to yield by much the better plants. It is sown as broadcast on a seed-bed in March, not very thickly, and the bed is slightly trodden, and raked smooth ; or it is sometimes sown in shallow drills, six inches asunder, and earthed in, from half an inch to an inch deep. The young plants are kept as free of weeds as pos sible during the summer ; and in the end of October fol lowing, some rotten dung or other litter is spread over the surface of the ground, to protect the buds during winter. In the following March or April, according to the dryness of the season, these year-old plants are transferred from the seed-bed into a quarter prepared for them.
Asparagus ground should be light, yet rich ; a sandy loam, well mixed with rotten dung or sea-weed, is account ed preferable to any. The soil should not be less than two feet and a half deep ; and before planting a bed, it is considered good practice to trench it over to that depth, burying plenty of dung in the bottom, as no more can be applied there for eight or ten years. It can scarce ly therefore be too well (lunged : besides, although the plant naturally grows in poor sandy soil, it is found that the sweetness and tenderness of the shoots depend very much on the rapidity of the growth, and this is promot ed by the richness of the soil. Damp ground or a wet subsoil are not lit for asparagus: indeed the French con• skier wetness as so prejudicial to this plant, that they raise their asparagus beds about a foot above the alleys, in order to throw off the rain.