fit for use, in any season, two months before any other sort. 46. PARSLEY. Apium Petroselinum, or Garden Parsley, is a hardy biennial, a native of Sardinia, and was in cultivation in England so long ago as 1548. It is a well known seasoning herb, and communicates an agreeable flavour soups and stews. There are three varieties cultivated in our gardens. to 1. Common. 2. Curled-leaved. 3. Hamburgh. Curled Parsley is a very valuable article in the garden, and requires particular attention in order to keep it true as the very finest variety will soon degenerate and become plain if left to itself. On the contrary, a very fine sort may be considerably improved by management. It should be sown thin in the spring, broadcast; and when the plants have acquired five or six leaves, those which are the most densely curled should be taken up, their roots shortened to three or four inches long, and planted out upon a bed in the open part of the garden, at eight or nine inches apart from each other, keeping the ground perfectly clean through the summer. By the autumn the plants will have attained their full size, when the very handsomest should again be selected, taken up, and planted out again, in the most open and exposed part of the garden, for seed. By this method of transplanting the plants twice, the stock is improved as far, probably, as art is capable of effecting it. The transplanting of Chervil and Garden Cress, is the only means of improving their curled-leaved varieties. Hamburgh Parsley, which is cultivated for its roots alone, should be sown thin, broadcast, and the plants hoed out to the distance of nine or ten inches from each other, the ground having been previously trenched. The whole crop should be taken up in the autumn, when the roots have attained their full size; a few of the finest may be selected and planted out for seed, and the others laid into the ground again for use. 47. PARSNIPS. The Parsnip, Pastinaca sativa, is a biennial plant, a native of England. The Garden Parsnip has large, smooth, pinnated leaves, of a light green colour; the roots are white or cream colour, mild, sweet, and aromatic. The following sorts have been cultivated in the Horticultural Garden at Chiswick : 1. Common Parsnip. 2. Guernsey Parsnip. sey. 3. Hollow-crowned Parsnip. Hollow-headed. Panais Lisbonais, of Guernsey. 4. Turnip-rooted. Panais rond. The Guernsey Parsnip, No. 2. appears to be an improved variety of the common sort: it sometimes grows in Guernsey to the length of four feet. The third sort also grows to a large size, and appears to be the most deserving of cultivation, being very hardy, tender in its flesh, and of a most excellent flavour. pur Parsnips cannot be expected to grow large unless the ground is good and properly prepared. For this pose, it should be trenched two spit, or twenty inches deep in the beginning of March, the seed should be sown thinly in very shallow drills eighteen inches from each other; and as soon as the plants are two or three inches high, they should be thinned out to twelve inches apart, or fifteen inches if very large roots are desired. It would, however, be a safer way, at the first thinning, to leave the plants by pairs, or two together, till they are six inches high, when the smallest of the two may be cut up. After this, there will be nothing further required than to keep the crop perfectly clean, Under this by frequent hoeings, during the summer. management, I have grown many tons of No. 3. the principal roots of which have measured eighteen inches long, seventeen inches in circumference at the crown, and weighing from four to five pounds. 48. PEAS. The Garden Pea, Pisum sativum, is a hardy annual, native of the south of Europe, and has long been cultivated. It was not common, however, in Elizabeth's time, as Fuller informs us that Peas were brought from Holland, and were "fit dainties for ladies, they came so far, and cost so dear." The varieties of Peas are very numerous: the following are mentioned in the seedsmen's lists: 1. *Bishop's Early Dwarf. 2. *Blue Prussian. 3. Charlton. 4. *Dwarf Green Imperial. 5. *Dwarf Marrowfat. 6. Dwarf Sabre. 7. Dwarf Spanish. 8. Dwarf Sugar. 9. *Egg. 10. *Frame, Double-podded. 11. Frame, Single-podded. 12. Golden Hotspur. 13. *Green Marrowfat. 14. *Knight's Dwarf Marrowfat. 15. *Knight's Tall Marrowfat. 16. Late Spanish. 17. Pearl. 18. Prolific. 19. *Royal Dwarf. 20. *Spanish Morotto. 21. *Tall Green Imperial. 22. Tall Marrowfat. 23. Tall Sugar. 24. Wellington. 25. White Prussian. 26. White Rouncival. Out of the above number, ten or twelve sorts are as many as can be required for the largest garden. There are other names of Peas which might be enumerated, but, like some of the above, they are nominal only, having no distinguishable character. Those denoted by an asterisk (*) may be considered as forming an assortment of the most approved sorts. Bishop's Early Dwarf is a very excellent variety for an early crop. The Double and Single-podded Frame scarcely differ, except that the latter has several of its blossoms solitary at the joint, instead of being in pairs; excess of vigour in the plant, however, will destroy this character. The Charlton Pea is only known by name; the same may be said of the Golden Hotspur. The Marrowfat Peas, particularly those called Knight's Marrowfats, have distinguishing characters, and they are all excellent; the latter particularly so for late crops. The Egg Pea, and Spanish Morotto, may be considered as the poor man's pea, being the most hardy and abundant bearers. Some of the other sorts mentioned in the list, no doubt, possess considerable merit; but, it is apprehended, not sufficient to exclude those I have recommended. For the first crop, the early peas are generally sown upon a south border in November, and again in January or February if the weather be open; but in hard winters the early sowings are frequently destroyed, notwithstanding the greatest care has been bestowed upon them. A much better way of obtaining an early crop, and at one twentieth part of the trouble, is to sow the peas in January, in shallow pots, and place them under a common frame, where they may be protected from frost. Towards the middle of March, the plants must be turned carefully out of the pots, so as not to injure their roots, and planted out an inch apart in drills, under a south wall, at three feet and a half, or four feet from the foot, drawing a ridge of mould six inches high at the back of the plants, and protecting them by a few closely-placed spruce fir branches on the north side. In this manner, peas may be brought much forwarder than those sown upon the border, and under the greatest care and attention. This will appear clear by the following experiment: Mr. Knight sowed peas in the open air, and others in pots, on the first day of March. In the last week of the month, those in pots were transplanted into rows in the open ground. On the 29th of April, the transplanted peas were fifteen, and the others four inches high; and in June the former ripened twelve days before the latter, For the late crops, Knight's Marrowfat sown about Midsummer day, or a sowing made a week before, and another a week after this time, will produce a supply from the middle of September till the end of October, and sometimes much later. From a sowing on Midsummer day, I have gathered fine peas of Knight's Marrow after snow in November. 49. PENNYROYAL. Mentha Pulegium, or Pennyroyal, is a perennial plant, a native of Britain. It smells like Spearmint, but is less fragrant; the taste is aromatic and pungent, with a slight flavour of camphor. It was formerly in use as a medicinal plant, but is now seldom used in regular practice. It is propagated by dividing the plant, and planting out the young slips upon a moist bed or border, in March or April. 50. POTATOES. Solanum tuberosum, or Potatoe, is a perennial, supposed to be a native of South America. It appears, according to Sir Joseph Banks, that the Potatoe was brought into England, from Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1586. The tubers of the Potatoe, from having no peculiarity of taste, and consisting chiefly of starch, approach nearer to the nature of flour, or farina of grain, than any vegetable root production. With the flour of Potatoes |