Gerard, a name frequently mentioned in this work, who says that turnips were not much grown in his time, except for domestic purposes, and then principally in the light sandy grounds round the village of Hackney, near London (there is not much turnip ground there now); and that they were brought to the cross in Cheapside by the women of the village; the cross at that time being the principal vegetable market in London- a striking contrast to the waggon loads of turnips now sent in during the season.

Turnips are accounted salubrious, but are sometimes liable, in weak stomachs, to produce flatulency, and to prove difficult of digestion. They are often used medicinally in coughs, hoarseness, and other disorders of a similar nature. The syrup of turnips, after being extracted by baking, and mixed with honey, has the same beneficial effect. They are principally used at our modern tables with boiled meat, for which purpose middle-sized turnips are better then large ones, as the latter, being of a spongy nature, contain a greater quantity of water than those of a smaller size. There is an agreeable dish made of mashed turnips, by first straining out the water, and then mixing them up with some thin melted butter, serving them up to table as for roast ducks. They are most useful in broths, and make one of our best white soups.

That turnips are nourishing has been proved. In Wales, a few years since, they formed a considerable portion of the food of the lower classes.

To the above qualities of the turnip one more should be added, which is of the most essential service; viz. the enrichment of almost barren land

by its cultivation. either native or exotic, that exhibits more striking instances of improvement, especially when we come to consider that they thrive best in arid or dry sandy and gravelly soils, where other plants would perish; this altogether renders the turnip of the highest importance, and they must certainly be looked upon as a source of great wealth both to landlord and cultivator.

Besides, we have no plant,

Few are the varieties of the garden turnip, which are generally sown for culinary purposes. The following will be found quite a sufficiency of sorts.

1. Early Dutch.—The seed of this variety should be had from Holland every other year, as it is apt to degenerate in this country, both in earliness and in running too quickly to seed.

2. Six Weeks.-This is an earlier variety than the Dutch; but requires a moist season for its growth. If but a small bed is sown, and the weather is dry, it must be occasionally watered.

3. Yellow Altringham.-A variety of which the author has heard a good account, being similar in taste and flavour to the Scotch yellow, than which we need no better for the early part of winter.

4. White Stone.. A leading variety, much cultivated for the London market: it is also called the Stubble Turnip, being generally sown after an early crop of wheat, which produces the sweetest turnips. This variety is called the stone, from its compact growth, and refraining for some time from getting hollow or spongy.

Culture. The turnip will thrive in any piece of ground that has been previously well manured and

worked with the spade, as it is from the fineness of the parts that the turnip draws both growth and nourishment.

The ground being selected, previously turned up, and levelled, a bed or beds, if in private gardens, should be marked out four or five feet wide, on which the seed for a first crop may be sown towards the end of March or beginning of April. The seed should be sown rather thin (half an ounce or an ounce of seed will produce a considerable number of roots), when, after being lightly and regularly raked in, the surface may be levelled over with the back of a spade. The seed will soon be up; and, should there be any appearance of that destructive insect the fly, the bed must be thinly covered either with fern or any dry mulchy stuff, which, at so early a season, is preferable to soot or lime.

As soon as the plants have formed their rough leaf, they must be hoed out to the distance of four or five inches, after which they will want little or nothing done to them; and, should the weather have proved favourable, young turnips will most likely be fit for use towards the end of May, and perhaps sooner; but, as before observed, much depends on the weather and situation.

A second sowing in beds (as it often happens that many of the first start for seed) should be made about the middle of May. For these two sowings, seed, either of the Dutch or Six Weeks variety, should be chosen, as they are principally wanted for early use.

For a more permanent crop a third sowing will

be requisite, in broad-cast, about the middle of June. For this purpose a good piece of ground should be chosen, on which, after being well broken up and levelled, the seed may be sown, lightly trod in, and regularly raked. As soon as the plants have got into rough leaf, they should be thinned out with a two-inch hoe, and in about a fortnight after, with a four-inch hoe, which most likely will set the plants at six inches apart. For this sowing and the next the White Stone is to be preferred.

A fourth sowing, for a principal and lasting crop, may be made from the beginning to the middle of August. In hoeing them out they should be left full six inches apart. Any late variety, either of garden or field, may be sown at the same time; but of the field turnip the Hertfordshire White is to be preferred. The author has had, in his time, a very excellent crop sown the first week in September; at any rate, should the plants from this sowing not head, we may be sure of good turnip tops, which proved a very valuable article in the spring of 1838. They are a most salubrious vegetable when used in that season. There is another not nearly so much appreciated as it deserves,-the Swedish turnip, the sprouts of which are most deliIcious both in taste and flavour.

Turnips may be kept sound and good for some time by being taken up in the latter end of November (first cutting off their leaves to within an inch of the bulb), and placed in any dry pit or cellar, and covered with dry straw or fern; thus protected, they will be found most useful in frosts of long duration.

In respect of that destructive insect, the fly, which so greedily devours the young turnip plants, the author has but little to say, as what has been a preventive one year may be of no avail the next; and numerous as have been the hints, suggestions, and receipts, for the prevention of this insect, none that have come to the author's knowledge have proved effective, though they may have partially stopped their depredations.

After a number of years' observation, the author has found the most effective plan in dry seasons to consist in first soaking the seed in soft water, and immediately sowing it, after the ground is newly broken up. Another method is, previously to sow. ing the seed, to get a coat of well-consumed manure strewed over the ground on which the seed is to be sown, and harrowed or raked in, and afterwards trod in, or to have a light wooden roller drawn over it. A third method, which has been found of much service, is soot mixed with slacked lime, to be strewed over the piece or beds early in the morning; this method the author has found, after many years' practice, to be very efficacious. But there are two circumstances which he has observed to be more efficacious than all the rest, viz. a moist season and a clouded atmosphere.

66. VEGETABLE MARROW.- CUCURBITA.

Cucurbita ovifera, is the English name of this plant, which it retains only from its recent introduction. Cucurbita is the generic name of the gourd, and ovifera the specific, from the oval shape of the fruit.