Lettuce

let'tis, a garden herb closely related to the dandelion. The name lettuce is without doubt related to a Latin noun meaning milk, and has reference to the milky juice of the plant. The native land of the lettuce is not known certainly, but lettuce salad is said to have been served at the tables of Persian kings as early as 400 B. C.

The valuable part of the plant is a rosette of root leaves much used as a salad. Lettuce requires cool weather. That grown in early spring is much more tender than summer lettuce. Much of the lettuce in market is grown in hotbeds and glass houses. Lettuce is a quick growing annual. Under favorable circumstances, it may be had ready for the market in sixty days from the seed. As in the case of cabbage, there are numerous varieties, some forming heads much earlier than others. The plant is an annual. The leaves are no sooner ready for the table than a seed stalk pushes up from the center of the rosette. About thirty plants produce a pound of seed. American gardeners depend almost entirely upon California for lettuce seed. The state produces a quarter of a million pounds annually. An ounce of seed should produce about 5,000 plants. See Vegetables