FEBRUARY. 39 



WHITE MOUNTAIN SPINACH. 



If the advantages of this as a summer Spinach were more generally 

 known, I think few gardens would be without it. As it is, its valuable 

 qualities seem known to a few gardeners only. 



The Orach, or Mountain Spinach, is a native of Tartary, and in this 

 country it grows from three to four feet in height ; the leaves are broad 

 and fleshy, of a light green colour, and of a delicious flavour when 

 young, in which state it should be gathered for use. The leaves simply 

 require to be well washed, boiling quickly, and adding a little salt to the 

 water. 



To keep up a succession in a garden, two sowings will be sufficient, 

 say the end of February and in April or May ; any good garden soil 

 will suit it, although it evidently prefers a rich loamy soil. The seed 

 vegetates in about three weeks after sowing, and considerable thinning 

 will be required. If the flower shoots are stopped, a succession of fresh 

 young leaves will be ensured throughout the summer, when the common 

 garden Spinach has run to seed and is useless. J. F. 



Cliveden, January, 1855. 



DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF HARDY CONIFERS.— No. XIV. 



XXIV. CUPRESSUS MACROCARPA — MR. LAMBERT's, OR THE LARGE-FRUITED 



CALIFORNIAN CYPRESS. 



For the introduction of this fine species of Cypress we are indebted to 

 the Horticultural Society, whose collector, Mr. Hartweg, sent seeds of 

 it to Chiswick from California in 1845, and young plants were freely 

 distributed by the Society. 



We have given the name adopted in the Synopsis of Coniferous Plants 

 published in the Horticultural Society's Journal, which has placed the 

 name first given to it, " Lambertiana," as a synonym of " JMacro- 

 carpa ;" but there exists a general impression that the diverse habits 

 of the two are sufficient to constitute them distinct varieties, if they 

 be not found even to be specifically different, which can only be deter- 

 mined by an examination of the cones and seed-vessels of each. Our pre- 

 sent subject is figured from a fine specimen of the horizontal branched 

 kind, growing in the Arboretum attached to Mr. Pontey's nursery at 

 Plymouth, who informs us he had it fi-om the Horticultural Society 

 in 1845, and that it was planted out in the dry loamy soil of his 

 Arboretum in 1846, with many other kinds of Cypresses, &c., which 

 it soon overtook, making very rapid growth, and now it forms a tree 

 twenty-four feet high and seventeen feet in diameter, equally thick on 

 all sides, and clothed with foliage of the darkest green. 



This very beautiful tiv e is a native of Upper California, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Monterey, where Hartweg informs us he " found it attain- 

 ing the height of sixty feet and a stem of nine feet in circumference, 

 with far-spreading branches flat at the top, like a fuU-growm Cedar of 

 Lebanon, which it closely resembles at a distance." This description 



