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food be considered parallel with those of Digitaria Iburu in 

 Nigeria and Eleusine coracana in India (see under Gramineae), 

 with a people amongst whom the trouble of preparation can only 

 be appreciated because the material and labour are plentiful 

 and cheap. 



"Blue Bush " (Chenopodium auricomum, LindL), a plant 

 5 ft. high and upwards is a (superior pasture plant u which 

 stock of all kinds are remarkably fond of" (Turner), and the 

 succulent stems and leaves are an excellent table vegetable when 

 cooked as Spinach (Maiden). The " Goosefoot Salt Bush " (C. 

 atri jdicinum, ~F. MuelL), a foot or so high, " forms a dense mass 

 of nutritious succulent herbage" and the "Nitre Bush" (C 

 nitrariaceum, F. Muell.), a branching undershrub from 3 to 4 

 ft. in height (8 ft. under cultivation) of which it is stated 

 " sheep in eating this bush often trim it as neatly as if it had 

 been clipped with handshears" (Turner), are all natives of 

 Australia. It may be mentioned here tiiat there are other specie- 

 of this genus and of Kochia and Rhagodia that are known as 

 " Salt Bushes," more or less valuable for forage, included in the 

 Order. " White Goose Foot" (C. album, Linn.), a common 

 * weed in Britain, on the Continent and in Temperate Asia, is 

 cultivated as a food grain, pot-herb and /vegetable in India 

 (Watt). "Australian Spinach" (C. murale, Linn.), of the 

 southern colonies, Australia, is used as a pot-herb (Maiden). 

 rc Uauhtzontli " (C. Nuttalliae, Safford), is cultivated as a food 

 plant by the Aztecs in Mexico (Safford, Journ. Wasl 



Acad. Sci. viii. Sept. 1918, pp. 521-527). * 



1. 1896, " Sheep Bushes and Salt Bushes," pp. 129-140; 189T, 

 ".Fat Hen in Australia (Chenopodium album)," pp. 218-219; 

 1909, " Australian Salt Bushes," pp. 30-32; 1909, " Quinoa," 

 pp. 425-427. 



Beta vulgaris, Linn.; Beetroot, Sugar Beet, Mangold or 

 Mangel, Mangold Wurzel. 



Biennial plants, usually cultivated as annuals, native of the 

 shores of the Mediterranean and of the western coasts of Europe. 

 The Sugar Beet includes the white varieties "blanche a sucre 

 arnelioree " (Vilmorin) and " blanche a sucre Klein- Wanzle- 

 ben" (Vilmorin), grown largely in Europe and America for the 

 production of sugar. "When A chard initiated the manufacture 

 of sugar from beetroot the white field variety was judged the 

 most suitable ; it contained from 8 to 10 per cent, of its weight 

 in pure sugar; selection in the course of the next 50 years 

 raised the percentage of sugar to 12 or 13 per cent, (of the gross 

 weight of the root), and after 1850 a race was established by 

 Vilmorin yielding 16 and even 18 per cent, of sugar, beyond 

 which it is stated beetroots cease to vegetate properly and die. 

 (K.B. 1897, p. 317.) The amount of unrefined beetroot 

 imported in 1913 was 15,267,165 centals, chiefly from Austria- 

 Hungary (3603733), Denmark (704475), Germany, Holland. 

 Belgium, and France (no returns given 1913). Experiments in 

 growing Sugar Beet in England, more particularly Norfolk, 

 have been made in conjunction with factories in Holland, and 



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