yo CHE:f^OPObiACE^ 



its old commendations, and forms a truly excellent dish, not at all inferioi" 

 to garden spinach, and perfectly wholesome. 



Many botanists consider that our Beet is the wild form of the cultivated 

 Beet ; hence the same name, B. rulgaris, is given to it. There are some, 

 however, who, like Mr. Babington, having doubts of its identity with that 

 plant, retain the name given 1)y Linnteus to our native species, of B. marifiina. 

 The cultivated Beet is a native of Southern Europe, and a well-known 

 culinary root, ornamenting the dish of salad with its deep red slices, and 

 eaten besides, either pickled or boiled. It has, too, been candied, to form a 

 sweetmeat, and has been used as a substitute for coffee. It also yields sugar, 

 though this seems to be furnished more abundantly by some other species of 

 Beet. The French call the Beet Betfe, or Bettevave ; the Dutch, Biete ; and 

 the Italians, Bieta. The white Sicilian Beet {B. sicula) is extensively culti- 

 vated in Switzerland and Germany. Its leaves are used as spinach, and 

 their stout midribs and foot-stalks, called "chards," are boiled and eaten 

 like asparagus. The mangel-wurzel of our fields is a species of Beet, and 

 from its size and highly nutritive quality it obtained this name, which 

 signifies "root of scarcity." 



2. GOOSEFOOT (Chenopdditim). 



* Leaves undivideJ. 



1. Stinking Goosefoot (C. dlidum). — Leaves egg-shaped, with a wedge- 

 shaped 1)ase, entire, mealy ; floAvers in leafless dense spikes ; stem spreading ; 

 seed shining, black, slightly rough, very small ; annual. This plant was 

 called by old writers Stinking Arrach, and Dog's Arrach. Few of our 

 native plants possess so disgusting an odour ; indeed, Avith the exception of 

 some species of fungus, it is unrivalled in this respect. The leaves are small 

 and stalked, and feel to the touch as if greased, while a poAvdery substance 

 is thickly scattered over their surface. When the foliage is handled, we 

 become more conscious of the odour of putrid fish existing in this powder ; 

 and M. Chevalier has discovered a circumstance in this plant unknown in 

 any other, which is, that it disengages ammonia during vegetation. AVhen 

 the plant is distilled along with a solution of common soda, a A'olatile alkaline 

 substance of a strong fishy odour passes off, which has been called by chemists 

 irimethjlamine ; and it is very remarkable, that if herring brine be distilled 

 in the same waj', along with soda, the same volatile substance passes off in 

 still greater abundance than from the Goosefoot. Professor Johnston 

 remarks on this : " In a living and growing plant, therefore, and in the 

 substance of dead and decaying fish, one and the same chemical compound 

 is naturally produced, and imparts to each the same Avell-known and offen- 

 sive odour, for which it is everywhere remarkable. The history of this 

 substance, trimethiilamine, presents also an interesting illustration of the 

 way in which chemistry throws light on natural phenomena. It was formed 

 and ol)tainecl in the lal)oratory by special chemical processes, and its peculiar 

 properties ascertained before it was extracted, either from the evil-smelling 

 plant, or from the decaying fish. It was the smell of the artificial compound 

 wUich suggested first that it might possibly be the cause of the repulsiAC 



