SPINACH. 641 



the main crops. The summer crops are frequently sown alternately with 

 rows of peas or beans ; but, as the spinach is generally more or less 

 shaded by these crops before it is fit to be gathered, it is never of so 

 good a quality as that which is grown in the open garden. For summer 

 spinach, the first sowing may be made in open weather in January, 

 and sowings in succession every three or four weeks may be made till 

 the end of July. For winter and spring use, a large sowing of the 

 Flanders variety, and also some of the prickly-seeded, which some 

 prefer, should be made in the first or second week of August, and a 

 secondary one towards the end of that month. These sowings will 

 come into use in November, and will continue to afford gatherings 

 occasionally through the winter, and frequently in spring, till May or 

 June. The routine culture of all the sowings consists in thinning, 

 stirring the soil between the rows, and watering in very dry weather. 

 In gathering, the largest leaf only, or at most a few of the largest 

 leaves, should be taken off one plant at a time : they may either be 

 cut or pinched off. A portion of the winter crop may be protected by 

 hoops and mats, when a heavy fall of snow is anticipated, to admit of 

 its being more readily gathered. Seed may be saved by leaving a 

 portion of a row, containing both male and female plants. When the 

 female blossoms are set, the male plants should be pulled up. The 

 seed will keep four years. 



Or ache, or French Spinach. 



The Orache, or French Spinach (Atriplex hortensis, L.) is a cheno- 

 podiaceous polygamous annual, growing to the height of three feet or 

 four feet, a native of Tartary, and in cultivation as a spinach plant 

 from the beginning of the sixteenth century. The leaves are used as 

 in the common spinach, to mix with those of sorrel, and sometimes 

 also the tender points of the shoots. There are several varieties, the 

 white (syn. pale green-leaved), the green-leaved, the dark red-leaved, 

 and Lee's Giant, by far the best of this class, possessing extraordinary 

 productive powers, and said to be superior in flavour. An ounce of 

 seed will sow a drill of one hundred feet in length ; and it comes up in 

 ten days or a fortnight. A dozen or two of plants placed two feet apart 

 every way, in rich soil, in an open situation, kept moderately moist, will 

 afford gatherings two or three times a week during the whole summer. 

 The leaves ought to be taken while they are tender, and the blossoms 

 pinched off as fast as they appear. The earliest crop may be sown in 

 February, and for succession another sowing may be made in June. 

 One plant will afford abundance of seed, which will keep two years. 



New Zealand Spinach. 



The New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia expansa, H. K.) is a ficoi- 

 daceous trailing annual, a native of New Zealand, growing freely in 

 the open garden during our summers, and suffering much less from 

 drought than the common spinach. It has been more or less in culture 

 as a spinach plant since the beginning of the present century ; but it 



T T 



