642 RADICACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



is of inferior quality to the common spinach, and even to the Orache, 

 or French spinach. The seed, of which \ oz. will be sufficient, may 

 be sown on a gentle heat in March ; it will come up in ten days, and 

 the plants may be transplanted into small pots and kept in a cold 

 frame till the middle of May, when they may be turned out into the 

 open garden, allowing each plant at least a square yard for the exten- 

 sion of its trailing branches. Half-a-dozen plants are enough for an 

 ordinary-sized garden. Seed may be saved in fine seasons from plants 

 in the open garden ; and in cold wet summers by planting on dry 

 rubbish, keeping a plant in a pot, or training one up a wall. It will 

 keep two years. 



Perennial Spinach. 



The Perennial Spinach (Chenopodium Bonus Henricus, L.) is a 

 chenopodiaceous perennial, a native of Britain, in loamy soils, and 

 formerly cultivated in gardens for its leaves, which when grown in a 

 rich soil on vigorous young plants, make a very succulent spinach. 

 The plant is easily propagated by division, and it also ripens seeds. 

 In Lincolnshire it is said to be cultivated in preference to the common 

 spinach. 



The Spinach Beet, and the Chard Beet. 



The Spinach Beet, Leaf Beet, or White or Silver Beet (Beta cicla, L.) 

 is a chenopodiaceous biennial, a native of the sea-shores of Spain and 

 Portugal, and in cultivation in British gardens from the middle of the 

 sixteenth century, for the leaves, which are boiled as spinach, or put 

 into soups, and used as greens. 



The Chard Beet, syn. Swiss Chard, belongs to this species ; it has 

 leaves with strong white footstalks and ribs, and these, separated from 

 the disk of the leaf and dressed like asparagus, are thought to be 

 nearly as good as that vegetable. There are varieties with white, 

 yellow, and red midribs. 



The advantage of using the White Beet as a spinach plant is, that it 

 affords a succession of leaves during the whole summer ; and hence it 

 is recommended for the gardens of cottages. The same advantage also 

 attends the use of the Sugar or Silesian Beet, the Sea-beet (Beta 

 maritima, L.), a biennial, or imperfect perennial, a native of our snores. 

 All the beets require similar culture to that of the beet already 

 described. Only those grown for the leaves alone might be cultivated 

 in a richer soil, as succulency of top and not quality of root is required. 

 A single plant will produce abundance of seed, which will keep five 

 or six years. 



Patience Spinach. 



Patience Spinach, Herb- patience, or Patience Dock (Rumex Patientia, 

 L.) is a polygonaceous perennial, a native of Italy, formerly common 

 in gardens as a spinach plant, but now much neglected. The leaves 

 rise early in spring, and continue to be produced during great part of 

 the summer ; they should be gathered when quite tender, and boiled 



