SPANISH BEET. 



480 



SPINACH 



in sixes i, 2, and 3, at 35. 6d., 35. 9d., and 

 4.s., respectively. Although it is only the 

 spade as a garden tool that is now under 

 consideration, it may be as well to point 

 put that spades of other forms are used for 



SPINACH FOR SPRING. 



ether purposes than those of trenching and 

 digging with better effect ; thus, for work- 

 ing in clay and stiff adhesive soil a spade 

 with a hollow or slightly curved blade is 

 preferable, and for cutting trenches in 

 draining a spade with a very narrow blade 

 is used. 



Spanish Beet. See Beet, White. 



Spanish Chestnut and Chief 

 Varieties. 



The Spanish chestnut, Castanea vesca, 

 itself so beautiful in woods and shrubberies, 

 offers an agreeable variety in C. asplenii- 

 fo/ia, the fern-leaved chestnut, C. Knightii, 

 Knight's Chestnut, and C. variegata, the 

 variegated chestnut. 



Sphagnum (nat. ord. Sphagna'cese). 



A kind of moss from bogs and swampy 

 places used in gardening as a cool and 

 moist material for packing plants and also 

 for filling baskets in which to grow epi- 

 phytal orchids. 



Spinach. 



This excellent vegetable requires a light, 

 rich soil, and plenty of moisture, so much 



so, indeed, that if the ground be dry 

 naturally, or the weather dry in late spring 

 and summer, it should be watered plenti- 

 fully and frequently, in order to induce a 

 good crop. The outside leaves may be 

 gathered when young, and the heart left to 

 continue sprouting, or the leaves may be 

 cut off altogether, close to the ground, a 

 more desirable method when it is necessary 

 to clear the ground immediately and pre- 

 pare it for fresh crops. 



Preparation of the Land. The ground 

 for a summer crop of spinach cannot be too 

 rich, and should be heavily manured and 

 trenched deeply : a rather strong loamy 

 soil is to be preferred. For the winter 

 crop, however, a light and sandy soil is the 

 most suitable, but this also should be 

 deeply trenched, and in unfavourable 

 localities a sheltered situation should be 

 chosen. In wet, undrained soils, or those 

 of a very strong, tenacious nature, it may 

 be advisable to sow the winter crop on 

 raised beds, for spinach is very impatient 

 of ground saturated with wet in winter, and 

 under such conditions will not stand severe 



WINTKK SPINACH. 



frost. The spring and summer crops are 

 often sown between the rows of other crops, 

 as peas, celery trenches, &c. ; and there 

 can be no objection to this practice, save 

 the injury which may be done to the ground 

 by treading it, when wet, in gathering the 

 spinach. Crops sown in this way should 

 be cleared off as soon as done with, and 



