SPINACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



SUBSECT. V. The Spinach Beet, and the Chard Beet. 



1455. The spinach leet, leaf beet, or white beet, Beta cicla L. (Bette, 

 or Poiree, Fr.) 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. 



1456. The chard beet, syn. Swiss chard, (Poiree a cardes, Fr.,) 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 sea-beet, Beta maritima L., a biennial, or imperfect perennial, 

 a native of our shores. Culture of both the leaf beet and the chard beet 

 as in the red beet (1435) ; and a single plant will produce abundance of 

 seed, which will keep five or six years. 



SUBSECT. VI Patience Spinach. 



1457. Patience spinach, Herb Patience, or Patience dock, Rumex Pa- 

 tientia L. (Rhubarbe des Moines, Oseille-epinards, and Epinards immortels, 

 .FV.), 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 with about a fourth 

 part of common sorrel. It may be raised from seeds, or increased by 

 division like the perennial spinach (1453). 



SUBSECT. VII The Sorrel. 



1458. The sorrel, Rumex L. (Oseille, Fr.), is a polygonaceous genus, 

 of which two species have been long in cultivation for their leaves as sorrel. 

 The French sorrel, syn. Roman sorrel, or round- leaved sorrel, R. scutatus 

 L., is a perennial, a native of France and Italy ; and the common garden 

 sorrel, R. Acetosa L., is an indigenous perennial, common in moist meadows. 

 The leaves of both species are used in soups, sauces, and salads ; and very 

 generally by the French and Dutch as a spinach ; in the latter way it is 

 often used along with herb-patience, to which it gives an excellent flavour, 

 as well as to orache, turnip-tops, nettle-tops, and those of Jack-by-the- 

 hedge. There are several varieties of the common sorrel, but that most 

 esteemed is the large-leaved, 1'oseille de Belleville, Fr. The mild-leaved, 

 R. montanus H. P. (1'oseille vierge Fr.\ is a dioecious species, of which the 

 leaves are smaller and less acid than those of R. Acetosa. The male plant 

 of this species is recommended in the Bon Jardinier for being planted as 

 edgings in the kitchen-garden. All the kinds are propagated by division or 

 by seeds, and they may be grown in rows eighteen inches apart, and a foot 

 distant in the row ; lifting a portion of the plantation every year after the 

 flowering season, when the plants are in a comparatively dormant state, and 

 dividing them, and replanting. If this is neglected for two or three years, 

 the plants will become large and crowded, produce only small leaves, rot in 



