,92 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



Swiss Chard. 

 Swiss chard is deemed by Ray to have been known to Gerarde, 1597, for Gerarde, 

 in his Herball, indicates the sportive character of the seed as to color and mentions a height 

 which is attained only by this plant. He says of it, " another sort hereof that was brought 

 unto me from beyond the seas," and particularly notices the great breadth of the stalk; 

 but the color particularly noticed is the red sort. Ray gives as a synonym Beta italica 

 Parkinson. Swiss chard is quite variable in the stalks, according to the culture received. 



Silver-Leaf Beet. 

 The siiver-leaf beet {Poir^e blonde h carde blanche Vilm. 1883) is a lighter green form 

 of Swiss chard, as described by Vilmorin, but with shorter and much broader stalk. It 

 seems to be a variety within the changes which can be effected by selection and culture 

 and perhaps can be referred to the Chilean type. 



Chilean Beet. 



The Chilean beet is a form usually grown for ornamental purposes. The stalks 

 are often very broad and twisted and the colors very clear and distinct, the leaf puckered 

 and blistered as in the Curled Swiss. In the Gardeners' Chronicle,^ 1844, it is said that 

 " these ornamental plants were introduced to Belgium some ten or twelve years previously." 

 It is yellow or red and varies in all the shades of these two colors. In 1651, J. Bauhin' 

 speaks of two kinds of chard as novelties: the one, white, with broad ribs; the other, red. 

 He also speaks of a yellow form, differing from the kind with a boxwood-yellow root. In 

 1655, Lobel ' describes a chard with yellowish stems, varied with red. The forms now 

 found are described by their names: Crimson-veined Brazilian, Golden- veined Brazilian, 

 Scarlet-ribbed Chilean, Scarlet-veined Brazilian, Yellow-ribbed Chilean and Red-stalked 

 Chilean. 



The modern chards are the broad-leaved ones and all must be considered as variables 

 within a type. This type may be considered as the one referred to by Gerarde in 1597, 

 whose " seedes taken from that plant which was altogether of one colour and sowen, doth 

 bring foorth plants of many and variable colours." Our present varieties now come true 

 to color in most instances but some seeds furnish an experience such as that which Gerarde 

 records. 



Mangold. 



Mangolt was the old German name for chard, or rather for the beet species, but in 

 recent times the mangold is a large-growing root of the beet kind used for forage purposes. 

 In the selections, size and the perfection of the root above ground have been important 

 elements, as well as the desire for novelty, and hence we have a large number of very 

 distinct -appearing sorts: the long red, about two-thirds above ground; the olive-shaped, 

 or oval; the globe; and the flat-bottomed Yellow d'Obendorf. The colors to be noted 

 are red, yellow and white. The size often obtained in single specimens is enormous, 



' Card. Chron. 5gi. 1844. (B. brasiliensis) 

 ' Bauhin, J. Hist. PL 2:^61. 1651. 

 Lobel Stirp. lllustr. 84. 1655. 



