554 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



It is eaten as a salad in the Mascarenhas, in the East Indies, South America ' and in Japan, 

 where it is called hoko so. 



Spinacia oleracea Linn. Chenopodiaceae. spinach. 



Cultivated everywhere. Spinach appears to have been introduced into Europe 

 through Spain by the Mauro-Spaniards.^ According to Beckman, the first notice of its 

 use as an edible in Europe occiu^ in 1351 in a list of vegetables used by monks on fast 

 days, but, in the Nabataean agriculture in Spain, in the twelfth century,* Ibn-al-Awam 

 speaks of it as a prince of vegetables. Albertus Magnus,* who lived in Germany and 

 died in the year 1280, knew the prickly-seeded form, and the Ortus Sanitatis of 1511 figures 

 spinach and gives a Greek name aspenach. It was also well known to Agricola in 1539.' 

 In England, the name spynoches occurs in a cook book of 1390, compiled under the name 

 of The Forme oj Cury for the use of the court of King Richard the Second; in 1538, spinach 

 is spoken of by Turner ' in his Libellus as well known in England and, in 1536 by Ruellius, 

 as if well known in France. These dates are interesting, as De Candolle calls it new to 

 Europe in the sixteenth centtuy and other authors date its first mention in England as 

 notpreceding 1568. The smooth-seeded spinach is described by Tragus in 1552. According 

 to Sprengel, spinach is noticed by Crescentius in the thirteenth century and is badly figiu^ed 

 in the Ortus Sanitatis, edition of 1491. According to Bretschneider, spinach is noticed 

 in a Chinese work on husbandry of the seventh or eighth century.^ There is no early 

 notice of its introduction into America, but, in 1806, three varieties were known to our 

 gardens. ' 



Two races are now known in American gardens; one with prickly seed, and the other 

 with smooth seed. These have been described as follows: 



I. 



Prickly-seedex) Spinach. 



Spinacia spinosa Moench. 



Spinachia. Alb. Mag. 13th Cent. Jessen Ed. 563; Fuchsius. 666. ctun ic. 1542; Dod. 



619. cum ic. 1616. 

 Binetach, Spinat, Spinacia. Roeszl. aun ic. 1550. 

 Olus hispanicus. Trag. 325. ciom ic. 1552. 

 Spinacia. Matth. 342. ctun ic. 1570; Lob. Obs. 129. 1576. cum ic. 1591; ic. 1:257. 



1591; Dalechamp 544 cum ic. 1587; Ger. 260. cum ic. 1597. 

 Spanachum. Cam. Epit. 245. cum ic. 1586. 



Lapathum hortense alterum, sue spinacia semine spinoso. Bauh. Phytopin. 

 Spinachia mas. Bauh, J. 2:964. cum ic. 1651. 



Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 356. 1859. 



' Targioni-Tozzetti Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 9: 148. 1855. 



' Heuze, G. Pis. Aliment. I, IV. 1873. 



Albertus Magnus Veg. Jessen Ed. 563. 1867. 



Aramonius Med. Herb. 323. 1539. 



' Turner Libellus 1538. 



' Bretschneider, E. On Study 16. 1870. 



N. Y. (Geneva) Agr. Sta. Rpt. 6:226. 1887. 



