Notes and Gleanings. lOl 



New-Zealand Spinach. — We copy the following interesting article from 

 "The Gardener's Magazine," with such trifling changes as seem to be called for 

 to better adapt it to our country : — 



This plant resembles and is nearly related to the ice-plant ; and its aspect 

 is that of an ice-plant of a very luxuriant character and dense growth. The 

 branches, which are green and tough, spread laterally, producing multitudes of 

 short, leafy shoots, clothed with neat dark-green heart-shaped leaves, in the axils 

 of which the dull, unattractive flowers are produced. These young shoots, or 

 the separate larger leaves removed from the older stems, are taken for cooking, 

 and, when served as spinach, are acceptable, but less grateful, and less prized by 

 those who relish spinach, than the genuine vegetable. However carefully cooked, 

 it lacks flavor, and is deficient in that peculiar taste for which spinach is so 

 much esteemed. 



Amongst the good qualities of New-Zealand Spinach we must certainly men- 

 tion, first of all, its productiveness. It grows with great rapidity after it has ac- 

 quired a certain degree of root-hold, and produces new shoots so freely, that it 

 will bear to be continually cropped during the whole summer. Half a dozen 

 plants will, as a rule, be enough for any family. 



Another advantage is its adaptation to a dry soil and a dr}^ hot climate, in 

 which it differs greatly from the true spinach. No matter how poor the soil or 

 sunny the aspect, this plant will soon be clothed with dark-green verdure, thus 

 rendering the dryest bank productive of a useful table-vegetable. 



The seed is a hard, angular, bony nut, like many of the seeds of tlie ice-plant 

 family. They are best sown in heat in March, and, like the tomato or egg- 

 plant, set out in May. The plant thrives better in rich than in poor soil, and 

 therefore it is not advisable to give it the worst place in the garden ; at the same 

 time, the most sunny position is essential. If not sown in heat, it may be treated 

 as a hardy annual, but should be sown before the middle of April in the open 

 ground. Seeds that we had kept in paper for ten years germinated when sown 

 in heat, and aflforded plants fully equal to those from new seeds ; but the same 

 old seed sown in April, May, and June, in the open ground, never yielded a sin- 

 gle plant. For several years past, we have not taken the trouble to sow seed at 

 all : we leave the ground untouched where the last crop stood. Early in May, 

 it is covered with young plants from self-sown seeds of the previous year. A 

 sufficient number of these are transplanted in showery weather, and the rest are 

 destroyed, and the ground appropriated to other purposes. In the hot season 

 of 1 863, many of our plants of New-Zealand Spinach covered more than a square 

 yard of surface each, and aflforded tender spinach till late in autumn. 



Steam-Ploughs. — It is stated that there are already three thousand steam- 

 ploughs at work in England. 



The Currant- Worm. — A horticultural friend suggests a trial of Scotch 

 snuflFto drive away the currant- worm, in place of the powdered hellebore usually 

 recommended, and which, being poisonous, may, if it remains on the fruit, injure 

 something beside the worms. 



