NEW ZEALAND SPINACH 



155 



is all that is required. The plant does not seem to be subject to 

 attacks from cabbage worms. 



Collards. — Young coUards look so much like cabbage plants 

 that the two cannot be readily distinguished. However, collards 

 continue to grow all summer without producing heads. The stem 

 elongates so that the plants may become three feet in height 

 before the season is over. New leaves are continually formed. 

 Collards are not sensitive to the heat of summer, and are often 

 grown in the South to be used 

 as a substitute for cabbage 

 where the weather is too hot 

 for the latter. They are little 

 grown at the North. The 

 young leaves from near the 

 top of the plant form the edible 

 part, or early in the season 

 the entire plant may be used 

 (Fig. 95). 



The seeds may be sown in 

 early spring where the plants 

 are to stand and the seedlings 

 thinned to about a foot apart 

 in the row. Tillage should be 

 given as required. 



New Zealand Spinach. — 

 This plant is entirely distinct 

 from ordinary spinach. In- 

 stead of producing a dense 

 rosette of leaves early in the 

 season, and quickly running 

 to seed and passing out of the 

 edible stage, as is the case 

 with common spinach, the New 



Zealand spinach forms a large branching plant that continues 

 growing through the summer and may eventually attain a spread 

 of three to four feet. The main branches spread over the ground, 

 but short upright and oblique laterals arise in large numbers from 

 these, and new growths are continually being formed. The tender 

 tips of the growing laterals, covered with succulent leaves, con- 

 stitute the edible portions, and make an excellent substitute for 

 spinach in hot weather (Fig. 96). 



Fig. 95. — Collard plant at stage of devel- 

 opment when the entire plant (except the root) 

 might be used. 



