638 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. PART III. 



nature as the chenopodi urn (see Foster, Plant, esculent., &c.), it was served to the sailors, 

 boiled every day at breakfast and dinner. It was introduced here by Sir Joseph Banks in 

 1772, and treated as a green-house plant ; but has lately been found to grow in the open 

 garden as freely as the kidneybean or nasturtium. As a summer spinage it is as valuable as 

 the orache, or perhaps more so. Every gardener knows the plague that attends the frequent 

 sowing of common spinage through the warm season of the year ; without that trouble 

 it is impossible to have it good, and with the utmost care it cannot always be obtained 

 exactly as it ought to be (particularly when the weather is hot and dry) from the rapidity 

 with which the young plants run to seed. The New Zealand spinage, if watered, grows 

 freely, and produces leaves of the greatest succulency in the hottest weather. Anderson, 

 one of its earliest cultivators, had only nine plants, from which he says, " I have been 

 enabled to send in a gathering for the kitchen every other day since the middle of June, 

 so that I consider a bed with about twenty plants quite sufficient to give a daily supply, 

 if required, for a large table." 



3795. Use. It is dressed in the same manner as common spinage, and whether boiled 

 plain, or stewed, is considered by some as superior to it ; there is a softness and mildness 

 in its taste, added to its flavor, which resembles that of spinage, in which it has an advan- 

 tage over that herb. 



3796. Culture. The seed should be sown in the latter end of March, in a pot, which must be placed in 

 a melon-frame ; the seedling plants while small should be set out singly, in small pots, and kept under the 

 shelter of a cold-frame, until about the twentieth of May, when the mildness of the season will probably 

 allow of their being planted out, without risk of being killed by frost. At that time a bed must be pre- 

 pared for the reception of the plants, by forming a trench two feet wide, and one foot deep, which must 

 be filled level to the surface with rotten dung from an old cucumber-bed ; the dung must be covered with 

 six inches of garden-mould, thus creating an elevated ridge in the middle of the bed, the sides of which 

 must extend three feet from the centre. The plants must be put out three feet apart ; I planted mine at 

 only two feet distance from each other, but they were too near. In five or six weeks from the planting, 

 their branches will have grown sufficiently to allow the gathering of the leaves for use. In dry seasons 

 the plants will probably require a good supply of water. They put forth their branches vigorously as soon 

 as they have taken to the ground, and extend before the end of the season three feet on each side from 

 the centre of the bed. 



3797. In gathering for use, the young leaves must be pinched off the branches, taking care to leave the 

 leading shoot uninjured ; this, with the smaller branches which subsequently arise from the alae of the 

 leaves which have been gathered, will produce a supply until a late period in the year, for the plants are 

 sufficiently hardy to withstand the frosts which kill nasturtiums, potatoes, and such tender vegetables. 

 (Anderson, in Hort. Trans, vol. iv. 492.) 



3798. To save seed. Place a plant or two in a poor soil, or train one up a wall, or 

 stunt oneor two in lime rubbish, or in pots sparingly watered, as in growing the pea-plant 

 for seed. Or a few cuttings may be struck in autumn, and preserved through the winter 

 in the green-house. 



SUBSECT. 6. Sorrel. Rumex, L. Hex. Trig. L. and Polygoneee, J. Oseille, Fr. ; 

 Sauerampfer, Ger. ; and Acetosa, Ital. 



3799. French sorrel, Roman sorrel, or round-leaved sorrel, is the R. Scutatus, L. ; a 

 perennial plant, a native of France and Italy, and cultivated in this country since 1596. 

 The leaves are somewhat hastate, blunt, and entire ; glaucous, smooth, soft, and fleshy. 

 The trailing stems rise from a foot to a foot and a half high, and the flowers, of a greenish- 

 white, appear in June and July. 



3800. Garden-sorrel is the R. acetosa, L. (Eng. Sot. 127.), an indigenous perennial, 

 common in meadows and moist situations. The root-leaves have long foot-stalks, are 

 narrow-shaped, blunt, and marked with two or three large teeth at the base ; the upper 

 leaves are sessile and acute. There are two varieties of this species, the broad-leaved, 

 and the long-leaved, both in cultivation, and the former esteemed the most succulent. 



3801. Use. Both sorts are used in soups, sauces, and salads ; and very generally by 

 the French and Dutch, as a spinage ; in the latter way it is often used along with herb- 

 patience, to which it gives an excellent flavor, as well as to turnip-tops. 



3802. Culture and soil. " The finer plants are propagated from seed, but good plants can be obtained by 

 parting the roots, which is the most expeditious way. The native varieties flourish both in humid meadows 

 and sandy pastures : their roots strike deep. The trailing round-leaved requires a dry soil." 



3803. By seed. " Sow in any of the spring months, best in March. Drop the seed in small drills, six or 

 eight inches asunder. When the plants are one or two inches high, thin them to three or four inches 

 apart: when advanced to be a little stocky, in summer or autumn, transplant a quantity into another bed, 

 from six to twelve inches apart, if of the first two sorts : leaving those in the seed-bed with the same 

 intervals. But leave almost double that distance for the round-leaved creeping kind. They will come 

 in for use the same year." 



3804. By offsets. Part the roots in spring or autumn. Either detach a quantity of offsets, or divide 

 full plants into rooted slips : plant them at a foot distance, and water them. 



3805. General treatment. As these herbs, however originated, run up in stalks in summer, cut them 

 down occasionally ; and cover the stool with a little fresh mould, to encourage the production of large 

 leaves on the new stem. Fork and clean the ground between the plants every autumn or spring ; and 

 keep it clear from weeds. If, in two or three years, they have dwindled in growth, bearing small leaves, 

 let them be succeeded by a new plantation. 



3806. To save seed. " Permit some old plants to run up in stalks all the summer : 

 they will ripen seed in autumn." (Abercrombie.) 



