THE SPINACH 397 



more deeply divided, and that it rises less from the ground. 1 A. DE 

 CANDOLLE states that "spinach has not yet been found in a wild state, 

 unless it be a cultivated modification of Spinacia tetandra Steven, which 

 is wild to the south of the Caucasus, in Turkistan, in Persia, and in 

 Afghanistan, and which is used as a vegetable under the name of 

 Samum." The latter word is apparently a bad spelling or misreading 

 for Persian $omm or Sumin (Armenian zomin and Somin), another' 

 designation for the spinach. 



The spinach is not known in India except as an introduction by the 

 English. The agriculturists of India classify spinach among the English 

 vegetables. 2 The species Spinacia tetrandra Roxb., for which Rox- 

 BURGH 3 gives the common Persian and Arabic name for the spinach, 

 and of which he says that it is much cultivated in Bengal and the 

 adjoining provinces, being a pot-herb held in considerable estimation 

 by the natives, may possibly have been introduced by the Moham- 

 medans. As a matter of fact, spinach is a vegetable of the temperate 

 zones and alien to tropical regions. A genuine Sanskrit word for the 

 spinach is unknown. 4 Nevertheless Chinese po-lin, *pwa-lin, must 

 represent the transcription of some Indian vernacular name. In Hin- 

 dustani we have palak as designation for the spinach, and palan or 

 palak as name for Beta vulgaris, Pustu pdlak, 5 apparently developed 

 from Sanskrit pdlanka, pdlankya, palakyu, pdlakyd, to which our 

 dictionaries attribute the meaning "a kind of vegetable, a kind of 

 beet-root, Beta bengalensis"; in Bengali palun* To render the coin- 

 cidence with the Chinese form complete, there is also Sanskrit Palakka 



1 Perhaps related to A triplex L., the so-called wild spinach, chiefly cultivated 

 in France and eaten like spinach. The above description, of course, must 

 not be construed to mean that the cultivated spinach is derived from the 

 so-called wild spinach of the Nabathaeans. The two plants may not be in- 

 terrelated at all. 



2 N. G. MUKERJI, Handbook of Indian Agriculture, 2d ed., p. 300 (Calcutta, 

 1907); but it is incorrect to state that spinach originally came from northern Asia. 

 A. DE CANDOLLE (op. cit., p. 99) has already observed, "Some popular works repeat 

 that spinach is a native of northern Asia, but there is nothing to confirm this sup- 

 position." 



8 Flora Indica, p. 718. 



4 A. BOROOAH, in his English-Sanskrit Dictionary, gives a word $akaprabheda 

 with this meaning, but this simply signifies "a kind of vegetable," and is accord- 

 ingly an explanation. 



6 H. W. BELLE w, Report on the Yusufzais, p. 255 (Lahore, 1864). 



6 Beta is much cultivated by the natives of Bengal, the leaves being consumed 

 in stews (W. ROXBURGH, Flora Indica, p. 260). Another species, Beta maritima, is 

 also known as "wild spinach." It should be remembered that the genus Beta belongs 

 to the same family (Chenopodiaceae) as Spinacia. 



