304 



niSTOUY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



grows wild on a loamy soil, and may be found 

 on way-sides and among ruins in many parts of 

 England. The stalks rise to the height of a foot 

 and a half; they are upright, thick, and striated, 

 and covered with a whitish powder, which is 

 likewise found on the under side of the leaves. 

 These are arrow-shaped, and rather large for the 

 size of the plant. The flowers, of a yellowish 

 green colour, grow upon close spikes; they ap- 

 pear in June and July, and in August the seeds 

 come to maturity. This plant is a perennial, 

 and may be propagated by seeds or by offsets 

 from the root. When young, both the stem and 

 the leaves are succulent, the former being used 

 as an asparagus, and the latter as a spinach. 



Lincolnshire is the part of England where it 

 is most in request, and where it is cultivated and 

 preferred to the common spinach. It is, how- 

 ever, more nearly in a state of nature than the 

 latter plant, and therefore cannot accommodate 

 itself to differences of soil and situation. 



The superior docility of a plant which has 

 been long under cultivation, and which has tra- 

 velled or Ijome changes of soil and climate in a 

 growing state, is very apparent to those who at- 

 tempt to rear wild plants in situations where 

 they are not indigenous. This fact is so impor- 

 tant a feature in the natural history of plants, 

 that it is not perhaps sufficiently pointed out or 

 explained in books treating on these subjects. 

 It is a very natural result, which on considera- 

 tion should not excite surprise, that a wild plant, 

 which has been from time immemorial produced 

 on the same spot, and has there accommodated 

 itself solely to the circumstances of that spot, 

 should refuse to grow in any other situation 

 where the circumstances are not precisely simi- 

 lar. It is upon this principle that the mountain 

 berry will not flourish upon the champaign 

 country, and that the sweetest flowers of the 

 woodlands refuse their odour to the parterre. In 

 like manner, " good king Harry," which makes 

 a very estimable spinach or asparagus in its na- 

 tive country, might make but avery sorry one 

 if removed to a place where it is not indi- 

 genoua. 



New Zealand Spinach, (tetragonia expansa,) 

 80 called, because it was found growing wild on 

 the shores of New Zealand when Captain Cook 

 first touched at that island. Although the na- 

 tives made no use of this plant as an esculent, 

 the naturalists who accompanied the expedition 

 were induced to recommend it as a vegetable 

 which might be safely eaten, since its appearance 

 and general characteristics were so similar to the 

 chenopodium. On trial, it was found to be both 

 agreeable and wholesome. Sir Joseph Banks 

 brought it into culture in England in 1772, and 

 it has subsequently been found to be a much 

 more hardy and valuable plant than was at first 

 «uj)posed. It was at first treated as a green-house 



plant; but now grows freely in the open garden, 

 and indeed seems already to have naturalized 

 itself in the south-west of England. A writer, 

 from Exmouth, observes, in the Gardener's Ma- 

 gazine for February, 1829, "the New Zealand 

 spinach is quite a weed with us, as, wherever it 

 has once grown, plants rise spontaneously, even 

 when the seeds have been wheeled out with the 

 dung in the winter, and again brought in as 

 manure in the spring. I have now a full supply 

 of it in my old pink bed." This spinach has 

 an advantage over the common sort under culti- 

 vation, in producing an abundance of large and 

 succulent leaves during the hot weather, when 

 the latter plant runs almost immediately to seed, 

 and produces little or nothing. It is likewise 

 milder in flavour, and of so rapid growth, that 

 a bed with about twenty plants is sufficient for 

 the daily supply of a large family. 



Though by some called a biennial, this spinach 

 is an annual in our climate. The stem has nu- 

 merous thick and strong branches, somewhat 

 procumbent for the greater part of their length, 

 but raised at the points. The leaves are fleshy 

 and succulent, three or four inches long, of a 

 dark green on the under part, but of a paler 

 colour on the surface, on which the midribs and 

 nerves are strongly marked. They are triangu- 

 lar, or rather of an elongated heart-shape, having 

 the angles at the base rounded, and the apex 

 sharp and extended. The flowers are small, and 

 of a yellowish green colour; they appear in 

 August and September. The whole plant is 

 thickly studded with minute aqueous tubercles; 

 a peculiarity likewise to be found in some spe- 

 cies of atriplex and chenopodium. 



In six weeks after sowing, some of the leaves 

 of the plants are fit for gathering. These are 

 pinched off, and not torn from the branches. 



This plant has been likewise found growing 

 on the Tonga islands; and Thumberg discovered 

 it of spontaneous growth in Japan. 



New Zealand spinach is remarkable as being 

 almost the only native of the isles of Australasia 

 which has been found worthy of a place in the 

 kitchen-gardens of Europe. 



Asparagus, (a. officinalis.) The name is de- 

 rived from the Greek word sparasso, (to tear) 

 on account of the strong prickles with which 

 some of the species are furnished. Natural 

 iamWy Asphodelem. Ilexandria monogynia, Linn. 

 ■ It is found a native plant on the sea shores of 

 Britain, and has been long cultivated as a fa- 

 vourite vegetable. This plant was much esteemed 

 both by the Greeks and Romans. It is much 

 praised by Cato and Columella; and Pliny men- 

 tions a sort which grew near Ravenna, a deep 

 sandy district, three shoots of which weighed a 

 pound. 



Asparagus has a perennial root and annual 

 stalks. The root is fleshy and succulent, com- 



