294 MORE POT-POURRI 



started in a box under glass. The perpetual Spinach or 

 Spinach Beet (Beta cicla) is a most valuable plant for its 

 continuous supply of leaves. Sutton says : * When the 

 leaves are ready for gathering they must be removed, 

 whether wanted or not, to promote continuous growth.' 

 This is the case with a good many vegetables Garden 

 Cress, Watercress, Chicory, etc. I shall give special atten- 

 tion this year to sowing Spinach in all sorts of places. 

 Aspect and shade make so much difference in the rapidity 

 with which things grow ! 



Purslane is a vegetable often not sown in English 

 gardens, but it makes a good summer salad, and is useful 

 in soup or dressed as Spinach. 



Last year I tried growing several kinds of Potatoes 

 five or six varieties recommended by Sutton but I do not 

 think any turned out better than, if as well as, Button's 

 * Magnum Bonum,' which we have grown for years. ' Eing- 

 leader ' is the one we grow for the first early Potatoes ; and 

 a red waxy Potato, whose name I do not know, is most 

 useful for cooking in some ways. All must find out 

 for themselves what Potatoes suit their soils best, as it 

 is a subject deserving every attention and care. 



The small, round button Onions so much used abroad 

 are often omitted in English gardens, though they are 

 merely the result of not thinning out the crop at all. Choose 

 a piece of poor, dry ground ; make this fine on the surface ; 

 sow in the month of April, thickly but evenly; cover lightly ; 

 roll or tread, to give a firm seed-bed. If sown shallow, the 

 bulbs will be round. Besides looking much prettier when 

 braised, this small kind keeps much better through the 

 winter than when made to grow large by thinning. 



We grow two kinds of Sorrel now one with a small 

 round leaf, and the other the large-leaved ordinary garden 

 kind. It is quite easy, for those who like the vegetable, to 

 lift plants in the spring and grow them on in a frame 



