V* SORREL, SPINAGE. 



189. SORREL. This is no other than the wild sorrel 

 cultivated. The French, who call it oseille, make large 

 messes of it. But a short row is quite enough for an 

 English garden. It is perennial. May be propagated 

 from seeds, but, much more readily, from offsets. 



190. SPINAGE. Every one knows the uses of this 

 excellent plant. Pigs, who are excellent judges of the 

 relative qualities of vegetables, will leave cabbages for 

 lettuces, and lettuces for spinage. Gardeners make two 

 sorts of spinage, though I really believe there is but one. 

 One sort they call round spinage, and the other prickley 

 spinage , the former they call summer spinage, and the 

 latter winter j but I have sowed them indiscriminately, 

 and have never perceived any difference in their fitness to 

 the two seasons of the year. The spinage is an annual 

 plant, produces its seed and ripens it well even if sowed 

 so late as the month of May. It may be as well to sow 

 the round spinage for summer, and the prickley spinage 

 for winter, but the time of sowing and the manner of 

 cultivating are the only things of importance ; and great 

 attention should be paid to these, this being a most 

 valuable plant all the year round, but particularly in the 

 winter and the spring. It has something delightfully re- 

 freshing in its taste, and is to be had at a time when 

 nothing but mere greens or broccoli is to be had. It far 

 surpasses them both, in my opinion, the use of it never 

 being attended with any of those inconveniences as to 

 bodily health which is the case with both the others. In 

 the summer, there are plenty of other things ; but for 

 the winter crop, due provision should always be made. 

 The time for sowing for the winter crop, if the ground 



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