350 



THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



Chilian Beet, or Red-stalked Swiss Chard. — A very large 

 kind, with long, stiff, almost erect leaf-stalks, 2 or 3 in. broad. 



Leaves rather large, un- 

 dulated, almost curled, 

 of a dark green colour 

 with a metallic lustre, and 

 2 to 2|- ft. long, including 

 the stalk. This variety 

 is much less grown as a 

 table vegetable than as an 

 ornamental plant There 

 are two forms of it — one 

 with bright red, and the 

 other with deep yellow 

 leaf-stalks. 



LEEK 



Allium Porrum, L, 

 Liliacece. 



French, Poireau. German, Lauch. 

 Porree. Flemish and Diitch^ 

 Prei. Danish, Porre. Italian, 

 Porro. Spanish, Puerro. For- 

 ttignese, Alho porro. 



Said to be a native of 

 Switzerland. — Biennial. — 

 Notwithstanding the different names given by botanists to the two 

 plants, the Leek and the Great-headed Garlic are probably identical, 

 the only difference between them being that, in the case of the 

 latter, cultivation has developed the production of cloves, while 

 with the former the object has been to develop the leaves in such a 

 manner that they may both be numerous and cover one another at 

 the base for the greatest distance possible. In the Leek, as in the 

 Onion, during the first year the stem is reduced to a simple plate 

 or very flat cone, from the under-side of which the roots issue, 

 while the leaves spring from the upper part, sheathing one another 

 at the base, and then forming a long blade, which is usually folded 

 longitudinally and narrowed to a point. These leaves, of greater 

 or less length and breadth, according to the variety, are arranged 

 in two opposite rows, so that they spread one above another on 

 both sides evenly from the central axis, in a kind of fan-shape. 

 The flower-stem, which does not appear before the second year, 

 rises from the centre of the leaves, dividing the fan into two equal 

 parts. It is smooth, solid, of nearly the same thickness throughout 

 its entire length, and not swollen like that of the Onion. The 

 flowers, which are white, pink, or lilac, form a large, almost spherical, 



Chilian Beet. 



