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LXXVII. Account of a new Esculent Vegetable called Tetra- 

 gonia, or New Zealand Spinach. By Mr. John Ander- 

 son, Corresponding Member of the Horticultural Society, 

 Gardener to the Earl of Essex, F.H.S. $c. at Cassiobury, in 

 Hertfordshire. 



Read October 16, 1821. 



Th e very general approval which the Tetragonia appears 

 to have received, as a substitute for summer Spinach, has 

 induced me to lay before the Horticultural Society an ac- 

 count of the plant, and of its cultivation as a kitchen garden 

 vegetable. 



Though known to Botanists for many years, and notwith- 

 standing its value as an Esculent had been ascertained by the 

 first discoverers of the plant, the Tetragonia expansa has 

 been only cultivated as a matter of curiosity till within these 

 few years. The Count d'OuitciiEs, who had obtained seeds 

 of it from the Jardin du Roi, at Paris, first published an ac- 

 count of it as an Esculent* and a notice respecting it which 

 had not been given before, is inserted among the Esculent 

 Vegetables in the Bon Jardinierf of the present year. 



In the spring of 1820, M. Vilmorin sent a small packet 

 of the seeds to the Horticultural Society, as a novelty ; these 

 were sown in the garden of the Society at Kensington, and 

 the excellence of the plant was admitted by several persons 



* See Annales cV Agriculture, pour Septembre 1819, page 391 . 

 f See the Bon Jardinier for 1821, page 19(2. 



