C 130 ] 



XII. On Orache f its Varieties and Cultivation. By Mr. 

 William Town send, Under Gardener in the Kitchen 

 Garden Department of the Garden of the Horticultural 

 Society at Chiswich. 



Read December 19, 1826. 



Garden Orache, or Mountain Spinach, Atriplex hortensis, 

 is more grown in the gardens of cottagers than in those of 

 more affluent persons. It is a native of Tartary, though 

 often seen apparently wild in Great Britain in the neighbour- 

 hood of gardens, from which it had strayed. It was cultivated 

 for culinary purposes in the time of Parkinson * who calls 

 it Atriplex, sive Olus aureum, Arrach or Orach ; two varieties 

 were known to him and to the older botanists,^ viz; the 

 White Orach, or A. hortensis alba sive pallide virens, and 

 the Purple Orach, or A. hortensis rubra. A few plants yield 

 sufficient produce to supply a small family with Spinach, 

 which is the chief object in its cultivation. It is more 

 attended to in France (where it is known by the various 

 namesj of Arroche des Jardins, Irible, Follette, Bonne- 

 Dame, Belle-Dame, Chou d' Amour, and Chou d'Armou), 

 than in Great Britain, it being used in the former country 

 both by itself as a Spinach, as well as mixed with Sorrel, for 

 the purpose of correcting the acidity of the latter. Some 



* Parkinson's Paradisus, page 488. f Bauhin's Pinax, page 119. 



% See Bon Jardinier, for 1826, page 114 ; and Noisette, Manuel Complet 

 du Jardinier, Tom. ii. Part 2, page 304. 



