656 



SPINACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



the roots of which are eatable, with the flavour of parsneps, and the young 

 leaves make a very wholesome and excellent pickle ; Cyperus jL., the 

 rush nut, and some others. 



Sect. IV. — Spinaceous Esculents. 



1449. The only spinaceous esculents generally cultivated in British gardens 

 are the common spinach, and the sorrel ; but we have also French 

 spinach, beet-spinach, perennial-spinach, New Zealand- spinach, and herb- 

 patience. They are all very mild in quality, and may be used as greens by 

 persons with whom the cabbage-tribe would disagree. In the rotation of 

 crops, some of them, as the common spinach, are secondary ; others, as the 

 white beet, are annual ; and some, as the sorrel, are stationary. 



SuBSECT. I. — The Common Spinach. 



1450. The common spinach^ Spinacia oleracea Z/., (Epinard Fr.^ is a 

 chenopodiaceous, dioecious annual, a native of the north of Asia, in cultiva- 

 tion from the middle of the sixteenth century, or earlier, for its succulent 

 leaves. It is a very hardy plant, the Flanders variety particularly, with- 

 standing the severest frost. The leaves are used boiled and mashed up as a 

 separate dish, and in soups or stews, with or without the addition of sorrel. 

 The leaves may be obtained from the open ground from April to Novem- 

 ber, and also to a moderate extent through the winter, and spring. There 

 are three varieties, the round- seeded, for sowing during summer; the 

 Flanders spinach, which has also smooth seeds but larger, and very large 

 leaves, for sowing in autumn for use in winter and spring ; and the prickly- 

 seeded^ or common winter spinach. The quantity of seed required for a bed 4i 

 feet by SO feet is two ounces, or for 150 feet of drill, one ounce. The 

 seed comes up m a fortnight or three weeks, according to the season. The 

 best mode of sowing is in drills 8 inches apart for summer spinach, and 

 10 inches or 1 foot for Flanders-spinach ; the plants in the former case to be 

 thinned to 6 inches apart, and in the latter to 8 inches, as soon as they 

 have shown a proper leaf. In order that the leaves may be succulent, and pro- 

 perly flavoured, the soil should be rich and the situation open and airy, more 

 especially for the main crops. The summer crops are frequently sow^n alter- 

 nately with rows of peas or beans ; but, as the spinach is generally more or less 

 shaded by these crops before it is fit to be gathered, it is never of so good a qua- 

 lity as that which is grown in the open garden. For summer spinach, the first 

 sowing may be made in open weather m January, and sowings in succession 

 every three or four weeks may be made till the end of July. For winter 

 and spring use, a large sowing of the Flanders variety, and also some of 

 the prickly-seeded, which some prefer, should be made in the first 

 or second week of August, and a secondary one towards the end of that 

 month. These sowings will come into use in November, and will continue 

 to afford gatherings occasionally through the winter, and frequently in 

 spring, till May or June, The routine culture of all the sowings consists in 

 thinning; stirring the soil between the rows, and watering, in very dry 

 w^eather. In gathering, the largest leaf only, or at most a few of the largest 

 leaves, should be taken off" one plant at a time : they may either be 

 cut or pinched off^. A portion of the winter crop may be protected by 

 hoops and mats, when a heavy fall of snow is anticipated, to admit of its 

 being more readily gathered. Seed may be saved by leavmg a portion of 



