50 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 17, 1884, 
rhizomes should be immediately potted in crocks, placed in the East 
India house, and watered all over every day. Soon or never breaks will 
show. If they do show still continue the watering, and when roots 
appear give them a little peat and sphagnum to run in as soon as 
it is possible to recognise the dead from the living, place the plants in 
pots half filled with drainage, using peat and sphagnum with a small 
quantity of half-decayed leases for compost. This mixture should be 
used for all future pottings or top-dressings. Established plants should 
now be placed in the intermediate house. Give them a position where 
they will be protected from even weak sunshine. All through the 
summer water copiously overhead every morning and evening, once a 
week give a good soaking direct to the roots. Towards the end of the 
year, when the end of the intermediate house night temperature falls 
below G0°, move the plants into the East India house, water overhead 
once a day, and at the root often enough to prevent dryness.” I saw 
Mr. Spyer’s plants at Burford Lodge in September, 1881, and they were 
then in splendid health, with leaves on them like flags, and flowers of the 
greatest beauty. It was here that I learned that the Batemannias and 
their cousins along with Odontoglossum vexillarium, 0. Pbalaenopsis, and 
0. Roezlii could be grown into large specimens in this country under 
proper treatment. My experience, along with that of most Orchid 
growers, is that large plants of the Orchids above mentioned are exception¬ 
ally difficult to obtain and keep, which is due to their unfortunate trick 
of dying behind as fast as they grow in front.—W. 
HISTORICAL JOTTINGS ON VEGETABLES.—No. 11. 
THE BEET. 
There is some reason for the assertion that the Beet as a 
culinary vegetable scarcely has at this time the popularity to 
which its good qualities might lay claim. It is really much in 
the position of the Parsnip; yet this may not be entirely the 
fault of the public, though in this luxurious age the wholesome 
is often rejected for the toothsome. Perhaps the vegetable is 
insufficiently recommended to notice by growers and vendors. 
Our common name for it is evidently from the Celtic word bett, 
meaning “ red,” which affords an indication of the kind of Beet 
which was best known to our ancestors. The wild or Sea Beet 
(Beta maritima) occurs here and there on the coast of England 
and Ireland. The leaves have been eaten like Spinach. But 
most botanists are not of Bentham’s opinion that the garden 
varieties are descended from this stock. There seems great 
probability that our cultivated Beet is a native of South Europe. 
Certainly the Greeks knew the Beet full well centuries before 
the Christian era began, and old authors mention a white and a 
black kind. Black, says Fee, we may presume was a purple or 
purplish red—identical, that is, with our red Beet. To the white 
Beet the appellation of “Sicilian Beet” was given, owing to 
the profusion with which it grew in that island, supplying the 
inhabitants during a long period of history with no small amount 
of the food they consumed. There is, however, a black Beet, 
and this with the others was figured by Matthiolus in 1565, and 
he describes the three as Beta alba, rubra, and nigra. Some 
sixty years later naturalists made out nine species. These 
Linnaeus reduced again to two, besides the wild species—namely, 
B. vulgaris and B. alba or cicla. It will very likely remain an 
open question whether all the garden Beets are not variations, 
due to soil, climate, or culture, from B. vulgaris. 
Amongst the ancients, so far as we can ascertain, only the 
leaves of the Beet were eaten, and means taken to induce the 
plants to form heads, resembling those of the Cabbage. Pliny, 
who gives some cultural instructions concerning the Beet, men¬ 
tions the plan of putting a light weight upon the plants when 
they were colouring to promote the growth of the heads, but we 
may perhaps be allowed to doubt his stoiy that in the territory 
of Circeii heads of Beet were produced which were 2 feet across. 
Some advised sowing the seed in spring and some in autumn. It 
was generally supposed to be beneficial to the young plants that 
they should be transplanted, and then well manured with a good 
supply of water if the weather was dry. Under the empire the 
Roman gentlemen only condescend to eat Beet when it was 
cooked up in spice and wine, because they deemed it so insipid 
by itself. The commoner class of citizens mixed with the leaves 
boiled lentils or mustard to give them a flavour. 
Some have given 1548 as the year in which Beet was first 
raised by English gardeners, but about that date there is doubt; 
not much, however, in its being introduced by the Flemings, who 
brought over many plants, both flowers and vegetables, during the 
reign of Henry VIII. The author of the “ Gardener’s Labyrinth,” 
one Thomas Hill, who devoted so much time to the planning of 
ingenious mazes and variegated mounds, mentions the Beet when 
writing upon plants in a volume published about 1595. At that 
period the Beet was evidently neither uncommon nor a favourite 
plant, for he refers to it in a way implying that those he addressed 
would have seen or grown it, and he adds that the plant was one 
which was useful to poor men. If we were to attempt to fix the 
locality where Beet was cultivated near London in the days of 
the Tudors we should indicate the neighbourhood of Hoxton, or 
the not far distant Hackney. In both these districts many of the 
citizens had garden plots of different sizes, and grew vegetables 
for their own use, selling off a surplus occasionally to the City 
market women. South of London on the Surrey side we read of 
Tradescant cultivating Beet in moist Lambeth while Cromwell 
was Protector ; Vauxhall and Battersea were also found suitable 
for it. The white Beet, however, did not reach Britain until 
late in the seventeenth century. Gerard, the worthy botanist and 
gardener, expresses himself in words more commendatory of the 
Beet than did Hill. “ Red Beet boiled,” says he, “ and eaten 
with vinegar and pepper is a very delicate and excellent salad ; 
but what might be made of the red and beautiful root I refer to 
the curious and cunning cook, who no doubt when he has had 
the view thereof, and is assured that it is wholesome, will make 
therefrom many divers dishes both fair and good.” Until he 
threw out the hint the value of the root appears to have been 
scarcely thought of. 
Evelyn soon after the arrival of the white Beet (which is 
stated to have been introduced from Portugal) took occasion te 
praise the leaves, or at least their midribs, which he thought 
to resemble marrow. To this hour the plant is largely grown 
in some continental countries in order that these, with their 
footstalks, may be cooked and eaten like Asparagus heads. 
Experiment has suggested other uses for the root beside? 
garnishing salads. Dried and ground they have been added to 
coffee, or mixed with a proportion of flour they have been made 
into bread. It has been asserted that the lassies of the north 
of Scotland use the juice of the Beet to impart a colour to> 
their cheeks, which is cheaper than carmine or rouge; but this 
may be mere scandal, and most of them are rosy enough to 
need no such artificial adornments. An intoxicating liquor may 
also be made from Beet by fermentation. 
The discovery that sugar existed in the Beet, more par¬ 
ticularly in the white variety, is attributed to the Prussian 
chemist Margraff, who reported the fact to the Berlin Scientific 
Society in or about 1747. It was regarded as a matter of 
curiosity merely for many years, although Arliard, another 
chemist, tried to awaken interest concerning its possible uses; 
and he, with others, brought the subject before the Institute of 
Paris, but that august body, after sundry experiments, decided 
that there would be nothing gained by the attempt to extract 
sugar from Beet upon an extensive scale. A change was 
brought about by one of the features of the Napoleonic policy 
early in this century, when the Emperor, out of hostility to 
Britain, resolved to prohibit the importation of sugar from any 
British settlements, and the necessity arose for obtaining the 
article on French soil. At Rambouillet the first sugar factory 
was established; schools were also formed to instiuct pupils, 
and since 1812 there has been a steady production of Beetroot 
sugar in France. Large manufactories exist in other countries 
of Europe, and the hint being taken by some of our fellow 
countrymen a factory was opened at Chelsea in 1837. Of late 
years special attention has been drawn to what might prove an 
advantageous industry to us in these times of close competition 
with foreigners, English-grown Beet having been found to yield 
5 per cent, of sugar, which is good in appearance, though its 
sweetening power is les3 than that of cane sugar. Alcohol can 
be obtained from this sugar by the customary process. 
The Mangold, now esteemed a valuable food for animals, 
received its German name, mangel-wurzel, which means “ root 
of scarcity,” by an error of spelling. It seems to have been 
first grown in Germany rather more than a century ago, and 
is probably a hybrid between the white and red Beet. Sir 
Richard Jebb had seeds of this variety sent him from Metz in 
1786, and his distribution of these led the once famous Dr. 
Lettsom of Camberwell Grove to the writing of a small 
pamphlet upon the Mangold and its uses. The first crops of 
importance were raised in the county of Norfolk, near Burnham. 
By degrees the cultivation of this plant became general, and 
it has been a matter of competition to see how large a crop 
could be produced per acre, and what huge individual samples 
could be got; “ mammoth ” Mangolds, in fact, have been good 
rivals to the “ big Gooseberry ” of our newspapers.—J. R. S. C. 
Insect Enemies in New Zealand.— The fourteenth annual report 
of the Botanic Garden Board of New Zealand (1883) contains valuable 
information as to the ravages of certain scale insects (Coccidse) in the 
colony. They appear to be principally of two kinds : one is an Icerya, 
nearly related to the Sugarcane pest of Mauritius, See., the other a 
Mytilaspis allied to the common “Apple scale” (M. pomorum). The 
Icerya is called the “Wattle blight,” but appears by no means to confine 
