JULY. 
165 
the sail will permit. As shelter is a great matter in forwarding the early sowing, 
I have frequently found it come into use earlier when sown between the rows of 
early Peas in an early, warm, light Tich border, than when on a piece of ground 
exclusively devoted to itself. The Pea-stakes break the cutting winds which 
prevail after it comes up, while it gets nearly all the available sun at so early a 
season. 
After the middle of March a sowing of this Pound-leaved variety should be 
made every fourteen days till the middle of June. The ground should be always 
rich and deeply worked; for there is nothing so wretched as Spinach on poor 
shallow soil in hot summer. It runs to seed almost as soon as it comes above 
ground. Every sowing should be properly thinned out the same as directed for 
the autumn sowings. This is a matter far too little attended to. Often it is 
sown thick and never thinned, and the result is small leaves not worthy of the 
name of vegetable. It is a good plan to sow among or between the rows of Peas 
where it gets shaded in the hotter part of the day, and consequently stands 
longer without running to seed. 
With the best of management and very frequent sowings it is scarcely 
possible in hot summers and on dry light soils to keep up a supply of really 
succulent fine Spinach with the common varieties—hence the value of the ISTew 
Zealand Spinach. In fact, for three or four months in the year, this variety is by 
far the most acceptable and safe to depend upon for a supply. A score of plants’ 
properly cultivated will give sufficient to supply a large family from the beginning 
of August till well on in November, and the drier and hotter the season the 
better and more luxuriant will its yield be. The manner in which I usually treat 
it is to sow in the first week of April in a gentle bottom heat. When it has 
formed the rough leaf it is potted off, three into a six-inch pot, and kept in heat 
till they have well filled their pots. They are then hardened off and planted 
out about the end of May. A warm border is selected, and pits taken out at 
intervals of 6 feet apart, and a barrowload of rotten dung mixed in the bottom of 
each pit, a little fine kindly soil is then put over all. They are then planted, 
three in the centre of each pit. They are covered with a hand-glass, which is 
entirely removed as soon as the plants reach its sides and want more room. 
An occasional watering is necessary in dry weather, but this element must not 
be overdone, for, like the Ice-plant, it is very susceptible of injury from much 
water. When it fairly starts into growth it grows rapidly, and by the time the 
other Spinach becomes a precarious source to rely upon to satisfy the powers that 
be in the kitchen, the New Zealand variety is ready to use, and eight patches of 
it will set the gardener’s mind at ease on the score of the regular supply of this 
vegetable till the first autumn sowing is ready to use. It has, however, been my 
practice, and I have found it a safe plan, not to trust to that succession, but to 
sow about the middle or end of July a considerable sowing of the Prickly variety, 
so as to be sure of filling up the gap that may arise from the New Zealand getting 
nipped with frost before the August sowings are fit for table. 
The perennial Spinach is now very much in use as a stopgap, but it is far 
inferior to the New Zealand, and the latter variety is not near so much grown as 
its usefulness and excellence deserve. 
Some sow the perennial variety in heat, and then transplant it. This is not 
at all necessary, as it comes up freely and strongly sown out-doors. The end of 
April is early enough to sow it. I). T. (in Scottish Gardener.) 
OUR MONTHLY CHRONICLE. 
The American Plants of Messrs. Waterer 
and Godfrey, of Knap Hill, at South Ken¬ 
sington, and of Mr. John Waterer, of Bagshot, 
at the Regent’s Park, have been unusually 
splendid this season. The former occupy an 
immense tent 300 feet long by 150 feet wide ; 
and Mr. John Waterer’s plants a ridge-and- 
furrow tent of about 100 yards long by the 
same in width. Almost all the old varieties 
are well represented, and there are several 
seedlings of great merit exhibited by both 
firms. 
The Trees on the Boulevards of Paris. 
—All the new plantations of trees on the 
