Sept, 9—Amongst the younger generation. Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) must be one of the best known and, at the same time, one of the most generally disliked vegetables. It is said to be native to the lower hills of Western Asia from where it was collected by the Arabs. The Moots are reported to have taken the plant into Spain and it was from that country that Spinach found its way into the gardens of other European countries. Arabian physicians cultivated the plant for its medicinal properties and it is fairly safe to assume that Spain was the first European country where it was grown. for early botanists referred to the plant as Olus hispanicum and i was also known as hispanach or Spanish plant. It was in common cultivation in England in 1568. but as early as 1351. it was consumed by Monks in Europe on fast-days. The true spinach is a cool weather plant and can only be successfully grown here during the Winter, but in England it is cultivated at all seasons excep? Summer. Male flowers are produc: d on long spikes on different plants to those which yield the seed. which appears close io the main stem. Seed sown at the present time should produce plants sufficiently large for supplying leaves for the table in November and one of the best varieties to grow is that known as "Bloomsdale Long Standing." Care should always be exercised in picking leaves: this job is often carried out on cold days when it is probably more pleasant to pick quickly and damage plants than to pick each leaf carefully without damaging the main stem. "Good King Henry" or Wild Spinach is found extensively in parts of Lincolnshire where it is often preferred to the real spinach. This plant is a perennial and both the stems and leaves are edible, the stems being used like asparagus and the leaves as spinach. "Good King Henry" does not appear to like being grown in places other than its original habitat for it has often caused disappointment when tried elsewhere, For Summer crops here and elsewhere, a totally different plant is used as a substitute for spinach. This is known to botanists as T. la This was found gro on the and to most of us as New Zeeland, Spinach. of New Zealand when Captain Cook first landed there and it is said that although the natives at that time never used the plant as a vegetable, naturalists who accompanied the expedition, recommended its use as an esculent owing to its general character not being unlike King Henry" (Chenopodium bonus Henricus).—wa.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.