But a few years back, only two sorts of brocoli were recognised-the red and the purple, both of which originally came to us from Italy. Thirteen varieties are now enumerated as raised in the English garden, and each in turn is recommended to the notice of the cultivator by some characteristic quality. In the culture of no vegetable has so marked and rapid an improvement taken place as in that of brocoli; horticulturists have recently succeeded in producing a hardy white variety, which has a handsomer appearance than either the green or the purple, while it is more delicate in flavour. White as well as purple are now obtained throughout the winter, some attaining to the size and equalling the cauliflower in appearance, though not in taste. The earliest spring crop follows without an interval the late winter crop, and no cessation need take place in the supply of brocoli, although, perhaps, it is not commonly raised during a month or two in the middle of the summer, when many other vegetables are produced in abundance.

Brocoli succeeds best in a fresh loamy soil; the seed-beds should be of rich mould, on which the seeds are thinly scattered, and covered with mats or litter till the plants appear.

SPINACEOUS PLANTS.

THE leaves of these plants are most generally of a softer texture and more insipid flavour than those of the brassica tribe. As their excellence consists in the succulence of the leaves, a rich soil is required for their cultivation. They generally belong to the family Chenopodea*, having very small flowers of a greenish tinge, formed into heads of various shapes, as a ball, a bunch, or a spike.

*De Candolle.

SPINACH-Spinacia oleracea.-The native country of the common spinach, and the time of its introduction into Britain, are not precisely known.

The west of Asia is assigned as its native country, but on what grounds are not very clearly shown, except that the earliest notice we find of it is in the works of the Arabian physicians, who of course only treat of its supposed medicinal properties, which might probably have originally led to its adoption as an edible vegetable. Spain is supposed to have been the first European country into which it was introduced, for many of the old botanists call it olus hispanicum; while some writers, among whom is Ruellius, distinguish it as atriplex hispaniensis, and the latter adds that the Moors call it hispanach or Spanish plant. According to Beckmann, the first notice of its being used as an edible substance in Europe occurs in the year 1351, in a list of the

different vegetables consumed by the monks on fastdays: at that time it was written spinargium or spinachium. This plant found a place among culinary vegetables at rather an early period in England, for Turner, who wrote in 1568, mentions it as being at that time in common cultivation, and prepared for the table precisely in the same manner as it is at present.

Spinach is an annual plant, having large and suc culent leaves: the flowering stems, which are hollow and branched, rise to the height of two or three feet. The male flowers grow on different plants to those of the female, which yield the seed. The former are produced in long terminal spikes, and the latter in close branches at the joints of the stem, or in the axillæ of the leaves and branches. This plant is remarkable as being one of the plants which are diacious, that is, having the different parts of fructi fication upon separate plants. Some trees which are cultivated for their fruit, such as the date-palms, have the same peculiarity.

Two varieties of spinach are cultivated. The leaves of the one are arrow-shaped and rough, and of the other round and smooth. July and August are the months in which the seeds of both kinds would naturally come to maturity; but as they slightly differ in their qualities it is found more advantageous to sow them at different seasons. The round-leaved grows the fastest, is the largest and most succulent, and therefore is sown for succession crops in spring and summer; the other, being much more hardy, is preferred for winter supply. The former is usually sown in January, from which time until the end of July frequent sowings are made for a regular succession, from the beginning of April to continue throughout the summer. The roughleaved is usually sown in August for a winter crop.

The seed is sown broad-cast, and in subsequent culture the plants are thinned first to three inches apart, and as they increase in size that distance is doubled.

From the circumstance of the male and female flowers growing on different plants, when they are left to bring their seed to maturity care is taken that a due proportion of each is suffered to remain. As soon as the seed capsules are set, the male plants are pulled up, thus allowing a freer space for the female plants wherein to perfect their seeds.

WILD SPINACH, or ENGLISH MERCURY, or GOOD KING HARRY-Chenopodium bonus Henricus. This plant, which has obtained so many names, grows wild on a loamy soil, and may be found on waysides and among ruins in many parts of England. The stalks rise to the height of a foot and a half; they are upright, thick, and striated, and covered with a whitish powder, which is likewise found on the under side of the leaves. These are arrowshaped, and rather large for the size of the plant. The flowers, of a yellowish green colour, grow upon close spikes; they appear in June and July, and in August the seeds come to maturity This plant is a perennial, and may be propagated by seeds or by offsets from the root. When young, both the stem and the leaves are succulent, the former being used as an asparagus, and the latter as a spinach.

Lincolnshire is the part of England where it is most in request, and where it is cultivated and preferred to the common spinach. It is, however, more nearly in a state of nature than the latter plant, and therefore cannot accommodate itself to differences of soil and situation.

The superior docility of a plant which has been long under cultivation, and which has travelled or borne changes of soil and climate in a growing state,

is very apparent to those who attempt to rear wild plants in situations where they are not indigenous, This fact is so important a feature in the natural history of plants, that it is not perhaps sufficiently pointed out or explained in books treating on these subjects. It is a very natural result, which on consideration should not excite surprise, that wild plant, which has been from time immemorial produced on the same spot, and has there accommodated itself solely to the circumstances of that spot, should refuse to grow in any other situation where the circumstances are not precisely similar. It is upon this principle that the mountain berry will not flourish upon the champaign country, and that the sweetest flowers of the woodlands refuse their odour to the parterre. In like manner, "Good King Harry," which makes a very estimable spinach or asparagus in its native country, might make but a very sorry one if removed to a place where it is not indigenous.

NEW ZEALAND SPINACH-Tetragonia expansa, so called, because it was found growing wild on the shores of New Zealand when Captain Cook first touched at that island. Although the natives made no use of this plant as an esculent, the naturalists who accompanied the expedition were induced to recommend it as a vegetable which might be safely eaten, since its appearance and general characteristics were so similar to the chenopodium. On trial, it was found to be both agreeable and wholesome. Sir Joseph Banks brought it into culture in England in 1772, and it has subsequently been found to be a much more hardy and valuable plant than was at first supposed. It was at first treated as a greenhouse plant; but now grows freely in the open gar den, and indeed seems already to have naturalized itself in the south-west of England. A writer, from