which about an ounce of seed will be sufficient; or in shallow drills, ten inches apart; the ground being previously well dug to a good depth. The plants generally appear in five or six weeks; and when they can be sufficiently distinguished by their leaves, the ground should be hoed over with a two-inch hoe, and the plants properly thinned out to about the distance of eight inches. Nothing more will be requisite, except repeating the hoeing as often as necessary, in dry weather, to keep down the weeds. About Michaelmas the leaves begin to decay; the roots are then fit for use, and will continue so till the spring. The longer they remain in the ground during open weather the better; but on the approach of frost they should be taken up, cleaned, and laid in sand, like other roots.

Rumex is the botanic name of the dock, of which the sorrel is supposed to be a species. It is named by the Latins, from rumex, a sort of pike, spear, or halbert, which the leaves in various species much resemble in shape. The generic name by which this variety is distinguished is derived from acetosus,

sour.

Sorrel is found wild in grassy pastures throughout Europe, from the Alps of Lapland to Greece. It is now scarcely known as a pot-herb in this country, except at fashionable tables; and the small demand having now nearly banished it from the metropolitan markets, it fetches the price of dainty forced plants. This is owing principally to the

caprice of fashion, which extends even to our vegetable food; rarity being more frequently coveted than excellence.

The use of sorrel is of great antiquity, as are its medicinal properties, which, from its nature, are acid and cooling. It is grateful to the stomach; quenches thirst; allays the heat of the choler; and is an excellent antiscorbutic. A handful of the leaves, boiled in a pint of whey, is an excellent medicine in April. In short it is one of the most effectual remedies against the scurvy, if the leaves are eaten green, or their juice drunk, at the time above mentioned.

The leaves of the wood-sorrel are said to excel common sorrel in all physical virtues. In France there are few soups or sauces made without a portion of sorrel; and in the vegetable markets in Paris the picking of it is as common as the shelling of peas in London.

In England it is sometimes boiled as a sauce for roast meat, particularly veal and pork; and it is an excellent substitute for apple-sauce with winter geese. It should, like spinach, be put into a saucepan without water, except the little which remains on the leaves, after being washed. It should be boiled slowly, and then be beat up with a small piece of butter, and served at table as spinach. But to form a superior dish, the yolks of eggs and cream should be added to the butter. This is certainly an expensive way of dressing sorrel; but in the early part of the author's life it was very frequent, eggs and butter being cheaper at that time than at pre

sent.

The Laplanders boil the leaves of sorrel in water,

and mix the juice, when cold, with the milk of the reindeer, which they esteem an agreeable and wholesome diet. The Irish are generally fond of acids, and eat the leaves of sorrel with their milk and fish.

There are two or three varieties of the sorrel in cultivation, but that called French sorrel is by far the best for all culinary purposes. It is a native of Provence, in the south of France, and can be easily distinguished from the English variety by the largeness and thickness of the leaves, which are nearly round it also remains longer before running up into flower. Culture. The sorrel may be increased by seeds and by parting the roots. The seeds should be sown in a bed or border early in spring, raking them in evenly. When the plants come up, they should be regularly thinned, and when of some growth, planted out in rows, in any light soil, about twelve inches apart, supplying them plentifully with water. The leaves will be fit to cut at the end of the same summer, and they continue for many years. Where plants can be procured by parting the roots, it will be preferable to sowing seed, as in that case the plants are apt to sprout too much, and the seeds saved from the best French sorrel cannot be depended on.

The parted roots may be planted out in the same manner as directed for the seedlings, when they will furnish a plentiful supply of leaves the same summer. They afterwards only require to be kept clean, and to have the seed-stems cut down, as well as the overgrown leaves, in the autumn.

If green sorrel should be required all the winter, a patch of the French sort must be protected early by a proper covering, to keep off the severity of the

frost.

60. SPINACH.-SPINACIA.

The botanic name of this plant is most probably derived from spina, a thorn, on account of the prickly or spinous nature of its seed.

Spinach is a hardy annual, and was first cultivated in the English garden about the year 1568. Its native place of growth is uncertain, but is supposed to be Spain.

Spinach, eaten freely, is laxative and cooling; it has no hurtful quality; but does not afford much nutriment. It is, however, a useful and grateful vegetable, and very wholesome; and may be eaten in almost all kinds of diseases when no other vegetable would be allowed.

The young leaves of spinach were used in salading, not only in the time of Queen Elizabeth, but as late as the days of Charles I.

The leaves of these plants being of a very succulent or moist nature, must be boiled (as observed for sorrel) without water, except what adheres to them in the rinsing, after having been washed.

There are three varieties of the S. oleracea, or garden spinach, in cultivation, which differ in the size and shape of the leaves, and the greater or less prickliness of the seeds.

1. Prickly-seeded, or Winter Spinach the best for winter crops.

2. Round-seeded, or Summer Spinach: preferable for summer crops.

3. Flanders Spinach: a newly introduced variety, sent a few years ago to the Horticultural Society in London. It is said to be superior to the common winter spinach from its not being so apt to run to seed prematurely: the leaves are also much larger, thicker, and more succulent, being of a dark green colour, and very luxuriant in growth. The seeds are like those of the summer spinach, but larger. The qualities of this sort must, therefore, be excellent, and will no doubt answer their character in a highly cultivated soil; for in such a soil the author has even had the old well-tried English sorts of an uncommonly large and fine growth.

Culture. The raising of these plants, which are annuals, can only be effected by sowing the seed every year. For an early summer crop the seed should be sown in drills, not too thick, in the beginning of February; and for a succession, once in every succeeding month till July. If a large sowing is required, the drills should be drawn a foot apart; but, as the season advances, there will be room for a drill between various other crops (for such as may be called temporary sowings). For the principal winter and early spring crops two sowings will be necessary; the first in the beginning of August, the second at the end of that month or early in September.

Spinach succeeds in any common garden soil; but the more it has been previously enriched with dung the better, and, for winter spinach especially,