SPINACH.
For greens there is no plant that compares in popularity and merit with spinach. It is a mem ber of the Goosefoot Family, that produces a great many weeds in America, but no plants of any value. The gardens of Europe have produced many early, late, and midsummer varieties. In warm regions spinach grows all the year round. California gardeners need never be without it. Even in New York state, the plants will live over, if protected by a mulch, and in many places without. Thus, a crop sown in October gets a good start before winter, and is up and ready for cutting early in spring.
New Zealand spinach belongs to a different family, botanically, but from the gardeners' standpoint it is close to the other species. Its fleshy leaves are able to withstand the hottest weather, and furnish the table with a most acceptable pot herb when others fail utterly.
Common spinach is a cool weather crop, and needs moist air and soil. The summer plantings in hot climates soon run to seed, instead of producing the broad, crumpled leaves normal in all cultivated varieties.