194 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



vegetable is stated to have come orginally from 

 Cyprus (where it is said to have obtained a high 

 perfection) to Italy, from whence it moved slowly 

 to the Netherlands, and reached England about the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century. It was only 

 seen at that time at the tables of the opulent. In 

 the bill of fare for the inauguration of Dulwich 

 College in 1G19, two "colleyflowers" cost three shil- 

 iugs. The price of wheat at that time was 35s. 4d. 

 per quarter. (See Eden, " History of the Poor.") 

 Towards the end of this century this vegetable was 

 brought to some degree of perfection, and appeared 

 in our markets about that period. The importation 

 of Dutch gardeners, and their style of gardening, 

 then gave an impulse to English horticulture, and 

 the reign of William III. produced not only the 

 blessings of civil liberty to his adopted subjects, but 

 taught them how to improve and appreciate the 

 arts brought hither by his followers. In this the 

 English succeeded so well that up to the period of 

 the French Revolution cauliflowers were regularly 

 exported from England into Holland, some parts of 

 Germany, and even France. 



Gerard, writing on this vegetable, says, "The 

 white cabbage is best next to the coleflourey ; yet 

 Cato doth chiefly commend the russed cole ; but he 

 knew neither the wliites nor the coleflourey, for if 

 he had, his censure had been otherwise." But we 

 find it noticed by the Roman herbalist of later days, 

 who observes that "of all kinds of coleworts, the 

 sweetest and the pleasantest to the taste is the 

 coleflorie, although of no value in medicine, and 

 unwholesome, as being hard of digestion." 



The brocoli is considered a sub-variety of the 

 cauliflower, and is scarcely distinguished botani- 

 cally from tliat plant. The stem of the brocoli is 

 rather longer, and the flower-heads smaller. They 

 also possess a greater variety of colours, being some- 

 times quite green, as well as purple and yellow. A 

 large number of forms are reared in our gardens. 

 Kohl-Rabi is another singular variety ; the stem is 

 tumid and somewhat globose at the origin of the 

 leaf, which gives it the appearance of a turnip. 

 In its young state it is sometimes noticed as a 

 vegetable, but is more generally grown for feeding 

 cattle. 



Tiie well-known muerJcraut, of which the Ger- 

 mans are so immoderately fond, is merely fermented 

 cabbage, which is cut into shreds, and placed in 

 casks with a certain amount of salt, pepper, and a 

 small quantity of salad-oil. It is then subjected to 

 heavy pressure, and allowed to ferment : when the 

 fermentation has subsided the barrels are closed 

 up, and it is preserved for use. Before lemon or 

 lime juice was introduced into our navy, sanerkraut 

 was used for many years as a preservative from 

 scurvy during long voyages. According to an 

 article in the E.Hnhiirgh Review, vol. xc, a cabbage, 

 when dried so as to bring it into a state in which 



it can be compared with other kinds of food, is 

 found to be richer in muscular matter than any 

 crop we grow, and no doubt the Irish kole-caunon 

 (cabbage and potatoes beaten together) derives part 

 of its reputation from the great muscle-sustaining 

 power of the cabbage, a property in which the 

 potato is deficient. A good deal of the nutritive 

 matter is lost by cooking, or over-cooking ; hence 

 the reasonableness of the advice given by Pliny to 

 drink the water they are boiled in, or to eat the 

 vegetable uncooked. 



Bartholine writes thus on this vegetable :— " The 

 common cabbage of tlie country people is justly 

 preferable to other pot-herbs, since, both raw and 

 boiled, it is possessed of such salutary qualities as 

 to prevent occasion for medicines used in the shops. 

 For this reason, when a certain foreign physician 

 came into Denmark with a design to settle, and 

 saw the gardens of the country people so well 

 stocked with cabbages, he, with good reason, 

 prognosticated small encouragement for himself in 

 that part of the world, and left the country to try 

 his fortune elsewhere." Dr. R. James advises that 

 cabbage should be eaten slightly boiled, as then it 

 does not lose its grateful taste and salutary qua- 

 lities. Sometimes cabbages are occasionally pro- 

 duced of an astonishing size and weight. Pliny 

 relates that in Italy they were grown to such a size 

 that the table of a poor man could scarcely support 

 one. ' It is stated in the Gardener'' s Magazine, 

 vol. iii., a cabbage-seed, accidentally among onions, 

 came up in the bed, and without any care being 

 taken of it, grew to very large dimensions, and 

 weighed when taken up twenty-five pounds. 



Last year (1873) a monster white cabbage was 

 grown in a garden at Fakeuham, Norfolk, which, 

 as it stood, covered a space of land exceeding four 

 feet in diameter, and the heart of which, stripped 

 of its outer leaves ready for cooking, weighed 

 122 lb., and measured SZi inches in circumference ; 

 the diameter of the stalk, close up to the heart, 

 measured fully 2i inches. 



The genus of Brassica is distributed over the 

 temperate climate of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

 The cabbage, cauliflower, &c., are cultivated in some 

 parts of India. On the Island of Desolation, a 

 cold, barren, volcanic rock, situated iu the centre 

 of the Southern Ocean, grows a variety of this 

 tribe, described by Sir W. J. Hooker in his " Notes 

 on the Botany of the Antarctic Voyage." It is 

 abundant near the sea. Its root-stocks are from 

 three to four feet long, lying close to the ground, 

 bearing at their extremities large heads of leaves, 

 sometimes eighteen inches across, forming a dense 

 white heart, resembling that of the common garden 

 cabbage ; it eats like coarse, tough, mustard and 

 cress. But what a grand provision of Providence 

 for the crews of ships touching at such a barren 

 locality! Phillips states that the Roman name 



