1 88 



Bulletin 67. 



four inches, are scarcely distinguishable from white turnips in 

 appearance, texture and flavor. I have not yet discovered suffi- 

 cient merit in the plant to warrant its general cultivation in this 

 country. In China the tubers are used as a winter vegetable, the 

 seeds being sown in summer. 



The plant is native to China. It does not appear to have been 

 brought to the attention of botanists until Bretschneider published 

 an account of it in a French journal in 1881. Paillieux and Bois 



regard it as a va- 

 riety of Brassica 

 jiincea, to which 

 the Chinese 

 mustard be- 

 longs, but it is 

 very different 

 from that plant, 

 and I am forced 

 to consider it a 

 distinct species. 

 Lower Stem-leaf of Tuberous Rooted Mustard. -^y is more nearlv 



related to Pak-Choi than to any other plant which I know, and 

 it ma}' have sprung from the same species ; but it is clearly dis- 

 tinguished by its sharply toothed leaves, one of which is shown in 

 the accompanying figure. 



Botanical Characteristics of These Cabbages and Mustards. 



In common with all members of the genus Brassica, or Cabbage and Mus- 

 tard tribe, these Chinese plants are much confused respecting their botanical 

 characters. Recent writers* have referred all the Chinese Cabbages to Bras- 

 sica ca-inpestris, the Ruta-Baga ; but one who studies the plants carefully 

 both from herbarium and living specimens, cannot long hold this opinion. 

 The genus Brassica divides itself naturally dnto two groups, — the cabbages 

 and rape, characterized by thick leaves, very glaucous-blue herbage and long 

 flowers which are creamy white, and the mustards, with thinner and green 

 or lightly glaucous herbage and small bright yellow flowers. The Chinese 

 cabbages belong to this latter group rather than to the former. Their flow- 

 ers are those of the mustards, and I have no hesitation in removing the 

 plants from Brassica campestris. 



* See, for instance, Kew Bulletin, May, i88S, 13?; Forbes & Hemslej', Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 xxiii. 46. 



