THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 59 



To lands across the sea we are indebted for the cabbage, 

 which still grows wild on the sea cliffs of Europe, though the 

 wilding is but a poor substitute for the fat heads of the garden. 

 Barl;»arian man of prehistoric days doubtless found its pungent 

 leaves grateful to his scurvied system after the dark, hungry 

 days of winter ; and when he learned to make a garden he gave 

 cabbage an honored place. Its cultivation antedates history, 

 and cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and kale are all developed 

 from the same stock with it. 



The culture of the parsnip, another European, goes back 

 nt least for two thousand years, but its cousin the carrot is 

 still quite a stripling in the kitchen garden of the ages. The 

 carrot's original home appears to have been the British Isles, 

 but like the prophet in his own country, it was unregarded 

 until cultivated varieties were introduced in Queen Elizabeth's 

 time from Holland, where the improvement of the wild plant 

 seems to have begun. The exceeding beauty of the foliage 

 attracted attention at first quite as much as the tastiness of 

 the root, and the ladies of King Charles I's court frequently 

 wore carrot leaves instead of feathers as an adornment. 



The beet, asparagus, lettuce, celery, and parsley are all 

 of ancient cultivation and have reached America with the 

 white men. Asparagus is native to both Europe and Asia, 

 its wild home being sandy river-banks, meadows, and the 

 shores of the sea. It was as great a favorite with the epi- 

 cures of Greece and Rome as with us. Lettuce is not now 

 found in a wild state, but is thought to be of East Indian 

 origin. Its use as a salad is very ancient, and it is known to 

 have been served at the feasts of Persian kings at least four 

 centuries before the Christian era. 



Parsley has played quite an important part in human 

 affairs. Its native habitat is the region of the eastern Mediter- 

 ranean, where it loves the abiding place of old walls and rocks. 

 It would seem to have been used, at first, not as we now em- 



