POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 6g 



Cabbage, a plant wbich is indigenous in Europe and western Asia, is one of 

 tbe vegetables which has been cultivated fi-om the earliest time. The ancients 

 were well acquainted with it, and certainly possessed several varieties of the head- 

 forming kinds. The great antiquity of its culture may be inferred from the im- 

 mense number of varieties which are now in existence, and from the very impor- 

 tant modifications which have been produced in the characteristics in the original 

 or parent plant. 



The wild cabbage, such as it now exists on the coasts of England and France, 

 is a perennial plant with broad -lobed, undulated, thick, smooth leaves, covered 

 with a glaucous bloom. The stem attains a height of from nearly two and a half 

 to over three feet, and bears at the top a spike of yellow or sometimes white 

 flowers. All the cultivated varieties present the same peculiarities in their inflo- 

 rescence, but up to the time of flowering they exhibit most marked differences from 

 each other and from the original wild plant. In most of the cabbages it is chiefly 

 the leaves that are developed by cultivation ; these for the most part become im- 

 bricated or overlap one another closely, so as to form a more or less compact head, 

 the heart or interior of which is composed of the central undeveloped shoot and 

 the younger leaves next it. The shape of the head is spherical, sometimes flat- 

 tened, sometimes conical. All the varieties which form heads in this way are 

 known by the general name of cabbages, while other kinds with large branching 

 leaves which never form heads are distinguished by the name of borecole or kale. 



In some kinds the flower stems have been so modified by culture as to become 

 transformed into a thick, fleshy, tender mass, the growth and enlargement of which 

 are produced at the expense of the flowers, which are absorbed and rendered abor- 

 tive. Such are the broccolis and cauliflowers. 



But til is plant lias other transformations. 



In other kinds the leaves retain their ordinary dimensions, while the stem or 

 principal root has been brought by cultivation to assume the shape of a large ball 

 or turnip, as in the case of the plants known as kohl - rabi and turnip-rooted 

 cabbage or Swedish turnip. And, lastly, there are varieties in which cultivation 

 and selection have produced modifications in the ribs of the leaves, as in their 

 couve troDchuda, or in the axillary shoots (as in Brussels sprouts), or in several 

 organs together, as in the marrow kales and the Neapolitan curled kale. 



Here are important morphological changes like those to which 

 Prof. Bailey has called attention in the case of the tomato. 



Suppose we are strolling along the beach at some of the seaside 

 resorts of France, and should fall in with this coarse cruciferous 

 plant, with its sprawling leaves and strong odor. Would there 

 be anything in its appearance to lead us to search for its hidden 

 merit as a food-plant ? What could we see in it which would give 

 it a preference over a score of other plants at our feet ? Again, 

 suppose we are journeying in the highlands of Peru, and should 

 meet with a strong-smelling plant of the nightshade family, bear- 

 ing a small irregular fruit, of subacid taste and of peculiar fla- 

 vor. We will further imagine that the peculiar taste strikes our 

 fancy, and we conceive that the plant has possibilities as a source 

 of food. We should be led by our knowledge of the potato, prob- 

 ably a native of the same region, to think that this allied plant 



