Cbap. 26.] IIADISHES. 1G3 



deed, the people of that country sow this plant in preference 

 to any other, whenever they can get the opportunity, the profits 

 derived from it being larger than those obtained from the culti- 

 vation of corn, and the imposts levied upon it considerably less : 

 there is no grain known that yields a larger quantity of oil. 



The Greeks have distinguished the radish^^ into three dif- 

 ferent kinds, according to the characteristic features of the 

 leaves, there being the crisped leaf, the smooth leaf, and the 

 wild radish, the leaf of which is smooth, but shorter than that 

 of the others ; it is round also, grows in great abundance, and 

 spreads like a shrub. The taste of this last variety is acrid, 

 and it acts medicinally as a strong purgative. In the first kind, 

 again, there are certain difierences, determined by the seed, for 

 in some varieties the seed is of an inferior quality, and in others 

 remarkably small : these defects, however, are only found to 

 exist in the kind that has the crisped leaf. 



Our own people, again, have found other varieties of the 

 radish : there is the Algidan ^^ radish, long and transparent, so 

 called from the place of its growth : another, similar to the 

 rape in form, is known as the Syrian radish ; it is pretty 

 nearly the mildest and the most tender of them all, and is well 

 able to bear the winter. The very best of all, however, is the 

 one that has been brought from Syria, very recently it would 

 seem, as we do not find it mentioned by any of our writers : 

 it lasts the whole of the winter through. In addition to these 

 kinds, there is another, a wild variety, known by the Greeks as 

 ''agrion,"^^ and to the people of Pontus as " armon," while 

 others, again, call it ''leuce,^*' and our people ''armoracia;"^' 

 it has more leaves, however, than root. 



In testing the quality of the radish, it is the stem more par- 



^' The Raphanus sativus of Linnaeus. This passage, however, down to 

 " crisped leaf," properly applies to the cabbage, and not the radish, Pliny 

 having copied the Greek, and taken the word 'pd(pavoQ, properly " cabbage," 

 to mean "radish;" which in the later Greek writers it sometimes does, 

 though not in this instance. 



^* Mount Algidus was near Tusculum, fifteen miles from Home. Its 

 coldness contributed greatly to the goodness of its radishes. 



95 Qr a -\vild." Fee suggests that this is the Raphanus rusticanus of 

 Lobellius, the Cochlearia Armoracia of Linnaeus, the wild radish, or horse- 

 radish. 



^ Or "white." From the extreme whiteness of the roots. 



*" Probably meaning, " radish of Ai-morica." 



M 2 



