CULTIVATED PLANTS. 14-5 



stated to be of unknown but probably of " Grecian or Syrian " 

 origin. But Professor Targioni admits that they are not 

 mentioned by any Greek writers, and that the finocchio di 

 Bologna was a new vegetable brought to Florence from Bologna 

 in the middle of the sixteenth century. They are surely all 

 cultivated varieties or races of the common fennel, which is truly 

 wild in most parts of Mediterraneaxi Europe. 



Four other Umbelliferae are cultivated in Tuscany as condi- 

 ments. Parsley (Apium Petroselinum), a native of Southern 

 Europe as well as of other countries, was cultivated for its leaves 

 by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and has maintained its ground 

 with little alteration to the present day. Aniseed (Pimpinella 

 Anisum), now much grown in Tuscany, appears to have been 

 formerly imported as an article of trade from Crete and Egypt, 

 where it is indigenous. The first mention of its culture in Italy 

 is by Palladius under the Pioman empire. Dillseed (Anethura 

 graveolens) and Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), natives of 

 Southern and Eastern Europe, are also cultivated in Tuscany for 

 their seeds, but are little appreciated in AYestern Europe. The 

 Caraway (Carum Carvi), though as common in a wild state in 

 Italy as in other parts of Eui'ope, is not mentioned among Tuscan 

 products. 



The Cruci/ercB, notwithstanding their importance in culinary 

 and rural economy, are dismissed in a few words, the Cahhaye, 

 the Turnip, the Eajyeseed, and the Radish being the only ones 

 mentioned. The Cahhaye (Brassica oleracea), which in some 

 Northern countries constitutes a principal item in the food of the 

 peasantry, is almost lost among the variety of culinary vegetables 

 of the more favoured South. It is indigenous to the rocky shores 

 of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and has been brought into 

 cultivation from the remotest ages. There is perhaps no species 

 of vegetable which sports so readily, and of whieli a greater 

 number of more or less permanent races and varieties have been 

 established in our gardens. For a detailed account of the most 

 important of them, the reader is referred by Targioni to De 

 Candolle's well known dissertation. 



The Turnip (Brassica napus) is still less appreciated in Italy ; 

 indeed the climate appears to be scarcely suitable for its extensive 

 agricultural cultivation, and in southern gardens it turns out a 

 hard fibrous strong-tasting root, which we cannot blame them for 

 neglecting. Iii its wild state it is so widely spread a weed, that 

 it is impossible to say from data as yet recorded, what is its 



