146 HISTORICAL NOTES ON 



original country. The Rapeseed or Colza (Brassica rapa), culti- 

 vated for the oil extracted from its seed, is mentioned by Columella 

 and Martial. It is probably of a similar origin, and is indeed 

 by some supposed to be a mere variety of the same species. 



Radishes (Kaphanus sativus) find in the South and East, 

 climates much more genial to their constitution than with us, 

 and the roots acquire a large size, red, white or black (although we 

 have never seen any of those yard-long black radishes mentioned 

 as having been exhibited at Moscow), but the flavour is seldom so 

 mild and delicate as in our gardens. Both the long and the 

 turnip-rooted were known to the ancient Romans, and Professor 

 Targioni, reading in botanical works that Raphanus sativus is a 

 native of China, appears somewhat puzzled to imagine in what 

 remote times it could have been imported from thence to Rome. 

 The fact is, there are no more wild succulent-rooted radishes in 

 China than elsewhere, and any one who observes with an unpre- 

 judiced eye the varieties of shapes assumed by the pod of the 

 R. raphanistrum on the shores of the Mediterranean, can scarcely 

 fail to come to the conclusion, that he sees in that species the 

 wild prototype of our garden radish. 



The innumerable varieties of Cucurhitaceai cultivated in 

 Tuscany, are reducible for the most part to five botanical species, 

 the Gourd or Pumpkin (Cucurbita Pepo), the Bottle-Gourd (Cucur- 

 bitalagenaria), the Water-Melon{G\iQ,uxm?> Citrullus), the Cucumber 

 (Cucumis sativa), and the Melon (Cucumis Melo). They are none 

 of them indigenous in Europe, but were all introduced in very 

 early times from Asia or Africa. They all, as well as some other 

 species not known in Europe, have from time immemorial been 

 cultivated all over the warmer parts of Asia, yet some of them are 

 positively stated never to be found there wild. Very little 

 however is as yet known on the subject, for sufficient care has 

 not been taken to investigate how far the characteristic forms are 

 due to cultivation, nor to distinguish the real botanical species, so 

 as fairly to compare them with the wild ones. We have no data 

 at present for discussing the question, which can only be satis- 

 factorily resolved when taken up by some intelligent Indian 

 botanist, who will not rest satisfied with the validity of a botanical 

 species till he has traced it to its really wild form. 



The first introduction into use of Alliaceous hulls is lost in the 

 remotest ages of antiquity. They were cultivated as objects of 

 adoration by the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks had many 

 varieties, of which several are recorded by Theophrastus under 



