CRUCIFEEOUS TRIBE 71 



Few who look on it as it grows on the clift" would believe that culture could 

 eftect such changes ; but from earliest days it has received cultivation. 

 There is no douljt that the Brassicce of the ancients belonged to the Cabbage 

 genus, thoiagh it would, indeed, be a waste of labour to attempt to discover 

 to which of the kinds the Greek and Roman writers allude. Indeed, in the 

 lapse of ages, so many new sorts have arisen, and, doubtless, so many old 

 ones been lost, that it is impossible to tell whether that Cabbage which the 

 ancients ate raw to prevent intoxication is that of which the modern German 

 makes his saucr hraut, or which the Turk pickles for his winter food, or which 

 the Englishman boils for his " greens." We know that the ancients had a curled 

 Cabbage ; they therefore, probably, dined sometimes on Broccoli. Our Cauli- 

 flower was brought from the Levant into Italy about the sixteenth century, 

 and gradually found its way into England, though it was long a I'are vege- 

 table, and seems to have been unknown to Conrad Gesner; while it was 

 regarded by Bauhin as so rare, that he particularly names the garden where 

 he saw it growing. In Tarragona, this vegetable is said, in our day, some- 

 times to weigh as much as forty pounds. 



Numerous varieties of Brassica have been, and still are, produced by 

 gardeners. There are Thousand-headed and Hundred-leaved varieties reared 

 for cattle. There are Drumheads, and various Red and White Cabbages and 

 Cauliflowers, cultivated for our vegetable diet, and Savoys for our winter use. 

 Our continental neighbours have produced their Ril)bed Kale, and the Brussels 

 Sprouts are unexpanded leaf-buds of a common variety of Cabbage. The 

 celebrated Kohl-rabi, or Turnip-stemmed Cabbage, has been, of late years, 

 introduced into this country as food for cattle ; and, when young, is some- 

 times cooked for our tables. There are Scotch Kales, Tree Kales, and Palm 

 Kales, which last are sometimes ten or twelve feet in height ; and the 

 Ca'sarean Cow-cabbage, which is described as attaining in La Vendee the 

 enormous height of sixteen feet ; and these plants are somewhat palm-like in 

 the tufts of leaves which surround their stems. The inner portion of these 

 Cabbages, their "hearts," as they are termed, are good for the table, and the 

 outer leaves are given to cattle. It is principally for these outer leaves that 

 the Palm Kale is cultivated in Jersey. 



The French have, like our own gardeners, a large number of varieties of- 

 Cabbage under culture ; and their Choux verts, their Choux de Milan, their 

 Cavaliers Boquettes, and various others, are in common use. 



Our wild Cabbage grows on the sea-clifFs of several parts of the shores of 

 Europe, and other wild Cabliages grow on more distant shores. The Cabbage 

 plant, too, is a frequent object of culture in the East. Mr. Fortune, in his 

 " Wanderings in China," says that one of the Cabbage tribe, Brassica chinensis, 

 is extensively cultivated there, both in the province of Chekiang and also in 

 Kiangse, and in great demand for the oil which is pressed from its seed. 

 Its stems are three or four feet high, with yellow flowers, and long pods ; 

 and he remarks, " In April, when the fields are in bloom, the whole country 

 seems tinged with gold ; and the fragrance which fills the air, particularly 

 after an April shower, is delightful." 



3. Isle-of-Man Cabbage (B. monc'nsis). — Leaves pinnatifid and glau- 

 cous ; stem nearly leafless, prostrate ; pods 4-angled, \ to 3-seedod. Plant 



