72 CRUCIFER^ 



perennial. This species is found on some parts of the north-west shores of 

 our island, growing on the sand. Its bright, lemon-coloured flowers are 

 streaked with purple, and it blossoms in June and July. It is eaten by sheep 

 and cattle with great avidity. 



4. Rape or Cole-seed {B.nc'qms). — Leaves smooth, somewhat glaucous, 

 lower ones lyrate and toothed, upper ones narrow and heart-shaped, clasping ; 

 pods spreading. Plant biennial. The slender-rooted variety of this Cabbage 

 is so much cultivated for the oil produced by its seeds, that we have many of 

 the young plants in our corn-fields and waste ground, though the species is 

 not truly wild. It has small yellow flowers in June and July, and its stem 

 is about one or two feet in height. The whole plant is, in winter, useful as 

 fodder for sheep, and is sometimes sown for spring salads, like mustard and 

 cress. It is sometimes called Reps or Navette. 



5. Common Turnip {B. rdpa). — Root fleshy, round or oblong ; root- 

 leaves lyrate and rough ; lower stem-leaves cut, upper ones ovate, heart-shaped, 

 and clasping. Plant annual. This is not truly a British plant, though often 

 found wild on field borders, and it is probably a variety of B. ccmipMris or 

 B. ndpus. Our Common Turnips, so valuable to the agriculturist, in all their 

 various tints of white, yellow, green, black, and red, are varieties of B. rdpa. 

 Some of them are flat or roundish in form, others are oblong, and are termed 

 Decanter or Tankard Turnips. Their importance in husbandry, their value 

 as food, both for man and animals, have rendered the culture of this vege- 

 table very general, both in this and other European countries. The roots are 

 too well known on our tables to need any commendation, and the young 

 green tops are also eaten. The loud cry of ' Buy my turnip-tops !' is one of 

 the familiar sounds of the city on the early spring morning ; and, though 

 slightly bitter, yet these leaves form a pleasant as well as wholesome vege- 

 table, and are much better when procured from the open field than the 

 garden. Sir Humphry Davy ascertained that a comparatively small amount 

 of nutritious matter was contained in the Turnip — not more than forty-two 

 parts in a thousand. It is probable that the Romans first cultivated the 

 vegetable in this country ; and there seems no reason to doubt that this was 

 the plant known to them by the name of Rapa, though we have in modern 

 times a much larger variety of kinds than they had. Their ancient writers 

 strongly recommend the extensive growth of the Turnip, because, as they 

 said, those roots which were not required for human food could be given to 

 cattle ; and both Columella and Pliny state that the Turnip was to be con- 

 sidered as next to corn in value and utility. Pliny mentions some of the 

 Turnips of his times as weighing forty pounds each — a size never reached by 

 the Turnips of modern days ; though a Turnip grown in Surrey, in July, 

 1828, is described as twenty-one pounds in weight, and one yard in circiim- 

 ference. It is well known that several plants introduced by the Romans 

 were lost for a period, and their culture afterwards renewed ; but it is quite 

 probable that the cultivation of this was at no time wholly discontinued. It 

 is certain that the root was grown in this land during the sixteenth century ; 

 but about that period several vegetables now in use were introduced by the 

 Flemish, so that we cannot be assured that this was not among that number. 

 The Turnip is mentioned by several writers at the latter end of that century. 



