88 M. De CandoUe on the Species and Varieties 



bages. Besides his work, which has in some measure guided 

 my researches, I have had vahiable assistance from M. Vil- 

 morin of Paris, who, being at the head of a very large com- 

 mercial establishment in that city, particularly instituted for 

 ceconomical plants, has studied them with care and accuracy, 

 and has deduced very interesting results from his experiments. 

 M. Audibert, settled at Tarascon, has also had the goodness 

 to communicate his ideas arising from facts, which close ob- 

 servation and assiduous practice have led him to discover. 

 M. Sageret, an enlightened member of the Agricultural So- 

 ciety of Paris, has also sent me the results of his experiments 

 on cross-bretl Cabbages, and the ingenious conclusions which 

 he has deduced from them. Lastly, M. Nestler, Professor of 

 Botany at Strasbourg, where the cultui'e of the oleaginous 

 cruciferous plants is extensive, has obliged me with a few de- 

 scriptions, and some important remarks on the distinctions 

 between these plants. 



To these several communications I have added the re- 

 marks which occurred fi'om my own observation, having, 

 at different times, visited most of the countries where these 

 plants are cultivated ; besides which, I have particularly at- 

 tended to the specimens grown in the Botanic Garden at Ge- 

 neva, where, from the kindness of Messrs. Vilmorin and Au- 

 dibert, few of the known varieties of Cabbages have escaped 

 my notice : and I consider it no little advantage to have seen 

 them produced under the same climate, at the same time, and 

 m the same ground, from seeds which had been collected from 

 various countries. 



Five species of Brassica* have particularly attracted my 

 attention ; the oleiacea, campestris, Mapa, Naptis, and prcccox ,- 

 these I shall successively submit to examination, by describing 

 the characters, history, and peculiar varieties of each. 



First Species. BRASSICA OLERACEA. 



Among the different species of an extensive genus, the cul- 

 tivated Cabbage is particularly distinguished by its herbaceous 

 and biennial stalk, by its leaves being covered with a glaucous 

 bloom, and glabrous from their first appearance, somewhat 

 fleshy, not actually scolloped, but sinuated to the midrib, the 

 lower leaves not excepted. It bears a strong resemblance to 

 the Brassica Cretica, and the Brassica campestris ; but the 

 former has a ligneous stalk, and the early shoots and young 

 leaves of the latter are covered with bristles. It differs also 



* See De CandoUe, Reg. Veg. Sj/st. Nat. vol. ii. page 582. 



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