do M, De CandoUe on the Species and Varieties 



bage, and the Cavalier or Tall Cabbage, so that one may 

 easily conceive it to have degenerated to both of these. When 

 its natural tendency to form a rose has been gradually de- 

 creasing, or, in other words, when the stalk or branches have 

 had a greater tendency to shoot than the leaves, it has pro- 

 duced the race of Cavalier Cabbages ; when, on the contrary, 

 the disposition of growing to a rose has been gaining strength, 

 and the vigour of the stalk diminishing, the race of round- 

 headed Cabbages has been obtained. 



The leaves of the Wild Cabbage are in every respect like 

 those of the Garden Cabbage, fleshy, glabrous, and of a blueish 

 green ; the inferior ones are petiolated, and more deeply di- 

 vided than in the cultivated varieties, from which circumstance 

 one might suppose that the Brussica Napvs is not essentially 

 different; their terminal lobe is a flattened oval, indented and 

 very large, their surface either plain, or slightly rugose or 

 blistered. On comparing the wild individuals together, it is 

 easy to conceive that by culture varieties have been obtained 

 \vith leaves more or less swelled out, such as the Milan Cab- 

 bage* (Savoy). The leaves of the Wild Cabbage are na- 

 turally green, and become red when exposed to the sun, or 

 when old, and diseased ; this reddish colour is permanent in 

 some of the cultivated Cabbages, and we shall find that most 

 of the varieties of each race have sub-varieties belonging to 

 them, some green, and some red, the difference in colour 

 forming no essential part of their character. The flowers of 

 the Wild Cabbage are in thick bunches in the shape of a 

 panicle ; tlie lateral ones sprout from the axillae of the upper 

 leaves. These panicles form a corymb greater or less according 

 to the distance of the lateral branches, and their length, com- 

 pared vvith the central one, from which circumstance it is easy 

 to imagine the possibility of increasing the natural disposition 

 of the panicle to form a corymb, and this determines the cha- 

 racter of the Cauliflower. The flowers of the Wild Cabbage, 

 like those of the varieties most common in kitchen gardens, 

 are of a pale yellow, which we must not confound with the 

 bright yellow of other cruciferous plants ; the colour has va- 

 rious degrees of paleness, and becomes white in a few culti- 

 vated kinds ; this difference however does not appear essen- 

 tial. This minute examination of the Wild Cabbage will lead 

 us to understand how the many cultivated kinds may all be 

 referred to one and the same type. Duchesne has classed the 



* The Savoy is known on the Continent by the name of Chou de M'llrm 

 (Milan (Jabbage); but this appellation in England is only given to a variety 

 of the Cavalier or tall Cabbage, noticed hereafter.— 5Vr. 



