WHAT IS THE THAMES-SIDE BRASSICA ? 349 
or only the remains of a field of - or Cole-seed," for it has been 
many jones * well established . . by the banks of rivers and 
ditches." 
But is the specific name campestris any more correct than the one 
here discarded ? This question can hardly be answered off-hand in 
the affirmative, because it involves a decision whether the name of 
campestris applies to the wild state of the Rape or the Swede or the 
Turnip. It is evident that Mr. Boswell-Syme has described the 
Swede for Brassica campestris, and has assumed that our “ well- 
established " Thames-side plant is the wild state of the Swede, not 
the wild state of the common or true Turnip. But its grass-green 
(not glaucous) and bristly radical leaves negative the assumption. My 
conviction is, on a familiarity with the plant during thirty years, that 
the Thames-side Brassica is simply the wild stock of the true Turnip, 
scarcely differing from this latter except by the non-enlargement of the 
root into an esculent globe. On dry banks exposed to the sun the 
radical leaves are more hispid than usual in the cultivated varieties, 
and they frequently acquire a dark or purplish tint, which is not at all 
glaucous ; but in damper ground they have the grass-green hue of the 
Turnip, and are less hispid. 
Whatever is done with the Swede, the position of campestris, as the 
wild stock of the Turnip, seems to be in accordance with the views of 
most botanists. In the ‘ Manual of British Botany’ Professor Ba- 
bington places Rapa as a variety of campestris, and distinguishes it 
only by its “root caulescent fleshy,” words, indeed, that would better 
describe the Swede than the true Turnip, for the esculent enlargement 
of the former is continued upwards somewhat into the stem, while 
that of the true Turnip is entirely radical. In the ‘Summa Vegetabi- 
lium’ Fries also places Rapa as the cultivated variety of campestris. 
A similar view is adopted by Grenier and Godron in the ‘ Flore de 
France,’ and by Koch in the ‘Synopsis Flore Germanice,’ though 
their nomenclature differs. The French authors follow Lamarck in 
using the expressive name asperifolia for the species, making cam- 
pestris (L.) its type form, and Rapa the esculent-rooted variety. The 
German author uses the name Rapa for the species, but equally 
makes that of campestris (L.) apply to the type form 
There is some confusion, however, through ine typical campes- 
tris as an annual, and describing the annual form as and for the 
