320 GARDEN MANAGEJIEXT. 



time to sow, using exactly the same precautions as with the others. The 

 borecoles are less exhausting to the soil than the cabbages, and will follow peas 

 without fresh manuring, if the ground is in tolerably good heart ; or they may 

 be planted between rows of peas or potatoes, to occupy the gi-ound when these 

 crops are removed. 



893. The Horticultural Society have experimented on this tribe of Brassica, 

 and issued a report ; but the varieties are so numerous and so mixed, that the 

 distinction between them is still very indefinite. Dwarf Curled Greens, under 

 half a dozen names, are the old Scotch curl}', very dwarf in habit, and closely 

 curled, — an excellent varietj'. The Tall Green Curled, also under a host of 

 names, grows two or three feet high, stands severe frosts, and affords the most 

 delicate greens when frosted. Purple Borecole differs little from the preceding 

 except in colour. Variegated borecole is a mere variety, very useful, and even 

 ornamental, in the mixed garden. 



894. The Co((af/er's Kale is a variety of the tall cavalier cabbage which was 

 raised at Sherburn Castle, Oxfordshire, from Brussels sprouts. Crossed with 

 one of the varieties of kale, it was submitted to the Horticultural Society in 

 the spring of 1858, and is said to be the most tender of all the greens, and 

 of exquisite flavour. It stands four feet high when full-gi-own, and should be 

 allowed an equal space to grow in, being clothed to the ground with immense 

 rosette-like shoots of a bluish-green tint, which, when boiled, become a deli- 

 cate green. The seed should be sown late in March or eai'ly in April, and 

 when planted out, should have a rich deep soil assigned to it. 



895. The cabbage, partially analyzed by Schraeder, contains '65 green feculous 

 matter, 0*29 vegetable albumen, 0"05 resinous substance, 2 '89 gummy extract, 

 2'84: extractive soluble in water and in alcohol ; besides a sap containing 

 .sulphate of nitre and of the chlorate of potash, and phosphate of calcium 

 and magnesia, with oxide of iron and manganese. Other analyses have demon- 

 strated that sulphur is present, besides an animal principle more abundant 

 than in any other cruciferous plant. An analysis by Fromberg gives as 

 follows : — 



Nitrogenous or nutritive matter 1*75 



Heat-giving do. 4'05 



Mineral matter 0-80 



Water 93-40 



100-00 



896. There is no doubt of their being antiscorbutic, and, as French writers 

 say, preventives of gout : the first water from it is laxative ; the last mildly 

 astringent. The tender leaves have been administered in leprosy. The seed has 

 been recommended as a cure for worms. In confirmed pulmonary diseases, a 

 syrup in which the sap of the red cabbage occurs, is sometimes administered 

 by French physicians to soothe the patient. The white cabbage, in a fer- 

 mented state, is very extensively used throughout Germany, under the name 

 of sour-krout. In the navy and in sea-going ships it is used as an anti- 



