LEAVES AND STEMS WE EAT 143 



usually as a small plant on a spindling stem, its 

 blue-green, fleshy leaves spreading in a flat rosette 

 or closing at the top to form a loose ball. In soil 

 of greater depth the stem lifts its head higher, year 

 by year, and strengthens itself by woody fibres, 

 the side shoots, short and of softer texture, bearing 

 the leaves. Stems three feet high may be found in 

 favorable locations on the Irish and English coasts 

 but on the Channel Islands a wild cabbage might 

 be mistaken for a tree of some sort. Darwin saw 

 on the island of Jersey a cabbage stalk sixteen feet 

 high! He said that twelve feet in height was 

 often attained by these plants, whose woody stalks 

 were used for rafters by island builders. Much 

 smaller plants have stems three or four inches in 

 diameter. Walking sticks are made of still 

 smaller ones. 



A spike of yellow flowers crowns the top of the 

 wild cabbage plant, just like the flowers borne 

 by garden cabbages to-day. Leave a solid head 

 in the row after the crop is cut for market, and 

 what happens? The head bursts open; the stem, 

 hidden by overlapping leaves, keeps on growing. 

 It forces its way out of prison, runs up a foot or 

 two, and opens its yellow flowers, that fade and 

 are followed by pods full of seeds. Again we see 

 the relationship of this vegetable to the mustards. 



