On the Cultivation of Epljphyllwm Russelliknum, etc. 121 



The cultivation of this tribe of plants is attended with many- 

 conveniences. — They will thrive luxuriantly where there is 

 not air enough for many of the woody and shrubby plants to 

 flourish, and the most disagreeable of all things to a horticul- 

 turist is a dwindling, half-starved vegetation; they will bear 

 alternate heat and cold during their period of rest, which by 

 management may be made to occur chiefly in the winter j 

 their blossoms, though fleeting, are generally beautiful, often 

 very fragrant, and their forms, if not elegant, are very curious 

 and interesting. 



While writing, permit me to touch on a very diflferent sub- 

 ject. Last spring, Mr. H, Colman sent me from Paris a 

 small quantity of cabbage seed, labelled : "given me as seed 

 of a most extraordinary cabbage. — I have not seen it." This 

 seed I distributed amongst many of my friends, and sowed 

 some myself When it first came up, the seedlings so much 

 resembled those of the Couve tronchuda sowed in an adjoin- 

 ing patch, that 1 could not then tell the difference. The re- 

 sult is as follows. The cabbage is of the pine apple form, 

 weighs from six to twelve or fifteen lbs. each, is the purest 

 and sweetest vegetable of the tribe, and not a single plant of 

 all mine, or those of my friends, failed forming fine, hard, 

 solid heads. 



One plant, of which the head was broken off" soon after 

 planting out, sent forth four shoots, each of which formed a 

 fine solid head ; the four weighed 12| pounds. Mr. L. Stone, 

 of Water town, to whom I gave some seed, exhibited this 

 cabbage at the Annual Exhibition of our Horticultural Socie- 

 ty, and he was kind enough to distribute plants all around, 

 last autumn, for the purpose of being kept through the winter 

 for seeding the approaching summer, so that I hope we shall 

 have plenty of seed for next season. It seems to me highly 

 probable that it will take the place of the large drumhead, as 

 four or five of these will grow in the same space as is required 

 for two of the others; add to this, that the flavor is far 

 superior, and the faculty of heading well, unfailing. 



Although I have no name for it, I think it very probable 

 that it is the Pomeranian Cabbage, mentioned in one of your 

 volumes, probably 1842 or 1844, as having been just intro- 

 duced into England or Scotland, where it met with much 



VOL. XIV. — NO. III. 11 



