186 FLINT'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XIX. 



more agreeable, but when they are supplied in greater abun- 

 dance, the plants attain a larger size. Asses' dung is the best 

 adapted for its growth. 



The cabbage, too, is one of those articles so highly esteemed 

 by epicures ; for which reason it will not be amiss if we speak 

 of it at somewhat greater length. To obtain plants equally 

 remarkable for their size and flavour, care must be taken first 

 of all to sow the seed in ground that has had a couple of turn- 

 ings up, and then to follow up the shoots as they appear above 

 ground by moulding them up, care being taken to throw up 

 the earth over them as they increase in luxuriance, and to let 

 nothing but the summit appear above the surface. This kind 

 is known as the Tritian 33 cabbage : in money and labour it 

 costs twice as much as any of the others. 



The other varieties of the cabbage 34 are numerous there is 

 the Cumanian cabbage, with leaves that lie close to the ground, 

 and a wide, open head ; the Aricinian 35 cabbage, too, of no 

 greater height, but with more numerous leaves and thinner 

 this last is looked upon as the most useful of them all, for 

 beneath nearly all of the leaves there are small shoots thrown 

 ^out, peculiar to this variety. The cabbage, again, of Pompeii 36 

 is considerably taller, the stalk, which is thin at the root, 

 increasing in thickness as it rises among the leaves, which are 

 fewer in number and narrower ; the great merit of this cab- 

 bage is its remarkable tenderness, although it is not able to 

 stand the cold. The cabbage of Bruttium, 37 on the other hand, 

 thrives all the better for cold ; the leaves of it are remarkably 

 large, the stalk thin, and the flavour pungent. The leaves, 

 again, of the Sabine 38 cabbage are crisped to such a degree as 

 to excite our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite 

 exhaust the stem ; in sweetness, however, it is said to surpass 

 all the others. 



There have lately come into fashion the cabbages known as 

 the " Lacuturres ;" 39 they are grown in the valley of Aricia, 



33 The Brassica oleracea capitata of Lamarck, and its varieties. 



34 The ordinary cabbage, or Brassica oleracea of Linnaeus. 



35 A variety, Fee thinks, of the Lacuturrian cabbage. 



36 The Brassica oleracea botrytis of Linnaeus, the cauliflower. 



37 Or Calabrian cabbage : it has not been identified. 



38 The Brassica oleracea Sabellica of Linnaeus, or fringed cabbage. 



33 Or " Lake-towers." The turnip-cabbage or rape-colewort, the Bras- 

 sica oleracea gongyloides of Linnaeus. 



