Indian 



Established 

 Vegetables. 



BRASSICA 



RUOOSA MUSTARD AND RAPE 



Pot-herb 



of seed ; moreover the oil is less esteemed as an article of food. The seed 

 is very generally used in India as a spice to give flavour to vegetables, 



Mustard-flour. and sometimes also as a medicine. Mustard-flour is not consumed by the 

 people of India, and the traffic for that purpose is therefore entirely foreign. 

 It would seem, however, that both the Indian and the Russian seed are 

 largely used as one of the ingredients in some of the modern preparations 

 of mustard-flour sold in Europe. The plant is very often (like rape) cut 



Fodder. green in January and given to cattle, and in some localities the young 



leaves are eaten as a vegetable. (For further particulars see the paragraph 

 below on Oil and Oilcake). 



D.E.P., B. oleracea, Linn. The Cabbage, Cauliflower, etc., etc. 



i., 533. It will serve the purpose of this work to indicate very briefly the chief cul- 



tivated plants of this species met with in India. In all the forms the leaves 

 are glaucous or green and destitute of hairs : the leaves of the inflorescence 

 only are stem-clasping. The chief forms are: uar. ncepimin, which includes 

 the Kale, Borecole, Cow-cabbage, etc.; uar. imiiata, best known through the 

 Savoy Cabbage and Brussels Sprout ; uar. Hotrytl*, the Cauliflower and Broccoli; 

 uar. rajtitnta, all forms and colours of Cabbage proper; uar. <-if </>, the 

 Siam Cabbage or kohl-rabi ; lastly, uar. chtneinti*, the "Leaf-beet" or China 

 Cabbage. [Cf. Kew Bull., 1888, 137-8 ; 1893, 344.] 



The cabbage (kobi), cauliflower (phul-kobi), and the turnip-rooted cabbage 

 (knol-khol or kohl-rabi) have recently become established vegetables and are 

 grown by the market gardeners in the suburbs of all large towns. Except 

 with the Native gentlemen, however, they are not grown in the average village 

 garden, and are not as yet eaten by the mass of the population. A large coarse 

 form of cabbage is extensively cultivated and has become perfectly acclimatised 

 the early cabbages met with in the markets are the young heads of that plant 

 The knol-khol is relatively more extensively grown in India than in Europe, anc 

 seems to succeed admirably in the cold season, if liberally watered for the fii 

 fortnight of its growth. There are two kinds commonly seen, a purple and t 

 green, and both are much appreciated : they come into season before almos 

 any other European vegetable. The Chinese cabbage is a rainy-season vegetabl 

 but notwithstanding its being procurable when few other vegetables are to be had 

 it is not popular in India. [Cf. Engler and Prantl., Pflanzenfam., iii. (2), 177-8 



B. rugosa, Prain., I.e. 11-6, 47 ; Sinapis rugosa, Roxb., II. ltd. 

 iii., 122 ; B. chinensis, Duthie & Fuller (non Linn.), Field and Garde? 

 Crops, pt. ii., 34. The Cabbage-leaved Mustard, pasai or pahari-rai. 



Although this plant is closely allied to B. jnncea it is quite distinct. Non< 

 of the leaves are exactly lyrately lobed, and the radical ones are persistent 

 It is a cold-weather crop of the Western, Central and Eastern Himalaya 

 especially in Nepal and Kumaon. It possesses a very short stock till it sets 

 flower. The permanent radical leaves form a loose cabbage-like head ofte 

 mistaken for China Cabbage. Prain believes this plant came to India from Chin* 

 like . juncea, but in its present form. He, however, recognises as a wile 

 condition of the same stock the Manipur plant discovered and named by mi 

 provisionally as B. aentata. 



Kinzel (I.e. 115-7) remarks, "As this is the only Indian species (so fi 

 at least, as the material at the writer's disposal has gone) which possesses ; 

 cellular separable mucous epidermis, the identification of these fragments of t< 

 in Indian oil-seed with B. rugona is, at all events, a fairly probable one owin 

 to the further similarity of then- structure in surface preparations." The fu 

 description and also the plates given by Kinzel should be consulted by tl 

 who may have occasion to identify this or other Indian mustards by the appea 

 ance of the seeds. The sample of B. mgotta examined by him came fror 

 Yield of Oil. Kalimpong, and was found to contain 0-826 of mustard-oil. 



B. rug-osa, var. cuneifolia, Prain, I.e. 14 ; Sinapis cuneifolu 



Roxb., Fl. Ind., iii., 121. 



This plant is extensively cultivated in Northern Bengal and Assam as 

 sage or pot-herb. In my article on BeeHmeria ntven (Agri. Ledg., 1898, No. 1 



182 



Microscopical 

 Examination. 



