1 86 ROUND THE YEAR 



Sea-cabbage (Brassica oleracea}. It grows in tolerable 

 plenty on the chalk cliffs of Dover, and is also 

 recorded from the Isle of Wight, Cornwall, South 

 Wales, and Great Orme's Head. It is about twenty 

 inches high. The leaves are large, jagged, and 

 covered with a blue-green bloom. The stem is tough 

 and woody. The flowers are of a pale yellow colour, 

 and are succeeded by pods. The plant belongs to 

 the order of Cruciferae, the same large and important 

 order which yields the Radish, Mustard and Water- 

 cress. 



From this wild original (or possibly from it and 

 one or more closely allied forms not easily distin- 

 guished) have been derived the countless varieties of 

 the cultivated cabbage. Red cabbages, Brussels 

 sprouts, with their crowds of little leaf-buds, cauli- 

 flowers, with their dense masses of imperfect flowers, 

 brocolis and savoys, are all cultivated forms of the 

 weedy and ragged sea-cabbage. In Jersey, Mr. 

 Darwin tells us, a cabbage-stalk has grown to the 

 height of sixteen feet, and has had its top occupied by 

 a Magpie's nest, while the woody stems are often ten 

 or twelve feet long, and have been used as rafters and 

 walking sticks. A cabbage-stalk fashioned into a 

 walking-stick may be seen in the Museum of Economic 

 Botany at Kew. The principal varieties were estab- 

 lished before botanical curiosity had been excited, 

 and we can only get chance bits of information as 

 to the time and place of their first appearance.^ 

 Theophrastus knew of three cabbages, Pliny "of six. 

 Regnier has collected evidence that cabbages were 

 cultivated by the Celts of ancient Gaul. There is no 



