CHAPTER II. 



PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR STEMS OR LEAVES. 



Article I. Vegetables. 



Common Cabbage Brassica oleracea, Linnaeus. 



The cabbage in its wild state, as it is represented in 

 Eng. Bot., t. 637, the Flora Danica, t. 2056, and elsewhere, 

 is found on the rocks by the sea-shore : (1) in the Isle of 

 Laland, in Denmark, the island of Heligoland, the south 

 of England and Ireland, the Channel Isles, and the islands 

 off the coast of Charente Inferieure; * (2) on the north 

 coast of the Mediterranean, near Nice, Genoa, and Lucca. 2 

 A traveller of the last century, Sibthorp, said that he 

 found it at Mount Athos, but this has not been confirmed 

 by any modern botanist, and the species appears to be 

 foreign in Greece, on the shores of the Caspian, as also in 

 Siberia, where Pallas formerly said he had seen it, and in 

 Persia. 3 Not only the numerous travellers who have 

 explored these countries have not found the cabbage, but 

 the winters of the east of Europe and of Siberia appear 

 to be too severe for it. Its distribution into somewhat 

 isolated places, and in two different regions of Europe, 

 suggests the suspicion either that plants apparently indi- 



1 Fries, Summa, p. 29 ; Nylander, Conspectus, p. 46 ; Bentham, Handb. 

 Brit. PL, edit. 4, p. 40; Mackay, Fl. Hibern., p. 28; Brebisson, Fl. de 

 Normandie, edit. 2, p. 18 ; Babbington, Primitice Fl. Sarnicce, p. 8 ; 

 Clavaud, Flore de la Gironde, i. p. 68. 



* Bertoloni, FL ItaL, vii. p. 146 ; Nylander, Conspectus. 



3 Ledebour, Fl. Ross. ; Griesbacb, Spiciligium Fl. Rumel. ; Boissier, 

 Flora Onenlalis, etc. . 



