16 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



most tender of all, and is well able to bear the winter." He describes 

 the radish as " requiring a loose, humid soil. . . . Some authors have 

 mentioned a plan of making a hole with a dibble, and covering it at the 

 bottom with a layer of chaff six fingers in depth; upon this layer the 

 seed is put, and then covered over with manure and earth ; the result of 

 which is that radishes are obtained full as large as the hole is made." 

 From this one gathers that the radish in Italy grew to a much larger 

 size than is usual in England. Those for sale at Gibraltar and Cairo 

 to-day are about eight inches in length and one and a half in diameter, 

 the leaves being more than a foot in length. He adds that they were 

 often watered with brine or nitre in Egypt. This would tend to enlarge 

 the roots, and, according to Pliny, makes them remarkable for mildness 

 by subduing the natural pungency. He remarks, with regard to the 

 Greeks: " Such is the frivolity of the Greeks that in the Temple of 

 Apollo at Delphi, it is said, the radish is so greatly preferred to all 

 other articles of diet as to be represented there in gold, the beet in 

 silver, and the rape in lead." He concludes with the quaint idea of 

 antipathies among plants in his day : ' * There is a great antipathy 

 between the radish and the vine, which last will shrink from the radish 

 if sown in its vicinity." We have seen that Gerard refers to the horse- 

 radish in this connection. 



In the Middle Ages the radish was known as Raphanum vel radix or 

 radio, in the tenth century the Anglo-Saxon name being Wyrt-truma, 

 signifying " root-holder " or " root-support." In the sixteenth century 

 we have many illustrated books on plants ; thus Dodoens (1559) figures 

 Raphanus sativus, the root being swollen at the top only, with a small 

 tapering end below ; the pods are not constricted, but pointed and ovate. 

 Turner in his " Herbal " (1568) reproduces Dodoens' figure, and adds 

 two more; the one is an elongated conical-shaped form, the other the 

 turnip-rooted, with a very short continuation of the tap-root. He says : 

 " This kind is more common about Strasburgh and is seldome seen in 

 England." 



In Matthiolus' commentary upon Dioscorides (1574) we have a 

 decided improvement, the long form as well as the round closely 

 resembling our present roots. He gives two figures and represents 

 the pods as having one constriction only, in the middle, more decidedly 

 in those of the turnip form. The pods of the long-rooted are repre- 

 sented as having six seeds (in one laid open) ; the pods on the plant are 

 barely constricted at all. 



Lobel, in his " History of Plants," has two figures of elongated 

 roots, one being more swollen at the summit, but not a true turnip- 

 formed root. The pods on both have a decided, single constriction. 

 Gerard (1597) illustrates four varieties. The Raphanus sativus, or 

 "garden radish," is not elongated, but a short sub-truncated oblong 

 form; Radicula saliva minor, "small garden radish," is like a very 

 small one of to-day; Raphanus orbiculatus, or "round radish," is a 

 large one, nearly two inches in diameter; while the last is called 

 R. pyriformis, " the peare fashion radish." 



