ROOTS AND TUBERS. 17 



Judging, therefore, from the figures given, we do not seem to have 

 improved or " ennobled " the radish since the sixteenth century. 



The question now arises, What wild species was the origin of the 

 cultivated forms? Let us continue the research through later writers, 

 and it will appear that the radish was not derived from China, as some 

 writers have asserted, but from South Europe. 



Parkinson in his " Theatre of Plants " (1640) figures a carrot-like 

 and a turnip-rooted form. Both have short-pointed pods with a slight 

 constriction. The one is called " R. vulyaris, ordinary garden Eeddish 

 (a misnomer from the colour), and the other is " R. niger, rotundiore 

 radice, the rounder-rooted blacke Eeddish." 



The wild radish he figures under " Rapistrum album articulatum, 

 white wilde Charlocke," with long articulated siliquas. This appears, 

 therefore, to be Raphanus Raphanistrum, L. 



Eighteenth Century. In Tournefort's " Compleat Herbal " (1730, 

 vol. ii., p. 466) the pod of the garden radish is well represented 

 as slightly constricted, striated, and sh arp -pointed ; the flowers are 

 purple. Tournefort describes R. major, orbicularis vel rotundus, with 

 white or purple flowers; R. niger, with smaller leaves and deeper 

 jagged (serrated?). " Parkinson sowed the seed of this species, which 

 produced plants, some of which had black roots ; but the greatest part 

 were covered with a white skin." Lastly, R. minor, oblongus, with 

 oblong root. 



In his "British Herbal" (1756) Dr. John Hill first describes 

 " The wild white radish " R. sylvestris, radice albente. His figure of 

 this is a two-seeded constricted and pointed pod; the leaves lyrate, 

 but the segments all connected: " It is found in some parts of Sussex, 

 principally near the sea-coast. . . . Eay calls it R. maritimus flore luteo, 

 siliquis articulatis secundum longitudinem eminenter striatis. One 

 would think that the garden radish was raised from this, but for the 

 colour of the flower " (p. 243). He then describes the garden radish, 

 R. vulgaris; the round, black radish, R. radice rotundo nigro; and, 

 lastly, the long, jagged-leaved, black radish, R. foliis laciniatis radice 

 longo nigro. The last two are figured, the foliage being very distinct; 

 but the pods are similar to those of the first mentioned. Hill says that 

 the garden radish and the last-named are natives of Spain; the round, 

 black radish, of Italy. With regard to the colours of the flowers of 

 the Spanish-Italian varieties, the flowers are white with a tinge of purple 

 or red, some more, some less. The pods are jointed in all. 



Taking Miller's " Dictionary as an example, the author mentions 

 R. sativus and three others as constant varieties, and R. Raphanistrum 

 as distinct. It is called " the white-flowering Charlock with a jointed 

 pod." He also observes that " the small round-rooted radish is not 

 very common in England, but in many parts of Italy it is the only sort 

 cultivated. ' ' 



Nineteenth Century. In the " Prodromus Syst. Nat." of A. P. de 

 Candolle (1824) we find seven species described, as well as two 

 doubtful ones. Of R. Raphanistrum there are three varieties, with 



