24 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



Pliny regards the rape and turnip as the same, for he observes : 

 " The Greeks have distinguished two principal species of rape, the 

 male and the female, and have discovered a method of obtaining 

 them both from the same seed; for when it is sown thick, or in a hard, 

 cloggy soil, the produce will be male." Elsewhere he distinguishes the 

 forms, saying: "Medical men call those which are round 'male,' 

 while those which are more elongated are known as ' female ' rape; 

 the last are superior in sweetness, and better for keeping, but by 

 successive sowings they are changed into male rape." It is clear that 

 the male is the " turnip " and the long-rooted the " rape."* 



FIG. 10. WILD TURNIP (Brassica campestris). One-third natural height. 



Dodoens calls the turnip the ' ' round rape, ' ' but adds a chapter on 

 the " long rape," or navew, of which " there are two sorts, tame and 

 wilde. " These correspond to his plates of Napus sativus and Napus 

 sylvestris. ' The roote of the Navew gentle or garden long Eape is 

 very long and thicke, in all things else like the Turnep or round Eape. " 

 He adds: " The Navew gentle is much so wen in France, especially 

 about Paris " (1559). 



Turner repeats the above and adds : ' ' The long-rooted rape groweth 

 very plenteously a little from Linne, where as much oyle is made of 

 the sede of it " (1568). Besides supplying oil, Gerard adds that the 

 seed " feedeth singing birds " (1597). 



With regard to field turnips, Mr. Macdonald says: " It appears to 

 have been brought over from Holland and grown on the Marquis 



* The reader is referred to the Radish and Carrot for similar instances of 

 change of form, according to the stiffness or looseness of the soil. 



