34 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



degree as to excite our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite 

 exhaust [conceal?] the stem;* in sweetness, however, it is said to 

 surpass all the others; (7) Lacuturris (i.e., " lake-tower "). They are 

 grown in the valley of Aricia, where formerly was a lake and a tower. 

 The head of this cabbage is very large ; there is no cabbage that runs 

 to a larger head than this, with the sole exception of the Tritiana, which 

 has a head sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and throws out 

 its cymae the latest of all." This is the most complete list we possess 

 of the varieties in the first century of our era. We have to come to 

 the sixteenth century for any new descriptions ; and although some 

 writers of that century, as Dodoens, still recognise the forms of his 

 day as being comparable with Pliny's, the difficulty now of doing so 

 is greatly increased, though we find varieties of similar types. It 

 would be rash to call them lineal descendants, as the same forms will 

 arise afresh under similar conditions, as has occurred more than once 

 when wild seed has been grown for experimental purposes in gardens. 

 The earliest attempt at an illustration of Brassica oleracea, L., that 

 I know of is one in an edition of the " De Herbarum viribus " (1506), 

 by Macer Floridus. He wrote his poem in 1140, and the first printed 

 edition was issued in 1487 at Naples. The figure is suggestive of the 

 wild plant or a kale, but certainly not of a cabbage. It is named 

 Caulis, and the hexameter line referring to it runs 



Caulis romana, graecorum, Brassica lingua. 



Dodoens gives illustrations of five sorts of Brassica (1559), but 

 the seed of the last was sold for that of rape, as he describes it as 

 supplying oil for lamps, &c. He describes five sorts of " white " and 

 five " black," including the rape, and identifies them as follows with 

 Pliny's names : 



No. 1. Brassica sessilis et capitata, corresponds with Pliny's (1) 

 Tritiana. 



No. 2. Allobrogica or Sabaudica, l Choux de Savoy,' with a smaller 

 and longer head, sweeter than the first, and impatient of cold. It is 

 Pliny's (7) Lacuturris. 



No. 3. Cauliflores, unknown to the ancients unless it be (4) Pom- 

 peiana or Cypria.\ 



No. 4. Rapecaulis, the kohl-rabi; perhaps Pliny's "turnip," as 

 stated. 



No. 5. Patula, "with crisp and rugose foliage; as it is much 

 darker in colour, and approaches the B. nigrae, it is called Negrecaulis 

 by the Italians." 



Of the Brassicae nigrae, " commonly called rubra caulis," Dodoens 

 describes 

 , No. 1. Patula, " with very large leaves lying on the ground, on a 



* Bohn's translation has " exhaust." Not having access to the original 

 Latin I do not feel sure as to the meaning, and suggest " conceal," as the stem 

 is no longer visible, as in Button's " Al Kale." 



t There is nothing in Pliny's description to suggest this. As stated, it agrees 

 better with the Chou moellier. 



