GREEN VEGETABLES. 35 



short stem. This was Cato's leia, and agrees with Pliny's (2) 

 Cumanian." 



No. 2. " Another capitate form, but much smaller than Pliny's 

 Tritiana. Perhaps it is his Lacuturris." 



No. 3. " Foliage variously and doubly incised, like parsley. It is 

 the Selinoeides of Cato. " 



No. 4. " Excessively crisped foliage, usually called B. crispa; it 

 is Pliny's Sabellica."* 



In^Gerard's " Herbal " (1597) there are fifteen figures of ' Cole- 

 worts ' or forms of Brassica oleracea, L. They are interesting in 

 showing something like the probable origins of the existing chief 

 modern types in cultivation, from the slight modifications which arose 

 in the wild form. This Gerard calls B. marina anglica or " English 



FIG. 15. EARLY FORM OF KALE, RESEMBLING THE WILD PLANT (GERARD, 1597). 



sea colewort " (No. 10). The sources of the cultivated forms can 

 be detected in the original wild plant. . Thus Hooker describes the stem 

 as " very stout"; and, unlike the. turnip, carrot, and radish, it does 

 not produce a rosette of leaves on the ground, but at an elevation. 

 Hence this caulis or stem at once distinguished it in the eyes of the 

 early cultivators. As the lower leaves fall off the upper, with very 

 short initernodes, form a dense cluster at the top. In this we see the 

 origin of the ." head " of the cabbage. When the stem elongates, and 

 the leaves are more scattered, it produces the kales (fig. 15). Below 

 the lowest leaves Gerard figures a few globular buds. In his 

 ' Perseley Coolewort,' a kale with finely dissected leaves, the buds are 

 represented as much more numerous. In them we may see the origin 

 of our Brussels sprouts. 



* Dodonaeus' (Rembertus) De Stirpium Historia Commentariorum Imagines 



