38 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF OUR GARDEN VEGETABLES. 



times single, and at other times branched out into arms ... if well, 

 looked after it arrives to the height and firmness of a tree. " * 



We seem to see here something resembling our Jersey kales, of 

 the stems of which walking-sticks are made. Gerard's figures thus 

 illustrate a certain progression from the wild plant. The leaves 

 become more wavy, then more dissected, till the parsley-form is 

 reached. 



Crispness is next adopted, in various degrees, among which the 

 curious " tophosa " type occurred. It is this group wherein so great 

 an advance in form and variety occurs at the present day. Those 

 with leaves of slight departure from the wild plant, as Carter's 

 Phosnix kale, might be mentioned, with erect foliage and broad 

 terminal lobes. Then his Chou de Russie is a first step towards the 



6 BrajSHea Psfute 



Open cabbage Cole. 



FIG. 17. THE OPEN CABBAGE COLE (Brassica patula), AFTER GERARD, 1597. 



more dissected parsley-type. The thousand-headed kale I has also a 

 primitve type of leaf, but the stem buds are fully developed into 

 shoots. 



We now come to the true cabbage, with the leaves closing over 

 one another, making the compact head; but before arriving at this 

 stage we have to pass from the kales with spreading foliage. The 

 first step is a great increase in the dimension of the terminal lobe till 

 it becomes nearly circular. Even in the wild state it is often very 

 large. In a leaf from a wild plant from the chalk cliffs at Walmer 

 the terminal lobe is 9^ inches long by 7 inches in breadth. It has 

 only one deep indentation, reaching within one inch of the midrib. 



* The Compleat Herbal, vol. i. p. 429. 



t A better name, perhaps, would be ' Thousand-shooting ' kale. 



