88 



Commercial Gardening 



varieties having introduced too strong a competition with them, especially 

 as regards the Early Cape variety, which comes in during September and 

 October, and may be said now to be out of cultivation. The late Purple 

 Cape variety, which begins to turn in about Christmas time, and continues, 

 according to the clemency of the season, to come on till April, has many 

 among the public who are fond of it. Seed beds should be made in May, 

 and plantings up to middle August at a distance of 2 ft. 6 in. by 21 in. 

 Cape Broccoli is sometimes sent to market docked in the same manner 

 as Cauliflowers. It looks very pretty tied in bunches. For this purpose 

 the outside leaves are bent back to form a handle, while the inside leaves 

 are clipped close to the flower. 



Bunches are made consisting of six, eight, or twelve heads, according 



to size, by laying them 

 over a stiff* rod, with the 

 heads level at the face. If 

 the different tints in which 

 the flowers come are well 

 mixed the effect is attrac- 

 tive. 



Heads make Is. Qd. to 

 2s. per dozen. Bunches, 

 9d. to Is. [w. G. L.] 



The "Cabbage Broccoli", 

 or " Chou de Burghley ", is 

 said to be a cross between 

 a Cabbage and a Broccoli. 

 It can be used as a Cab- 

 bage in winter and as a 

 Broccoli in Spring, if allowed to mature the heads. Seeds are sown in 

 April and May. It is not a market crop. 



10 



Fig. 464. -Broccoli Purple Cape 



8. BRUSSELS SPROUTS* 



This highly esteemed vegetable (Brassica oleracea bullata gemmifera) 

 owes its name to the fact that it was first grown in the gardens round 

 Brussels some five or six hundred years ago. 



The Sprouts, which are a carefully developed abnormality of the Cabbage, 

 are now one of our principal winter vegetables, grown in great quantities 

 all over the kingdom. A feature of the crop is that it does not require the 

 land to be too rich. If it is, the stem grows lanky, the Sprouts become soft 

 and inclined to be open. They are frequently attacked by Greenfly in late 

 summer, which causes the outer leaves of the Sprouts to first turn yellow 

 and then go rotten. In London, medium-sized, hard, dark -green sprouts 

 are favoured; in the Midlands the taste runs to larger ones and is not 

 so particular about their being a little ripe. 



