256 



CRUCIFER.E. XCVII. CALEPINA. XCVIII. CRAMBE. 



1 C. CORVINI (Desv. journ. hot. 3. p. 158.) 0. H. Native of 

 sandy fields and vineyards, in Arragon, south of France, Italy, 

 Hungary, and Tauria. Bunias cochlearioldes, Murr. nov. comm. 

 goett. 1. 1777. p. 42. t. 3. Waldst. et. Kit. hung. 2. p. 111. t. 

 107. Myagrum irregulare, Asso. Myagrum rugosum, Vill. 

 Myagrum perfoliatum, ft, Lam. Crambe Corvini, All. My- 

 agrum erucaefolium, Vill. dauph. Rapistrum bursaefolium, 

 Berg. phyt. Cochlearia auriculata, Lam. diet. Crambe am- 

 plexicaulis, Russel. Myagrum burssefolium, Thuil. Crambe 

 bursaefolia, Lher. Laelia cochlearioides, Pers. ench. 2. p. 185. 



Var. fi, Myagrum iberoides (Brot. phyt. no. 43. p. 95. t. 42.) 

 Native of Portugal. 



Corvin's Calepina. Fl. Apr. June. Clt. 1816. PL 1 foot. 



Cult. A rather curious annual plant. The seeds only require to 

 be sown in the open border. A dry, sandy soil will suit it best. 



Tribe XVI. 



RAPH A'NE^E (plants agreeing with Raphanus in many im- 

 portant characters,) or ORTHOPLO'CEjE (See Sub-Order II I.) 

 LOMENTA'CEjE (lomentum, aloment; shape of pods.) D. C. 

 syst. 2. p. 649. prod. 1. p. 225. Silicic or silique dividing across 

 into one or few-seeded joints or cells (f. 47. k. m.). Seeds glo- 

 bose. Cotyledons folded together (f. 47. _;._/.). 



XCVIII. CRA'MBE (from K?af i3r,, the Greek name of Sea- 

 kale, or Sea-cabbage, which is derived from Kpa/tftos, dry ; be- 

 cause the plants usually grow in sand.) Tourn. inst. 211. t. 100. 

 Gsert. fruct. 2. p. 292. t. 142. Lin. gen. no. 825. D. C. syst. 

 2. p. 650. prod. 1. p. 225. 



LIN. SYST. Tetradyndmia, Siliculbsa. Silicle 2-jointed. Lower 

 joint abortive, upper one globose, 1-seeded (f. 47. h.). Cotyledons 

 thick, somewhat foliaceous, profoundly emarginate. Herbs or sub- 

 shrubs. Leaves sometimes thick, sometimes membranous, hairy 

 or smooth ; cauline ones alternate, stalked, pinnately-toothed, 

 cut, pinnatifid or lyrate. Racemes elongated, many-flowered, 

 disposed into lax panicles ; pedicels filiform, erect, bractless. 

 Flowers white, smelling like honey. 



SECT. I. SAKCOCRA'MBE (from <rap oapKof, sarx sarcos, flesh ; 

 and Kpa/j/jj; ; because the leaves of the plants contained in this 

 section are fleshy.) D. C. syst. 2. p. 651. prod. 1. p. 225. 

 Lower joint of silicic depressed, thick ; stigma sessile. Larger 

 filaments furnished each at the top with a tooth. Roots perennial, 

 with many stems rising from the neck. Leaves large, usually 

 fleshy. The young shoots of all are eatable when blanched. 



1 C. MARITIMA (Lin. spec. 937.) Longer filaments forked ; 

 pods blunt ; leaves roundish, sinuate, waved, toothed, and are, 

 as well as the stem, very smooth. I/ . H. Native in the sand 

 on the sea-shore, from Sweden to France, and along the Medi- 

 terranean sea on the European side ; also in Tauria, along the 

 Euxine sea. Plentiful in Britain, in the sand by the sea-side. 

 Oed. fl. dan. t. 316. Smith, engl. bot. t. 924. 



Sea-kale (Eng.) Chau mariner.) Meerkohl (Germ.) Crambio 

 (Ital.). The country people in the west of England have been, 

 from time immemorial, in the practice of watching when the shoots 

 and leaf-stalks begin to push up the sand and gravel in March and 

 April, when they cut them off underground, as is done in gather- 

 ing Asparagus, and boil them as greens. About the middle of 

 the last century the plant was first introduced into gardens, grown 

 on deep sandy soil, and blanched either by sand, ashes, litter, or 

 by covering with flower-pots, earthen pots made on purpose, or 

 any opaque cover. It is now almost as universal in good gar- 

 dens as Asparagus, and, like it, is forced, either by taking up 

 the roots and planting them on a hot-bed, or in a border of a 

 forcing-house, or by covering or surrounding them with litter, in 



the open garden. Before covering a bed with warm litter, 

 each plant, or stool of plants, is covered with an earthenware 

 blanching pot, or a wicker case, to keep off 1 the dung from 

 the young shoots, and to ensure their being blanched. No 

 plant is so easily forced, and, unlike Asparagus, it yields pro- 

 duce the first spring after raising from seed. The taste is 

 very like that of Cauliflower. The whole plant is smooth, 

 of a beautiful glaucous hue, covered with a very fine meal. 

 However, it varies much ; for sometimes it is to be seen 

 almost with green-leaves. The radical leaves are large, more 

 or less sinuated or indented, containing in the axil a bud or ru- 

 diment of next year's stem. The flowers are in ample pani- 

 cles ; they are small, of a pure white, and smell strongly of honey. 



The precise period of its introduction to the garden is unknown. 

 Parkinson and Bryant state, that the radical leaves are cut by the 

 inhabitants where the plant grows wild, and boiled as cabbage ; 

 and W. Jones, of Chelsea, assured the late W. Curtis, that he 

 saw bundles of it, in a cultivated state, exposed for sale in Chi- 

 chester market, in 1753. J. Maher observes, (Hort. trans, vol. 1.) 

 that " the Crambe maritima was known, and sent from this 

 kingdom to the continent, more than two hundred years ago, by 

 L'Obel ; but Miller, in 1 73 1 , was the first who wrote upon it pro- 

 fessionally. About the year 1767, it was cultivated by Lettsom, 

 at Grove-hill, and by him brought into general notice in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London. In the Gardener's Dictionary, published 1774, 

 by James Gordon, at Fountain Bridge, near Edinburgh, directions 

 are given for the cultivation of this vegetable, and for blanching 

 it by covering the beds, four inches deep, with sand or gravel. 

 Professor Martyn has printed some valuable instructions for its 

 cultivation, from the MSS. of the Rev. M. Laurent ; and the late 

 W. Curtis, by a pamphlet on the culture, has done more to re- 

 commend it, and diffuse the knowledge of it, than any of his 

 predecessors. Sea-kale is now a common vegetable in Covent 

 Garden market, and, Mr. Neill observes, has begun to appear on 

 the green-stalls of Edinburgh ; but in France it is almost un- 

 known. Bastien (Manuel du Jardinier, 1807,) describes the 

 Chou marin d'Angleterre ; but he appears to have tried to use 

 the broad green leaves, instead of the blanched shoots. Dis- 

 gusted with his preparation, he denies the merit of Sea-kale, and 

 resigns the plant, with a sneer, to colder climates." 



The young spring shoots, and the stalks of the unfolded 

 leaves, blanched by rising through the ground in a wild state, or 

 by earthing up in gardens, are the parts used ; and when boiled 

 and dressed like Asparagus, are not inferior to that vegetable. 

 They form also an excellent ingredient in soups. Sometimes 

 the ribs of the large leaves are peeled and dressed as Asparagus, 

 after the plant has ceased to send up young shoots. By forcing, 

 Sea-kale may be had in perfection from November till May, a 

 period including all the dead months in the year. It is remarked 

 by Nicol, that vegetables seldom improve by forcing, but that 

 Sea-kale forms an exception ; the forced shoots produced at mid- 

 winter being more crisp and delicate in flavour than those pro- 

 cured in the natural way, in April and May. Sir George Mac- 

 kenzie observes, (Caled. hort. mem. 1. p. 313.) that Sea-kale 

 cannot easily be overdone in cooking ; and that, after being 

 well boiled, it should be thoroughly drained, and then suffered 

 to remain a few minutes before the fire, that a further portion of 

 moisture may be exhaled." 



Sea-kale may be cultivated by rearing the plants from seed, 

 on a seed-bed, and when a year old transplanting them into beds, 

 at the distance of eighteen inches each way. But in setting 

 young plants, place them in patches of three plants each, taking 

 care, in removing them from the seed-bed, not to injure the 

 tap-roots. 



Sea-kale plants of a proper age may be had of any nursery- 

 man, but in well-regulated gardens, a part should be annually 



