194 



BRA 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



BRA 



.our Turnips of the same size : when dressed for the table, 

 it is preferred to ours ; and is particularly grateful to all 

 sorts of cattle ; hares and pheasants will take it, and leave 

 Cabbages and common Turnips untouched. The culture and 



application of it are the same as that of the latter. The 



Borecole, or Fringed Cabbage : of this sort the varieties are ; 

 1. Green-curled. 2. Red-curled. 3. Thick-leaved curled. 

 4. Finely-fringed. 5. Siberian or Scotch Kale. All these 

 plants bear our severest winters ; are a useful reserve for the 

 table in such seasons, and then eat very sweet and tender, 

 for before they are frost-bitten they are tough and bitter. 

 They may be cultivated in the same manner as winter Cab- 

 bages, but they need not be planted above one foot asunder 

 in the rows, and these need not be more than at two feet dis- 

 tance. The seeds of the Siberian Borecole may be sown in 

 the beginning of July, and when the plants are strong 

 enough, they should be set in rows eighteen inches asunder, 

 and ten inches distant in the rows : this work must be done 

 in a moist time; they will be fit for use after Christmas, and 

 continue good till April. Green Borecole is a very useful 

 greea food for sheep, because it is not only hardy, but 

 growing three feet high, it may at all times be got at by the 

 animals in deep snows, which frequently cause them to suffer 

 much for want of food : it may be cultivated exactly as above 



directed for the Turnip-cabbage. Cauliflower. This kind 



of Cabbage is continued for several months together, but the 

 most common season for the crop is in May, June, and July. 

 Having procured a parcel of good seed of an early kind, you 

 must sow it about the middle of August, upon an old Cu- 

 cumber or Melon bed, sifting a little earth over the seeds, 

 about a quarter of an inch thick ; and, if the weather should 

 prove extremely hot and dry, you should shade the bed with 

 mats, to prevent them from drying too fast, which would 

 endanger the spoiling of your seed ; and give it gentle water- 

 ings, as you may see occasion. In about a week's time, your 

 plants will appear above ground, when you must take off 

 your coverings by degrees, but do not expose them too much 

 to the open sun at first ; in .about a month's time after sow- 

 ing, your plants will be fit to prick out : you should therefore 

 put some fresh earth upon your old Cucumber or Melon beds ; 

 or where these are not to be had, some beds should be made 

 with a little new dung, which should be trodden down close, 

 to prevent the worms from getting through it ; but it should 

 not be hot dung, which would be hurtful to the plants at 

 this season, especially if it prove very hot : into this bed you 

 should prick your young plants, at about two inches square, 

 observing to shade and water them at first planting; but do 

 not water them too much after they are growing, nor suffer 

 them to receive too much rain, if the season should prove 

 wet, which would be apt to make them black-shanked, as the 

 gardeners term it, which is no less than a fatal rottenness in 

 their stems. In this bed they should continue till the end 

 of October, when they must be removed into the places 

 where they are to remain during the winter season, which, for 

 the first sowing, is commonly under bell or hand glasses, to 

 have early Cauliflowers, and these should be of an early kind : 

 but, in order to have a succession during the season, you 

 should also be provided with another more late kind, which 

 should be sown four or five days after the other, and ma- 

 naged in the same way. Broccoli. The seeds of the Broc- 

 coli, of which there are several kinds, viz. the Roman or 

 purple, the Neapolitan or white, and the black Broccoli, with 

 some others, of which the Roman is chiefly preferred, should 

 be sown about the latter end of May or beginning of June, 

 in a moist soil; and when the plants are grown to have eight 

 leaves, transplant them into beds, as was directed for the 



common Cabbage, and towards the middle of July they will 

 be fit to plant out finally, which should be in some well- 

 sheltered spot of ground, but not under the drip of trees : 

 the distance these require, is about a foot and a half in the 

 rows, and two feet row from row : the soil in which they 

 should be planted, ought to be rather light than heavy, such 

 as that of the kitchen-gardens near London ; if the plant* 

 succeed well, as they generally do unless the winter be ex- 

 tremely severe, they will begin to show their small heads, 

 which are somewhat like a Cauliflower, but of a purple co- 

 lour, about the end of December, and will continue eatable 

 till the middle of April: In order to have Broccoli produce 

 well, transplant it into the alleys of your Onion, Carrot, &c. 

 beds, the beginning of July ; preserving it from snails, and 

 hilling it up, it will produce most noble heads in January and 

 February, and will furnish the table until it is quite over. 

 By sowing very early in the spring, the most forward will 

 succeed the autumnal-sown crops, and keep up by that 

 means a constant succession. 



9. Brassica Chinensis ; Chinese Cabbage. Leaves oval, 

 almost quite entire, the floral ones stem-clasping, lanceolate ; 

 calices longer than the claws or the petals. Native of China. 



10. Brassica Violacea. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, smooth, 

 undivided, toothed. Native of China. 



11. Brassica Polymorpha. Inferior Leaves linear-lanceo- 

 late, pinnatifid-toothed, upper subulate, entire. Annual ; a 

 native of Siberia. 



*** Eructe. Siliques with a sword-shaped /;//<. 



12. Brassica Erucastrum ; Wild Rocket. Leaves runci- 

 nate ; stem hispid ; siliques smooth and even ; root annual, 

 fusiform. Native of the southern countries of Europe, in 

 sandy fields, by way-sides, and on walls ; flowering from June 

 till August. 



13. Brassica Eruca ; Garden Rocket. Leaves lyrate. 

 stem hirsute ; siliques smooth ; root annual. Native of Swit- 

 zerland, Austria, and Piedmont. It was formerly much cul- 

 tivated in the gardens as a salad herb, but at present is little 

 known, having been long rejected on account of its strong 

 ungrateful smell. It is esteemed as a strong diuretic. When 

 this is propagated for salads, the seeds should be sown in 

 drills, in the same manner as is practised for other small 

 salad herbs, but if it be not eaten young, it will be too strong 

 for most palates. When sown in summer, the plants soon, 

 run up to seed, and are too rank : when cultivated for the 

 seed, which is sometimes used in medicine, it should be sown 

 in March, on an open spot of ground ; and when the plants 

 have put out four leaves, they should be hoed to three or 

 four inches' distance, and have a second hoeing in five or six 

 weeks afterwards. When the seeds are ripe, the plants 

 should be drawn up. They require no other culture, but to 

 thin them, and keep them clear from weeds. 



14. Brassica Vesicaria. Leaves runcinate ; siliques his- 

 pid, covered with a swelling calix ; root annual, spindle- 

 shaped. Native of Spain and Aleppo. 



15. Brassica Muralis ; Wall Rocket. Leaves lanceolate, 

 sinuate-serrate,smoothish; stem erect, smooth; root perennial. 

 It grows on old buildings and walls, in many parts of Eng- 

 land ; as, at Yarmouth, Chester, Taunton Castle, Litchfield 

 Close, Bristol, Exeter, Berwick, and plentifully in and about 

 London : it flowers during the greatest part of the summer. 



16. Brassica Richerii. Root caulescent ; leaves petiolate, 

 subserrate, upper linear-lanceolate, entire; siliques four-cor- 

 nered. Native of the South of France, and the mountains of 

 Piedmont. 



Brathys ; a genus of the class Polyandria, order Penta- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth five- 



