600 



BRODI^EA BROMELIACE^I. 



thirty years ago, are a great acquisition. The sorts 

 previously in cultivation, though good in favourable 

 seasons and under proper treatment, all came in too 

 closely together, so that there was either none at all to 

 be had, or for a time too much. But the Cape varieties, 

 particularly that excellent one called " Grainger's," are 

 earlier ; good heads being sometimes cut in August 

 from plants raised from seed sowed in April. Indeed it 

 has been proved that, by choosing the proper seasons 

 for sowing, and giving necessary care in the culture, 

 the heads may be had in perfection at any time. The 

 Cape sorts are least valuable from the middle of May 

 to the end of June, because cauliflowers are in sea- 

 son, and generally preferred to any kind of broccoli. 



There are nearly twenty varieties in cultivation, 

 and treated so as to succeed each other, with refer- 

 ence to their hardiness, or time of coming into use. 

 Some sorts yield heads in about four months ; others 

 require six ; and several remain ten or eleven months 

 from the time of sowing before they show flowers, 

 although they may be all sowed at the same time, 

 viz. about the 20th of April. 



The market gardeners in the neighbourhood of 

 London, who in the cultivation of every culinary 

 plant excel all others, have determined the characters, 

 value and properties of the various sorts of broccoli, 

 and have arranged them according to the order in 

 which they come into use, viz. 



1. Autumnal purple Cape. * 



2. Autumnal green Cape. * 



3. Grainge's cauliflower, Cape. * 



4. Winter green Cape. * 



5. Common early purple. 



6. Early white. 



7. Early brown. 



8. Tallpurple common. * 



9. Cream coloured. * 



10. Sulphur coloured. * 



11. Spring white. 



12. Late dwarf. 



13. Siberian, or latest. 



N. B. Those marked thus * are tall growers. 



Some of these varieties have close compact heads, 

 which, when cut, are not succeeded by sprouts ; 

 others have long branched head?, which when, the 

 topmost is cut, send forth numerous shoots bearing 

 smaller heads from the axils of4,he lower leaves. Of 

 this description is the early purple and some others ; 

 proving very useful in those seasons when the upper- 

 most flowers happen to be killed by frost. 



BRODI^EA. Named in honour of J. Brodie, a 

 cryptogamist, by Sir J. Smith. A family of small 

 bulbous plant , introduced from various parts of 

 America. They belong to Hcjcandria Monogynia of 

 Linnagus, and to the natural order Hemerocallidece. 

 They are curious little plants, bearing bunches of 

 blue flowers, and usually cultivated in frames, or in 

 the green-house. 



BROME GRASS is the Bromus (Greek name of 

 wild oats) of Linnaeus. A family of grasses chiefly 

 European, containing forty-seven species, of which 

 twenty-seven are annuals. Twelve are natives of 

 Britain, and occur on every hedge bank. The B. 

 sccalinus is too often met with in wheat crops ; and 

 as the seeds are large and heavy, are not easily sepa- 

 rated from the wheat, in which, if the ray, as it is 

 called by farmers, appear, a lower price is given. 

 The seeds of this species of grass are far from being 



deleterious in bread, though the reverse is errone- 

 ously asserted : on the contrary, both the quantity 

 and quality approach very nearly to the smaller vari- 

 eties of oat. Indeed, for the purpose of feeding 

 poultry, the B. secalinus or ray-grass, is well worth 

 cultivation ; for if sowed in October, it yields a bulky 

 crop in the following summer, ripening along with the 

 wheat. As a pasture or forage grass, it is however 

 of no value, as the radical leaves are few in number, 

 and the stems rigidly hard ; and being an annual, is 

 too fugitive for grazing purposes. The B. giganteus, 

 with its two varieties, the triflonts and hngifolius, being 

 perennials, are admitted among others in laying down 

 meadows. It is said that the panicles, cut before the 

 seeds are ripe, have formerly been used to dye 

 green. The seeds of the B. mollis are said to be 

 fatal to ponltry : if this really be so, geese are not 

 included, as they will eat nothing else, if the seeds 

 of the soft brome-grass is within reach ; hence it 

 is provincially called goose-grass. The B. aspcr is 

 the tallest of British grasses, and often met with on 

 the margins of moist woods. 



BROMELIACE^E. The pine-apple family. A 

 natural order of monocotyledonous plants containing 

 upwards of a dozen genera, and more than a hundred 

 species. The order is allied to the Commelinete, 

 Xyrideae, AmaryllidecE, and Hydrocharidcce. Its essen- 

 tial characters are, calyx three-parted or tubular, 

 more or less cohering with the ovary, persistent ; 

 petals three, coloured, withering or deciduous ; sta- 

 mens six ; ovary inferior, three-celled, many-seeded ; 

 style straight, terminated by a three-lobed, often 

 twisted stigma ; fruit capsular or succulent, three- 

 celled, many-seeded. 



The habit of this order is peculiar, and few families 

 are more interesting from their beauty and singularity. 

 The plants belonging to the order are parasitic, 

 perennial, and either stemless, or furnished with very 

 short stems. They have hard, dry channelled leaves, 

 generally with a downy surface, sometimes minutely 

 scaly, and provided with spines. Their rigid calyx 

 is strongly contrasted with their delicate white and 

 blue petals. They are generally acid, and sometimes 

 yield an edible fruit. They are natives of the hotter 

 parts of America, whence they have been spread over 

 Africa and some parts of the East Indies. 



The chief genus, and that from which the name of 

 the order is derived, is Bromelia, a name given by 

 Linnseus in honour of Olaus Bromel, a Swede, author 

 of several botanical works. Bromelia ananas or 

 Ananassa saliva, the common pine-apple, is well 

 known to every one on account of the richness and 

 fine aromatic flavour of its fruit, which is esteemed 

 the finest in the world. The plant is originally from 

 Brazil, whence it passed to the West and then to the 

 East Indies. About the middle, of the seventeenth 

 century it was brought to Holland, and from that 

 country it was introduced into Britain in the year 

 1690. It is now cultivated more successfully in this 

 country than in any other part of Europe. 



The name pine-apple is derived from the circum- 

 stance of the fruit being covered on all sides with 

 small triangular scales, resembling the cone of a 

 pine tree. 



Many varieties of pine-apple are known in the 

 West Indies, and upwards of thirty sorts are culti- 

 vated in this country. Thus we have the Queen 

 Pine, New Providence, Brown Sugar-loaf, Striped 



. 



