The Cabbage-caterpillar 



flavour and delicacy; only the strange product 

 serves as a base for a few sparse leaves, the 

 last protests of a real stem that refuses to 

 lose its attributes entirely. This is the cole- 

 rape. 



If the stem allows itself to be al- 

 lured, why not the root? It does in 

 fact, yield to the blandishments of agri- 

 culture: it dilates its pivot into a flat 

 turnip, which half emerges from the 

 ground. This is the rutabaga, or swede, 

 the turnip-cabbage of our northern dis- 

 tricts. 



Incomparably docile under our nursing, the 

 cabbage has given its all for our nourishment 

 and that of our cattle : its leaves, its flowers, 

 its buds, its stalk, its root; all that it now 

 wants is to combine the ornamental with the 

 useful, to smarten itself, to adorn our flower- 

 beds and cut a good figure on a drawing-room 

 table. It has done this to perfection, not with 

 its flowers, which, in their modesty, continue 

 intractible, but with its curly and variegated 

 leaves, which have the undulating grace of 

 Ostrich-feathers and the rich colouring of a 

 mixed bouquet. None who beholds it in this 

 magnificence will recognize the near relation 



333 



