38 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



have a number of names which seem to be original. 

 Brassica rapa is called meipen or erjinen^ in Wales; 

 repa and rip^a in several Slav tongues,^ which answers to 

 the Latin rapa, and is allied to the oieipd of the Anglo- 

 Saxons. The Brassica nai^us is in Welsh bre.^ych yr yd ; 

 in Erse hraisscagk biiigh, according to Threlkeld,^ who sees 

 in hraisscagk the root of the Latin Brassica. A Polish 

 name, karpiele, sl Lithuanian, jellazoji,^ are also given, 

 without speaking of a host of other names, transferred 

 sometimes in popular speech from one species to another. 

 I shall speak of the names of Brassica oleracea when I 

 come to vegetables. 



The Hebrews had no names for cabbages, rapes, and 

 turnips/ but there are Arab names : selgani for the Br. 

 napus, and subjuni or subjimii for Br. rapa; words 

 which recur in Persian and even in Bengali, transferred 

 perhaps from one species to another. The cultivation of 

 these plants has therefore been difinsed in the south-west 

 of Asia since Hebrew antiquity. 



Finally, every method, whether botanical, historical, 

 or philological, leads us to the following conclusions : — 



Firstly, the Brassicce with fleshy roots were originally 

 natives of temperate Europe. 



Secondly, their cultivation was diffused in Europe 

 before, and in Asia after, the Aryan invasion. 



Thirdly, the primitive slender-rooted form of Bras- 

 sica napus, called Br. campestris, had probably from 

 the beginning a more extended range, from the Scan- 

 dinavian peninsula towards Siberia and the Caucasus. 

 Its cultivation was perhaps introduced into China and 

 Japan, through Siberia, at an epoch which appears not 

 to be much earlier than Greco-Roman civilization. 



Fourthly, the cultivation of the various forms or species 

 of Brassica was diffused throughout the south-west of 

 Asia at an epoch later than that of the ancient Hebrews* 



• Davies, Welsh Botanology, p. 65. 



• Moritzi, Diet. MS., compiled from published floras. 



• Threlkeld, Synopsis Stirpium Hihernica/r'wm, 1 vol. in 8vo, 1727. 



• Moritzi, Diet MS. 



• Rosenmiiller, Bihlische Naturgeschiehte, vol. i., gives none. 



