PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR STEMS OR LEAVES. 85 



Aza of the Basques (Iberians), considered by de 

 Charencey^ as proper to the Euskarian tongue, but which 

 differs little from the preceding. 



Kramhai, cramhe, of the Greeks and Latins. 



The variety of names in Keltic languages tends to 

 show the existence of the species on the west coast of 

 Europe. If the Aryan Kelts had brought the plant from 

 Asia, they would probably not have invented names 

 taken from three different sources. It is easy to admit, 

 on the contrary, that the Aryan nations, seeing the 

 cabbage wild, and perhaps already used in Europe by 

 the Iberians or the Ligurians, either invented names or 

 adopted those of the earlier inhabitants. 



Philologists have connected the kramhai of the 

 Greeks with the Persian name karamh, karani, kalani, 

 the Kurdish kalam, the Armenian gaghanih ; ^ others 

 with a root of the supposed mother-tongue of the Aryans ; 

 but they do not agree in matters of detail. According to 

 Fick,^ karambha, in the primitive Indo-Germanic tongue, 

 signifies " Gemusepflanze (vegetable), Kohl (cabbage), 

 karamhha meaning stalk, like caulis." He adds that 

 karambha, in Sanskrit, is the name of two vegetables. 

 Anglo-Indian writers do not mention this supposed 

 Sanskrit name, but only a name from a modern Hindu 

 dialect, kopee.* Pictet, on his side, speaks of the Sanskrit 

 word kalamba, " vegetable stalk, applied to the cabbage." 



I have considerable difficulty, I must own, in ad- 

 mitting these Eastern etymologies for the Greco-Latin 

 word cramhe. The meaning of the Sanskrit word (if it 

 exists) is very doubtful, and as to the Persian word, 

 we ought to know if it is ancient. I doubt it, for if the 

 cabbage had existed in ancient Persia, the Hebrews 

 would have known it.^ 



For all these reasons, the species appears to me of 



^ De Charencey, Recherches sur lea Noms Basques, in Actes de la 

 SocUie Philnlogique, 1st March, 1869. 



* Ad. Pictet, Les Origines Indo-E uropeennes, edit. 2, vol. i. p. 380. 



* Fick, Vorterh. d. Indo-Germ. Sprachen, p. 34. 



* Piddington, Index ; Ainslie, Mat. Med. Ind. 



* Rosenmuller, Bihl. Alterth., mentions no name. 



