80 ROOTS AND TUBEROUS STRUCTURES [CHAP. 



was by selecting the best roots from plants 

 raised by seed of wild plants that Professor 

 Buckman obtained what is now known as the 

 "Student" parsnip in 1851. It is still the best 

 in the trade. M. Carriere raised garden radishes 

 from the wild Raphanus maritimus ; M. Vilmorin, 

 the carrot from the native Daucus Carota. 



Now a remarkable fact has arisen under these 

 and other experiments. Each of the above- 

 mentioned roots has at least two forms, the long 

 and the " turnip " form ; and the origin of these is 

 known. Pliny records the fact that the Greeks 

 in his day had found how to obtain the " male," 

 as they called the " turnip," from the rape, the 

 "female," with a long slender root, by simply 

 growing it in a cloggy soil. His words are : 



"The Greeks have distinguished two principal 

 species of rape, the male and the female, and 

 have discovered a method of obtaining them 

 both from the same seed ; for when it is sown 

 thick or in a hard cloggy soil, the produce will 

 be male." 1 



The rape and turnip are recognised by 

 botanists as being both the same species 

 (Brassica campestris). 



M. Carriere grew his radishes in two districts, 

 some in the light and dry soil of the garden 

 of the Museum at Paris ; others in the country, 

 where a firmer and calcareo - argillaceous soil 

 prevailed. At Paris the long spindle - shaped 



1 "Nat Hist.," bk. xviii., ch. xxxiv. 



