CHAPTER XII. 



Brassica Spinaceous Plants Asparagiuous Plants. 



BRASSICA. 



SOME varieties of the cabbage have been cultivated 

 from the very earliest times of which we have any 

 record. But the migrations and changes of the best 

 sorts have not been traced: neither is it at all prob- 

 able that fhe varieties which the ancients enjoyed 

 have descended to us unaltered. This particular 

 genus of plants is peculiarly liable ' to sport or run 

 into varieties and monstrosities.' They belong to the 

 numerous family Cruciferce. The cruciferous esculents 

 form a much longer list than those bearing umbels; 

 they are applied to a greater number of purposes, and 

 afford an addition to food in a greater number of 

 forms, ages, and parts of the plant. The roots, the 

 leaves, the stems, the buds, are eaten ravv, or dressed 

 in various ways; and the seed of many species are 

 valuable on account of the oil which they afford. None 

 of the family are directly poisonous. In their v recent 

 state they either contain a portion of nitrogen ready 

 formed, or have the power of detaching it from the 

 atmosphere when they begin to undergo decomposition. 

 This quality exists more, or at least displays itself 

 sooner, in the leaves than in the roots; and to it is 

 owing the very unpleasant odour of the water in which 

 cabbages have been boiled. The Cruciferce being 

 found as weeds in almost every field, constant changes 

 are produced, even in those plants under cultivation, 



VOL. xv. 22* 



