JBRASSICA. 265 



become naturalized in England. It is said that sixty 

 plants afford provender sufficient for one cow during 

 three or four years, without fresh planting. A square 

 of sixty feet will contain two hundred and fifty-six 

 plants, four feet apart from each other, sixteen plants 

 more than four cows require for a year's provender 

 without the aid of other food. This plant is now 

 successfully cultivated in Jersey, whence seeds have 

 been sent to a nurseryman in London. 



3d Class. This division consists of cauliflowers 

 and brocoli, which have the flowering stem short and 

 succulent, the rudiments of the flowers forming into a 

 curd-like head, which is not higher than the leaves, 

 and becomes a mass of matter before the corolla or 

 any other part of the flower is developed. This is the 

 part of the plant used in this state as an esculent, but 

 at the commencement of the developement of the 

 flowers it becomes bitter, and is no longer considered 

 edible. 



The CAULIFLOWER Brassica oleracea, var. e 

 botrytis is the most delicate variety of the brassica 

 genus. It was first brought into England from the 

 island of Cyprus, where it is said to attain to high 

 perfection, although it is not supposed to be in- 

 digenous to that country. The exact period of the 

 introduction of this plant into English horticulture 

 is not known ; but it was certainly cultivated in this 

 country at the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, although as a rarity which could only be 

 produced at the tables of the most opulent. In 

 the year 1619, two cauliflowers cost three shillings, 

 the price of wheat being at that time 35s, 4d, per 

 quarter.* It was not however until the latter end 

 of the same century that this vegetable was brought 

 to any degree of perfection ; at least it was not raised 



* Eden's ' History of the Poor,' vol. i, p. 152. 

 VOL. xv. 23 



