io6 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



deners' Chronicle^ says it was introduced into England in 1790. It is mentioned in 1806 

 by McMahon as in American gardens, and in 1817 there is a record of an acre of this crop 

 in Illinois.' The vernacular names all indicate an origin in Sweden or northern Eiu"ope. 

 It is called Swedish turnip or Roota-baga by McMahon, 1806, by Miller's Dictionary, 

 1807, by Cobbett, 1821, and by other authors to the present time. De Candolle, 1821, 

 calls it navet jaune, navet de Sudde, chou de Laponie, and chou de Subde; Pirolle, in 1824, 

 Ruta-baga or chou navet de Sukde, as does Noisette in 1829. In 182 1 Thorbum calls it 

 Ruta-baga, or Russian turnip, and a newspaper writer in 1835 ' calls it Ruta-baga, Swedish 

 turnip and Lapland turnip. The foreign names given by Don in 1831 include many of the 

 above named and the Italian navone di Laponia. Vilmorin * in his Les Plantes Potageres, 

 1883,- describes three. varieties: one with a green collar, one with a purple collar and a 

 third which is early. 



B. carinata A. Braun. 



This plant is said by Unger * to be found wild and cultivated in Abyssinia although 

 it furnishes a very poor cabbage, not to be compared with ours. 



B. chinensis Linn. Chinese cabbage. 



The pe-tsai of the Chinese is an annual, apparently intermediate between cabbage 

 and the turnip but with much thinner leaves than the former. It is of much more rapid 

 growth than any of the varieties of the European cabbage, so much so, that when sown 

 at midsummer it will ripen seed the same season. Introduced from China in 1837,* it 

 has been cultivated and used as greens by a few persons about Paris but it does not appear 

 Hkely to become a general favorite.' It is allied to the kales. Its seeds are ground into 

 a mustard. 



But little appears to be recorded concerning the varieties of this cabbage of which 

 the Pak-choi and the Pe-tsai only have reached European culture. It has, however, been 

 long under cultivation in China, as it can be identified in Chinese works on agriculture 

 of the fifth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.^ Loureiro, 1790,' says it 

 is also cultivated in Cochin China and varieties are named with white and yellow flowers. 

 The Pak-choi has more resemblance to a chard than to a cabbage, having oblong or oval, 

 dark shining-green leaves upon long, very white and swollen stalks. The Pe-tsai, how- 

 ever, rather resembles a cos lettuce, forming an elongated head, rather full and compact 

 and the leaves are a little wrinkled and undulate at the borders.'" Both varieties have, 

 however, a common aspect and are annuals. 



' Card. Chron. 346. 1853. 

 2 U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 198. 1854. 

 ' Me. Farm. May 15, 1835. 

 Vilmorin Lei Pis. Potag. 142. 1883. 

 Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 353. 1859. 

 Bon Jard. 533. 1882. 

 ' Loudon, J. C. Hort. 627. i860. 

 Bretschneider, E. Bot. Sin. 59, 78, 83, 85. 1882. 

 ' Loureiro Fl. Cochin. 397. 1790. 

 ' Vilmorin Les Pis. Potag. 407. 1883. 



