STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS lO'J 



Considering that the round-headed cabbage is the only sort figured by the herbalists, 

 that the pointed-headed early cabbages appeared only at a comparatively recent date, 

 and certain resemblances between Pe-tsai and the long-headed cabbages, it. is not an 

 impossible suggestion that these cabbage-forms appeared as the effect of cross-fertilization 

 with the Clfeiese cabbage. But, until the cabbage family has received more study in its 

 varieties, and the results of hybridization are better vmderstood, no certain conclusion 

 can be reached. It is, however, certain that occasional rare sports, or variables, from 

 the seed of our early, long-headed cabbages show the heavy veining and the limb of the 

 leaf extending down the stalk, suggesting strongly the Chinese type. At present, how- 

 ever, views as to the origin of various types of cabbage must be considered as largely 

 speculative. 



B. cretica Lam. 



Mediterranean regions. The young shoots were formerly used in Greece. ' 



B. jimcea Coss. Chinese mustard, indian mustard. 



The plant is extensively cultivated throughout India, central Africa and generally 

 in warm countries. It is largely grown in south Russia and in the steppes northeast of 

 the Caspian Sea. In 1871-72, British India exported 1418 tons of seed. The oil is used 

 in Russia in the place of olive oil. The powdered seeds furnish a medicinal and culinary 

 mustard.* 



B. nigra Koch, black mustard. 



This is the mustard of the ancients and is cultivated in Alsace, Bohemia, Italy, 

 Holland and England. The plant is found wild in most parts of Europe and has become 

 naturalized in the United States. According to the belief of the ancients, it was first 

 introduced from Egypt and was made known to mankind by Aesculapius, the god of 

 medicine, and Ceres the goddess of seeds. Mustard is mentioned by Pythagoras and 

 was employed in medicine by Hippocrates, 480 B. C. Pliny says the plant grew in Italy 

 without sowing. The ancients ate the young plants as' a spinach and used the seeds for 

 supplying mustard. 



Black mustard is described as a garden plant by Albertus Magnus ' in the thirteenth 

 century and is mentioned by the botanists of the sixteenth century. It is, however, more 

 grown as a field crop for its seed, from which the mustard of commerce is derived, yet finds 

 place also as a salad plant. Two varieties are described, the Black Mustard of Sicily 

 and the Large-seeded Black.* This mustard was in American gardens in 1806 or earlier. 

 The young plants are now eaten as a salad, the same as are those of B. alba and the seeds 

 now furnish the greater portion of our mustard. 



B. oleracea acephala DC. borecole, cole, colewort. kale. 



The chief characteristics of this species of Brassica are that the plants are open, not 

 heading like the cabbages, nor producing eatable flowers like the cauliflowers and broccoli. 



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

 ' Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 64. 1879. 



* Albertus Magnus Veg. 568. 1867. Jessen Ed. 



* VUmorin Les Pis. Potag. 356. 1883. 



