fo8 STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



The species has every appearance of being one of the early removes from the original 

 species and is cultivated in many varieties known as kale, greens, sprouts, curlico, with 

 also some distinguishing prefixes as Buda kale, German greens. Some are grown as orna- 

 mental plants, being variously curled, laciniated and of beautiful colors. In 1661, Ray 

 journeyed into Scotland and says of the people that " they use much pottage made of 

 coal-wort which they call keal." It is probable that this was the form of cabbage known 

 to the ancients. 



The kales represent an extremely variable class of vegetable and have been imder 

 cultivation from a most remote period. What the varieties of cabbage were that were 

 known to the ancient Greeks it seems impossible to determine in all cases, but we can 

 hardly question but that some of them belonged to the kales. Many varieties were known 

 to the Romans. Cato,* who lived about 201 B. C, describes the Brassica as: the levis, 

 large broad-leaves, large-stalked; the crispa or apiacan; the lenis, small-stalked, tender, 

 but rather sharp-tasting. Pliny ,^ in the first century, describes the Cumana, with sessile 

 leaf and open head; the Aricinum, not excelled in height, the leaves numerous and thick; 

 the Pompeianum, tall, the stalk thin at the base, thickening along the leaves; the hrutiana, 

 with very large leaves, thin stalk, sharp savored; the sahellica, admired for its curled 

 leaves, whose thickness exceeds that of the stalk, of very sweet savor; the Lacuturres, very 

 large headed, innumerable leaves, the head roimd, the leaves fleshy; the Tritianom, often 

 a foot in diameter and late in going to seed. The first American mention of coleworts is 

 by Sprigley, 1669, for Virginia but this class of the cabbage tribe is probably the one men- 

 tioned by Benzoni ' as growing in Hayti in 1565. In 1806, McMahon^ recommends for 

 American gardens the green and the brown Aypres and mentions the Red and Thick- 

 leaved Curled, the Siberian, the Scotch and especially recommends Jerusalem kale. 



The form of kale known in France as the chevalier seems to have been the longest ' 

 known and we may surmise that its names of chou caulier and caulet have reference to the 

 period when the word caulis, a stalk, had a generic meaning applying to the cabbage race 

 in general. We may hence surmise that this was the common form in ancient times, in 

 like manner as coles or coleworts in more modem times imply the cultivation of kales. 

 This word coles or caulis is used in the generic sense, for illustration, by Cato, 200 years 

 B. C.; by Colimiella the first century A. D. ; by Palladius in the third; by Vegetius in the 

 fourth century A. D. ; and Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth. This race of chevaliers 

 may be quite reasonably supposed to be the levis of Cato, sometimes called caulodes. 



According to De Candolle, this race of chevaliers has five principal sub-races, of which 

 the following is an incomplete synonymy : 



I. 



Brassica laevis. Cam. Epit. 248. 1586; Matth. Op. 366. 1598. 



Br. vulgaris saliva. Ger. 244. 1597. 



Cavalier branchu. DeCand. Mem. 9. 182 1. 



' Script. Rei Rust. 1:75. 1787. 



* Pliny lib. 19, c. 41; lib. 20, c. 33. 



' Benzoni Hist. New World Hakl. Soc. Ed. 91. 1857. 



* McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Cal. 308, 309. 1806. 



De Candolle, A. P. Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 5:7. 1824. 



