114 STURTEVANTS NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



into the gardens and established as cultivated plants, may have mixed with each other 

 and thus have assisted in giving rise to some of the many races cultivated at the present 

 day. 



The ancient Greeks held cabbage in high esteem and their fables deduce its origin 

 from the father of their gods; for, they inform us that Jupiter, laboring to explain two 

 oracles which contradicted each other, perspired and from this divine perspiration the 

 colewort sprung.' Dioscorides^ mentions two kinds of coleworts, the cultivated and 

 the wild. Theophrastus ' names the curled cole, the swath cole and the wild cole. The 

 Egyptians are said to have worshipped cabbage, and the Greeks and Romans ascribed 

 to it the happy quality of preserving from drunkenness.^ PUny * mentions it. Cato 

 describes one kind as smooth, great, broadleaved, with a big stalk, the second ruffed, 

 the third with little stalks, tender and very much biting. Regnier ' says cabbages were 

 cultivated by the ancient Celts. 



Cabbage is one of the most generally cultivated of the vegetables of temperate cli- 

 mates. It grows in Sweden as far north as 67 to 68. The introduction of cabbage 

 into European gardens is usually ascribed to the Romans, but Olivier de Serres ^ says the 

 art of making them head was unknown in France in the ninth centvuy. Disraeli ' says 

 that Sir Anthony Ashley of Dorsetshire first planted cabbages in England, and a cabbage 

 at his feet appears on his monument; before his time they were brought from Holland. 

 Cabbage is said to have been scarcely known in Scotland until the time of the Common- 

 wealth, 1649, when it was carried there by some of Cromwell's soldiers.'" Cabbage was 

 introduced into America at an early period. In 1540, Cartier " in his third voyage to 

 Canada, sowed cabbages. Cabbages are mentioned by Benzoni " as growing in Hayti 

 in 1556; by Shrigley," in Virginia in 1669; but are not mentioned especially by Jefferson 

 in 1 78 1. Romans foimd them in Florida in 1775 and even cultivated by the Choctaw 

 Indians. They were seen by NieuhofI in Brazil in 1647. In i779. cabbages are men- 

 tioned among the Indian crops about Geneva, New York, destroyed by Gen. Sullivan in 

 his expedition of reprisal." In 1806, McMahon " mentions for American gardens seven 

 early and six late sorts. In 1828, Thorbum '^ offered 18 varieties in his seed catalog and 



> Phillips, H. Comp. KiUh. Card. 1:92. 1831. 

 Gerarde, J. Herb. 311. 1833 on 836. 2nd Ed. 

 ' Ibid. 



* Soyer, A. Pantroph. 60. 1853. 



' Bostock and Riley Nat. Hist. Pliny 



Cato c. 157, 75. 



' Regnier con. Pm6. Ce. 438. 1818. 

 Soyer, A. Pantroph. 6i. 1853. 

 ' Disraeli Curios. Lit. 2:329. 1859. 

 "Booth, W.B. Treas. Bot. 1:166. 1870. 

 " Pinkerton Co/Z. Foy. 12:667. 1812. 

 Benzoni Hist. New World. Hak. Soc. Ed. 91. 1857. 

 " Shrigley True Pel. Va. Md. Force Coll. Tracts 3:5. 1844. 

 " Conover, G. S. Early Hist. Geneva 47. 1879. 

 McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Cal. 580. 1806. 

 ' Thorbum Co(. 1821. 



