STURTEVANTS NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS II5 



in 1881, 19. In 1869, Gregory tested 60 named varieties in his experimental garden and 

 in 187s Landreth tested 51. 



The headed cabbage in its perfection of growth and its multitude of varieties, bears 

 every evidence of being of ancient origin. It does not appear, however, to have been 

 known to I>t.oscorides, or to Theophrastus or Cato, but a few centuries later the presence 

 of cabbage is indicated by Columella ' and Pliny,^ who, of his variety, speaks of the head 

 being sometimes a foot in diameter and going to seed the latest of all the sorts known to 

 him. The descriptions are, however, obsciore, and we may well believe that if the hard- 

 headed varieties now known had been seen in Rome at this time they would have received 

 mention. Olivier de Serres^ says: " White cabbages came from the north, and the art 

 of making them head was vmknown in the time of Charlemagne." Albertus Magnus,* 

 who lived in the twelfth century, seems to refer to a headed cabbage in his Caputium, 

 but there is no description. The first unmistakable reference to cabbage ' is by Ruellius, 

 1536, who calls them capucos coles, or cabutos and describes the head as globular and often 

 very large, even a foot and a half in diameter. Yet the word cabaches and caboches, 

 used in England in the fourteenth centurj-, indicates cabbage was then known and was 

 distinguished from coles. ^ Ruellius, also, describes a loose-headed form called romanos, 

 and this name and description, when we consider the difficulty of heading cabbages in a 

 warm climate, would lead us to believe that the Roman varieties were not our present 

 solid-heading type but loose-headed and perhaps of the savoy class. 



Our present cabbages are divided by De Candolle ' into five types or races: the flat- 

 headed, the round-headed, the egg-shaped, the elliptic and the conical. Within each 

 class are many sub-varieties. In Viknorin's Les Plantes Poiagkres, 1883, 57 kinds are 

 described, and others are mentioned by name. In the Report of the New York Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station for 1886, 70 varieties are described, excluding synonyms. In 

 both cases the savoys are treated as a separate class and are not included. The histories 

 of De Candolle's forms are as follows: 



Flat-Headed Cabbage. 



Type, Quintal. The first appearance of this form is in Pancovius Herbarium, 1673, 



No. 612. A Common Flatwinter, probably this form, is mentioned by Wheeler,* 1763; 



the Flat-topped is described by Mawe,' 1778. The varieties that are now esteemed are 



remarkably flat and solid. 



Round Cabbage. 



Type, Early Dutch Drumhead. This appears to be the earliest form, as it is the 



only kind figured in early botanies and was hence presumably the only, or, perhaps, the 



' Columella lib. 10, c. i, p. 138. 



* Pliny lib. 19, c. 41, p. 187. 

 'Soyer, A. Pantroph. 61. 1853. 



* Albertus Magnus Veg. lib. 7, c. 90. 1867. Jessen Ed. 

 Ruellius Nat. Stirp. 477. 1536. 



The Forme of Cury 1390 in Warner Antiq. Culin. 1791. 



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

 Wheeler Bot., Card. Diet. 79. 1763. 



Mawe and Abercrombie Univ. Card. Bot. 1778. 



