STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 11 J 



as their characteristics are extremely well marked and form extreme contrasts between 

 the conical, or pointed, and the spherical-headed. We must, hence, believe that they 

 either originated or came into use in a recent period. How they came and whence they 

 came, must be decided from a special study, in which the effect of hybridization may 

 become a f&iture. From the study of sports that occasionally appear in the garden, the 

 suggestion may be offered that at least some of these races have been derived from cross- 

 ings with some form of the Chinese cabbage, whereby form has become transferred while 

 the other characteristics of the Chinese species have disappeared. On the other hand, 

 the savoy class, believed to have origin from the same source as the cabbage, has oval or 

 oblong heads, which have been noted by the herbalists. 



It is very remarkable, says Unger, that the European and Asiatic names used for 

 different species of cabbage may all be referred to four roots. The names kopf kohl (Ger- 

 man), cabus (French), cabbage (English), kappes, kraut, kapost, kaposta, kapsta (Tartar), 

 kopee (Beng.), kopi (Hindu), have a manifest relation to the Celto-Slavic root cap or 

 kap, which in Celtic means head. Brassica of Pliny is derived from the Celtic, bresic 

 cabbage. The Celto-Germanico-Greek root caul may be detected in the word kaol, the 

 Grecian kaulion of Theophrastus, the Latin caulis; also in the words caulx, cavolo, coan, 

 kohl, kale, kaal (Norwegian), kohl (Swedish), col (Spanish), kelum (Persian); finally, the 

 Greco-Germanic root cramb, krambe, passes into krumb, karumb of the Arabians. The 

 want of a Sanscrit name shows that the cabbage tribe first found its way at a later period 

 to India and China. This tribe is not mentioned as in Japan by Thunberg, 1775. 



B. oleracea capitata rubra DC. red cabbage. 



This is a very distinct and probably a very ancient kind of a peculiar purple color 

 and solid heading. It is cultivated in a number of varieties and in 1854 the seed of 

 Red Savoy was distributed from the United States Patent Office. One variety is men- 

 tioned for American gardens by McMahon,' 1806, and one variety only by Thorbum,^ 

 1828 and 1881, but several distinct sorts can now be obtained from seedsmen. Bvirr,* 

 1863, describes three reds and one so deeply colored as to be called black. 



The first certain mention of this cabbage is in 1570, in Pena and Lobel's Adversaria,^ 

 and figures are given by Gerarde, 1597,^ Matthiolus, 1598,^ Dodonaeus, 1616,' and J. 

 Bauhin, 1651.* These figures are all of the spherical-headed type. In 1638,' Ray notices 

 the variability in the colors upon which a number of our seedsmen's varieties are founded. 

 The oblong or the pointed-headed types which now occur cannot be traced. The solidity 

 of the head and the perfectness of the form in this class of cabbage indicate long ctilture 



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

 'ThoThum Cat. 1828. 



Burr, F. Field, Card. Veg. 266, 267. 1863. 

 *Pena and Lobel ^d^eri. 91. 1570. 

 Gerarde, J. Herb. 246. 1597. 



Matthiolus Opera 367. 1598. 

 'Dodonaeus Pempt. 621. 1616. 



Bauhin, J. Hist. PL 2:832. 1651. 



Ra.y Hist. PI. 79$- '686. 



