'ii8 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



and a remote origin. In England, they have never attained much standing for general 

 use,' and, as in this coimtry, are principally grown for pickling. 



COLLARDS OR COLEWORT. 



As grown in the United States, coUards, or colewort, are sowings of an early variety 

 of cabbage in rows about one foot apart to be cut for use as a spinach when about six or 

 eight inches high. Other directions for culture are to sow seeds as for cabbage in June, 

 July and August for succession, transplant when one month old in rows a foot apart 

 each way, and hoe frequently. The collard plants are kept for sale by seedsmen, rather 

 than the cabbage seed under this name. In the Southern States, coUards are extensively 

 grown and used for greens and after frost the flavor is esteemed deHcious. 



B. oleracea caulo-rapa commimis DC. kohl-rabi. 



This is a dwarf-growing plant with the stem swelled out so as to resemble a timiip 

 above ground. There is no certain identification of this race in ancient writings. The 

 bunidia of Pliny ^ seems rather to be the rutabaga, as he says it is between a radish and 

 a rape. The gorgylis of Theophrastus ' and Galen ^ seems also to be the rutabaga, for 

 Galen says the root contained within the earth is hard unless cooked. In 1554, Matthio- 

 lus' speaks of the kohl-rabi as having lately come into Italy. Between 1573 and 1575, 

 Rauwolf ^ saw it in the gardens of Tripoli and Aleppo. Lobel,' 1570, Camerarius,* 1586, 

 Dalechamp,^ 1587, and other of the older botanists figure or describe it as vmder European 

 culture. 



Kohl-rabi, in the view of some writers, is a cross between cabbage and rape, and many 

 of the names applied to it convey this idea. This view is probably a mistaken one, as 

 the plant in its sportings under cultiu-e tends to the form of the Marrow cabbage, from 

 which it is probably a derivation. In 1884, two kohl-rabi plants were growing in pots in 

 the greenhouse at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station; one of these extended 

 itself until it became a Marrow cabbage and when planted out in the spring attained its 

 growth as a Marrow cabbage. This idea of its origin finds covintenance in the figures of 

 the older botanists; thus, Camerarius, 1586, figures a plant as a kohl-rabi which in all 

 essential points resembles a Marrow cabbage, tapering from a small stem into a long 

 kohl-rabi, with a flat top like the Marrow cabbage. The figures given by Lobel,'" 1591, 

 Dodonaeus," i6i6,andBodaeus,2 ^^^^^ ^^en compared with Camerarius' figure, suggest 



Worlidge, J. 531s/. Hort. 203. 1683. 



' Pliny lib. 20, c. 2. 



' Theophrastus lib. 7, c. 4. 



* GsX&n Aliment. 1547. 



' Matthiolus Comment 248. 1554. 

 Gronovius /7. Orieni 81. 1755. 

 ' Pena and Lobel Advers. 92. 1570. 

 Camerarius ^t(. 251. 1586. 



Dalechamp Hist. Gen. PL (Lugd.) 522. 1587. 

 " Lobel Icon. 246. 1591. 



" Dodonaeus Pempt. 625. 1616. 



" Theophrastus Hist. PI. Bodaeus Ed. 777. 1644. 



