124 FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. 



that they do no harm to any one, but on the con- 

 trary are many of them very wholesome and 

 valuable vegetables : such as the cabbage, which 

 you see in all the cottage gardens of our village, 

 and the turnip, whose benefits to our flocks, and 

 indeed to our whole system of farming, are almost 

 endless. Sea-kale, rape, mustard, cress, radish, 

 and water-cress, are also valuable members of this 

 extensive tribe, which is not only of use in this 

 way, but in furnishing oil from the seeds. Kape- 

 oil is in very common use, and the crushed seeds, 

 or refuse from the oil, make the well-known oil- 

 cake used in fattening cattle. Thus you see, that 

 cruciferous plants have a very important office in 

 the world, while they are so easy to be known, 

 that there is not much danger of mistaking them. 

 If you were to be shipwrecked on an uninhabited 

 island, and were to find a cross-bearing plant, you 

 need not fear to eat it, although it might not be 

 known to you." 



" Is there no other flower that I might mistake 

 for it ?" asked Henry. 



"Tliere are other flowers with four petals, 

 which, by a very careless observer, might perhaps 

 be taken for cruciferous flowers ; but not by any 



