38 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



have a number of names which seem to be orisrinal 

 Brassica rapa is called meipen or erfinen^ in Wales; 

 repa and Hppa in several Slav tongues,^ which answers to 

 the Latin rapa, and is allied to the rseipKi of the Anglo- 

 Saxons. The Brassica. napus is in Welsh bresych yr yd ; 

 in Erse hraisscagh buigh, according to Threlkeld,^ who sees 

 in braisscagh the root of the Latin Brassica. A Polish 

 name, harpiele, a Lithuanian, jellazoji,^ are also given, 

 without speaking of a host of other names, transferred 

 sometimes in popular speech from one species to another. 

 I shall speak of the names of Brassica oleracea when I 

 come to vegetables. 



The Hebrews had no names for cabbages, rapes, and 

 turnips,^ but there are Arab names : selgam for the Br. 

 napus, and subjuvi or subjumi for Br. rapa; words 

 which recur in Persian and even in Bengali, transferred 

 perhaps from one species to another. The cultivation of 

 these plants has therefore been diffused in the south-west 

 of Asia since Hebrew antiquity. 



Finally, every method, whether botanical, historical, 

 or philological, leads us to the following conclusions : 



Firstly, the Brassicce with fleshy roots were originally 

 natives of temperate Europe. 



Secondly, their cultivation was diffused in Europe 

 before, and in Asia after, the Aryan invasion. 



Thirdly, the primitive slender-rooted form of Bras- 

 sica napus, called Br. cainijestris, had probably from 

 the beginning a more extended range, from the Scan- 

 dinavian peninsula towards Siberia and the Caucasus. 

 Its cultivation was perhaps introduced into China and 

 Japan, through Siberia, at an epoch which appears not 

 to be much earlier than Greco-Roman civilization. 



Fourthly, the cultivation of the various forms or species 

 of Brassica was diffused throughout the south-west of 

 Asia at an epoch later than that of the ancient Hebrews. 



* Davies, TTeZsTi Botanology , p. 65. 



* Moritzi, Diet. MS., compiled from published firms. 



* Threlkeld, Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum, 1 vol. in 8vo, 1727. 



* Moritzi, Diet. MS. 



* Eosenmiiller, Biblische Naturgeschichte, vol. i., gives none. 



