58 THE VEGETABLE CULTIVATOR. 



13. CAULIFLOWER. --Var. BRASSICA. 



The botanic term brassica is in accordance 

 with the Linnaean system, as before observed ; but 

 Miller insists that the cauliflower is specifically dis- 

 tinct from the common cabbage, because, in the 

 course of fifty years' experience, he could never find 

 the least appearance of one approaching the other. 



This most delicate vegetable was first called cole- 

 florie and colieflorie, and is supposed to have been 

 derived from caulis, a stalk, andyfora?, to flourish. 

 The French at present have no distinct name for this 

 plant, but call it chou-feur, viz. cabbage flower. 

 It was first brought to England, from the island of 

 Cyprus, about the year 1694 ; and in the course of 

 the last century was so much improved in our 

 kitchen gardens, by the skill and industry of the 

 British gardener, that most parts of Europe are 

 now supplied with English seed. 



There are two varieties of the cauliflower, the 

 early and the late, which are alike in their growth 

 and size, only that the early kind, as the name im- 

 plies, comes in about a week before the other, pro- 

 vided the true sort has been obtained. There is, how- 

 ever, no certainty of knowing this, unless by sowing 

 the seed from the earliest sorts, as is the practice 

 of the London kitchen gardeners. The early variety 

 was grown for a number of years in the grounds 

 called the Meat-house Gardens, at Millbank, near 

 Chelsea, and was of a superior quality, and gene- 

 rally the first at market. 



The late variety is supposed to have originated 

 from a stock for many years cultivated on a piece 



