BOOK XIX. XL. i34-.\u. 137 



are most valued for width, which is secured, as in 

 lettuces, by placin<^ a Ha^ht weight on them when they 

 have begun to assume their colour. No other 

 garden plant grows broader : occasionallv beets 

 spread out to two feet across, the nature of the soil 

 also contributing a great deal to this, inasmuch as 

 the widest spreading beets grow in the territory of 

 Circcii. Some people think that beets are best sown 

 when tlie pomegranate is in blossom, and trans- 

 planted when they have begun to make five leaves ; 

 and that by a remarkable difterence (if this really 

 exists) white beet acts as a purge and black beet as an 

 astringent ; and that when the flavour of wine in a 

 cask is getting spoiled by ' cabbage ', " it can be 

 restored to what it was by pkinging in some leaves of 

 beet. 



XLI. Cabbages and kales wliich now have pre- Cabbagm. 

 eminence in gardcns, I do not find to have been hekl in 

 honour among the Greeks ; but Cato sings marvellous «R. 

 praises of the head of cabbage, which we shall repeat 

 when we deal with mcdicine. He classifies cabbages XX. 78 it. 

 as foUows — a kind with the leaves wide open and a 

 large stalk, another with a crinkly leaf, which is 

 called celery-cabbage, and a third with very small 

 stalks ; the last is a smooth and tender cabbage, 

 and he puts it lowest in value. Cabbage is sown all 

 the year round, since it is also cut all the year round, 

 but it pays best to sow it at the autumnal equinox ; 

 and it is transphinted when it has made five leaves. 

 In the next spring after its first sowing it yields 

 sprout-cabbage ; this is a sort of small sprout from 

 the actual cabbage stalks, of a more delicate and 

 tender quaHtv, though it was despised by the fas- 

 tidious taste of Apicius * and owing to him by Drusus 



509 



