334 THE KOHL-EABI CHOP. 



garden flowers (cruciferous), as the stock and wallflower, 

 for instance. In these it is shown in the development of 

 petals in the place of stamens and pistils, and the double- 

 flowered varieties, as they are termed, become more valued 

 than in their original single-flowered condition. 



If these double-flowered plants were removed from the 

 influence of cultivation, and returned to the poor soil 

 from which the original stock came, they would speedily 

 lose their valued characters, and reassume their natural 

 condition. It is this tendency to variation under the in- 

 fluence of cultivation, so marked in individual species of 

 this family, that renders various qther plants belonging 

 to the order so valuable to mankind as articles of food. 

 The original stock of all the Brassica family of plants is 

 supposed to be the B. oleracea "the sea colewort" a 

 common plant, met with growing wild on the coast-lines 

 of the southern and eastern counties of this country, and 

 also in many other parts of the world. Its appearance is 

 that of a broad-leaved glaucous plant, with a woody stem 

 and tough fibrous roots, very unlike any of its numer- 

 ous offspring; and, indeed, it is very difficult to conceive 

 by what original train of circumstances the species was 

 brought under the influence of cultivation, and how it 

 was imagined that it possessed such a remarkable ten- 

 dency to change its appearance in so many different ways, 

 and increase the amount of the fleshy portion of its tissues, 

 when supplied liberally with suitable nourishment. 



This remarkable property of development is exhibited 

 by different members of the family, in different parts of 

 their structure. In the turnip and the radish we see it 

 existing in varying forms in the upper portion of the root, 

 which has been completely changed by cultivation from 

 its original condition, giving us those fine specimens of 

 increased yield, which add so much to the resources of 

 the farm. Yet, if we take the seed of these same turnips, 



