THE MANGOLD-WURZEL CROP. 



HAVING now described the several cultivated plants'be- 

 longing to the order " Cruciferae," we will take the next 

 in importance of our root crops the MANGOLD-WURZEL, 

 the only representative of the order CHENOPODE^E that 

 enters into our ordinary "Farm Crops/' This plant, like 

 the Brassica family, no doubt derives its origin from a 

 littoral plant, the Beta maritima, a plant indigenous to 

 this and to many other climates of the temperate zone, 

 where it is still met with growing wild on the sea-coast, 

 especially where an argillaceous formation borders the 

 sea-line, and gives a little staple to the sandy deposits of 

 the shore. In its natural state it is seen growing to the 

 height of 3 to 4 feet, with a branching stem : the roots 

 have a natural tendency to be somewhat fleshy where the 

 soil is suitable, and its narrow dark-green leaves are in 

 some places collected and eaten as a pot-herb. 



The cultivated beet, from which our mangold is 

 derived, was well known to the Romans, and also 

 before them to the Greeks; though by neither does it 

 appear to have been grown except for culinary pur- 

 poses. Theophrastus 1 describes two varieties, which 

 he terms the black and the white. Several of the 

 Roman authors speak of its cultivation and virtues. 

 Columella and Pliny tell us that it was sometimes trans- 

 planted like lettuces, that it possessed a twofold advan- 

 tage, partaking of the nature of the cabbage as regarded 



1 Theophrastus, Historia Plantar,, lib. vii. cap. iv. 



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