298 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



England. It is said that sixty plants afford pro- 

 vender sufficient for one cow during three or 

 four years without fresh planting. A square 

 of sixty feet will contain two hundred and fifty- 

 sis plants, four feet apart from each other, six- 

 teen plants more than four cows require for a 

 year's provender without the aid of other food. 

 This plant is now successfully cultivated in 

 Jersey, whence seeds have heen sent to a nur- 

 seryman in London. 



The Cauliflower (hrassica olcracea, var. o. 

 botrytis), is the most delicate variety of the hras- 

 sica genus. It was first brought into England 

 from the island of Cyprus, wliere it is said to at- 

 tain to high perfection, although it is not sup- 

 posed to be indigenous to that country. The 

 exact period of the introduction of tliis plant 

 into English horticulture is not known ; but it 

 ■was certainly cultivated in this country at the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century, although 

 ns a rarity, which could only be j)roduced at the 

 tables of the most opulent. In the year 1619, 

 two cauliflowers cost three shillings, the price of 

 wheat being at that time 35^. 4d. per quarter. 

 It was not, however, until the latter end of the 

 same century that this vegetable was brought to 

 any degree of perfection; at least it was not 

 raised in sufficient abundance to appear in our 

 English markets until that period. The im- 

 portation then of Dutch gardeners and Dutch 

 gardening gave an impulse to English horticul- 

 ture, which had been in rather a languishing 

 state during the intestine troubles to which the 

 revolution of 1688 put a termination. But al- 

 though the Dutch gardening no doubt produced 

 an improvement in the cultivation of the cauli- 

 flower, as well as in vegetables generally, this 

 plant became more naturalized in England than 

 in Holland, or any of the adjacent countries of 

 the continent. Up to the period of the French 

 revolution, cauliflowers were regularly exported 

 from England into Holland, some parts of Ger- 

 many, and even France ; and while the seed of 

 very many cultivated plants is in this country 

 preferred, when it is of Dutch rather than of 

 English produce, cauliflower seed obtained from 

 England is the most esteemed in Holland, and 

 indeed throughout the continent. The superi- 

 ority of the English cauliflower is to be attri- 

 buted solely to culture, and to culture carried 

 on in the vicinity of London, not by experimen- 

 talists or amateurs, but by those who rear the 

 plants for sale in the way of ordinary business. 

 This vegetable is now cultivated very generally 

 throughout the island ; but since the portion of 

 the plant which is used as food is not nearly as 

 large as that of the cabbage, occupying an equal 

 space, while it requires a richer soil and a wanner 

 situation, it evidently can never become so cheap 

 an esculent. Its delicate flavour is, however, in 

 general much preferred to that of the cabbage. 



and it takes a higher rank in the list of culinary 

 vegetables. Dr Johnson, whose most trivial and 

 perhaps sometimes absurd remarks have been 

 considered worthy of record, used to say, " Of 

 all flowers I like the cauliflower the best." 



This plant, like the common cabbage, is first 

 raised in a seed-bed of light earth, and finally 

 transplanted into soil which can scarcely be either 

 naturally or artificially too rich. The seed is 

 generally sown at the latter end of the months 

 of February, May, and August, for three suc- 

 ceeding crops. The plants raised from seed sown 

 in the latter month stand through the winter, 

 during which season and the first part of spring 

 they are usually protected under hand-glasses. 

 In the neighbourhood of London it is not un- 

 common to see whole acres overspread with such 

 glasses, fostering an early supply of this veget- 

 able for the inhabitants of the metropolis, and 

 conveying to the mind of the beholder a forcible 

 idea of the riches and luxury of that vast city. 



The head of the cauliflower is not nearly so 

 liable to putrescency, after being cut, as its 

 leaves, which in this respect are similar to those 

 of the cabbage. For a considerable time after 

 the leaves-have become flaccid and in a state of 

 decay, the head remains unchanged, and with 

 care may be preserved without putrefaction for 

 some months. By merely drawing up the plants 

 entire, and hanging them in a cellar, they will 

 continue in a sound state for a considerable time. 

 The method most successfully adopted in Scot- 

 land, is to place the plants in layers in a pit, 

 with their heads inclining downwards. The pit 

 is then covered up closely with earth, beaten 

 down, and smoothed in a sloping direction, so as 

 to exclude both the rain and the atmosphere. 



Brocoli is usually considered as merely a sub- 

 variety of cauliflower ; and that this is the case 

 is rendered very probable from the gi'eat ten- 

 dency of the plant to run into new vai'ieties, 

 which are constantly making their appearance, 

 and as rapidly vanishing and giving place to 

 others. It is a matter of common observation, 

 that the more any plant has been changed by 

 culture, the more readily does it admit of other 

 changes. 



But a few j-ears back only two sorts of bro- 

 coli were recognised — the red and the purple, 

 both of which originally came to us from Italy. 

 Thirteen varieties are now enumerated as raised 

 in the English garden, and each in turn is re- 

 commended to the notice of the cultivator by 

 some characteristic quality. In the culture of 

 no vegetable has so marked and rajiid an im- 

 provement taken place as in that of brocoli. 

 Horticulturists have recently succeeded in pro- 

 ducing a hardy white variety, which has a hand- 

 somer appearance than either the green or the 

 purple, while it is more delicate in flavour. 

 White as well as purple are now obtained 



