CHAPTER VIII. 



VARIETIES. 



The varieties of cauliflower differ among them- 

 selves less than those of most other vegetables, and 

 their characters are less firmly fixed. Their 

 tendency to degenerate, especially under unfavor- 

 able conditions, and the readiness with which they 

 may be improved by selection, has given rise within 

 recent years to numerous so-called varieties, some 

 of them but slightly differing from those from which 

 they originated. These have frequently received 

 the names of the seedsmen who first sent them out. 

 Many of these seedsmen's varieties have dropped 

 out of cultivation, as well as other varieties which 

 have appeared from time to time, but which have 

 not possessed sufficient distinctive merit. Some 

 varieties, from not having been kept up to their 

 original standard, have reverted to those from 

 which they sprang, or become so like them that 

 their names have come to be regarded as synonyms. 



Nevertheless, all such names have been brought 

 together in the following catalogue, and all the 

 obtainable information given concerning the vari- 

 eties which they represent. The testimony given 

 is sometimes contradictory, either from want of 



