RAIN ON THE ROOT CROPS. 161 



the least differentiated in any one special direction. It 

 is not a true native, but comes to us, like so many other 

 weeds of cultivation, from those South European lands 

 through which most of our fruits and cereals passed on 

 their westward way from Central Asia. 



Now, in charlock there is no natural quality which 

 makes it worth man's while to subject it to tillage or 

 artificial selection. Its leaves are rough, coarse, and 

 hairy, so it will not serve for the basis of a potherb ; its 

 stem is hard and stringy, so it will not serve for the basis 

 of a succulent vegetable like sea-kale or asparagus ; its 

 seeds are small and ill supplied with starches or food- 

 stuffs, so it will not serve for the basis of a grain or 

 pulse ; its root is harsh, and rapidly tapering into nume- 

 rous subdivisions, so it will not serve for the basis of a 

 swede or a turnip. Even its flowers, though gay and 

 bright enough, are too straggling and fugacious to make 

 them worth cultivating for ornamental purposes ; while 

 its fibres are not fine or long enough to twist into a good 

 rope ; and therefore the charlock is probably condemned 

 to remain to the end of its existence nothing more than 

 a mere field weed, hated by all farmers, and rooted out 

 mercilessly as a dangerous competitor to the pampered 

 corn crops. 



Most of the cabbage tribe present, on the whole, very 

 much the same general characteristics ; and there are, 

 accordingly, certain fixed limitations in their possible 

 uses which can seldom or never be overcome. So far 

 as I know, not a single one of the cabbages, or of the 

 whole crucifer tribe to which they belong, ever yields an 

 edible seed ; and in this they contrast strongly with the 

 grasses and the pea-flowers, which supply us with almost 



M 



