520 planTjE DOMESTicyE, [August, 



goiis process may be observed when a field is cropped with Clover^ 

 Ray-grass, or any artificial crop whatever. The Grasses or weeds, 

 or strong plants, will, in the course of a few seasons, displace the 

 new-comers, and leave barely a trace of their ever having been 

 there. 



These cultivated plants, be their origin what it may, are divi- 

 sible into three classes : — 1st. Cereal plants, culinary plants, le- 

 gumes, etc. 2nd. Ornamental plants, such as Wallflowers, Car- 

 nations, etc. 3rd. Trees and shrubs, either planted for timber, 

 for shelter, or ornament, or fruit. It is obvious that there are 

 several plants in each of these classes that would soon cease to 

 exist if they were not preserved, by human care and labour, 

 from the encroachment of stronger-growing plants, which would 

 speedily choke them unless prevented by the cultivator. 



Scientific men admit that the belief that all our cereal Grasses, 

 our fine flowers, and exquisite fruits, were originally derived from 

 the Dog's-wheat Grass, for example, or the Maiden Pink of our 

 pastures, etc., is a vulgar error. May it not also be a vulgar error 

 to assume that our Parsnip, Carrot, or even the Cabbage, about 

 which something has been printed in the ' Phytologist,' originated 

 in what we botanists call Daucus Carota, Pastinaca sativa, sylveS' 

 tris, or in Brassica oleracea ? There is nothing contrary to reason 

 nor philosophy to assume a priori that certain plants have existed 

 among us from time immemorial, or rather from a time antece- 

 dent to that remote era. The most remote mention of animals 

 and fruit, camels, horses, corn, figs, and olives are almost syn- 

 chronous. The question mooted about the origin of our garden 

 or cultivated Cabbage will never be satisfactorily settled by mere 

 assertions, either that it is or that it is not derived from what 

 botanists are agreed to call Brassica oleracea. All botanists are 

 not agreed to receive this opinion as a final settlement : for ex- 

 ample, Grenier and Godron (Flore de France, in loco) describe 

 the Wild or Sea Cabbage as an escape from cultivation. De Can- 

 dolle again surmises that it may be a hybrid, or the result of a 

 cross between two or more sorts of Cabbage. Be this as it may, 

 it is evidently a mistake to afiirm, as in the ' Phytologist,^ p. 401, 

 vol. ii. N.S., "that the Sea Cabbage is best able to maintain itself 

 and to reproduce its kind." Every nurseryman, or rather seeds- 

 man or seed-grower, knows that the very best sorts of Cabbages, 

 Brocoli, Cauliflower, Savoys, etc., produce seeds as plentifully as. 



