CLASS XV. OHUKR JI J BllASSlCA. 911 



veins. Calyx erect. Seeds globose. Cutyledom incumbeiil, 

 channeled — (See Fig. 3, p. 872) — or conduplicate. — Name derived 

 from the Celtic Bresic, or cahbaye. 



1. B. olera'ccuy Linn. (fMg. 1054.) Sea Cabbage. Root tapering ; 

 stem cylindrical, fleshy ; leaves glaucous, smooth, fleshy, the lower 

 ones lyrate, petiolated, the upper oblong, sessile, waved or sinuated ; 

 calyx erect, close. 



English Botany, t. 637. — English Flora, vol. iii. p. 219.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i, p. 255. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 32. 



Root tapering, and much branched. Stem cylindrical, smooth, 

 glaucous, from one to two feet high, branched above and leafy, below 

 scarred by the insertion,i of the fallen leaves. Leaves somewhat lleshy, 

 covered over with a blue powdery bloom, which may be rubbed off" by 

 the finger, the lower leaves large, lyrate, waved and sinuated, on a 

 thick fleshy footstalk, the upper sessile, oblong, obtuse, wa^ed, 

 sinuated or toothed. Inflorescence terminal corymbose racemes, much 

 elongated after flowering, pedicles spreading. Calyx of four oblong 

 obtuse erect pieces, smooth. Corolla of four ovate petals, with a 

 short claw, of a bright lemon colour. Stamens erect, the filaments 

 awl-shaped, and the anthers ovate, two celled. Fruit an erect cylin- 

 drical siliqua, crowned with the obtuse almost sessile sliyma, the 

 valves with a prominent dorsal rib. Seeds rather large, globose, dark 

 brown. 



Habitat. — Cliff's by the sea in Devonshire, Dover, Wales, Cornwall, 

 Yorkshire, and in the Firth of Forth, Scotland ; near Youghal, 

 Ireland. 



Biennial ; flowering in May and June. 



This plant is the original of the valuable cabbage and cauliflower, 

 so well known as garden and agricultural vegetables, and perhaps no 

 one furnishes a better example of the number of varieties that may 

 be produced by cultivation, and the labour of man. Nothing can be 

 more striking than the diff'erence exhibited between the wild plant 

 which we have described, and the garden or cow-cabbage, or the red 

 cabbage of the market; and still more extraordinary is the diff'erence 

 between ii and the cauliflower and brocoli, both purple and white. To 

 so great a size do some of the cabbage varieties attain, that they have 

 more the port and appearance of trees, growing from twelve to sixteen 

 feet high, and crowned by a tuft of leaves; others on a short stem 

 form so large a head as to almost fill a bushel measure ; and those of 

 the brocoli tribe vary in the same extraordinary manner. De Caudolle 

 has arranged the varieties under diff'erent heads, which we shall 

 transcribe in a tabular form; these are disposed in tribes, and sub- 

 divided into their varieties. 



