TORREYA 



Vol 29 No. 3 



May-June, 1929 



Cabbages and Cacti 



Ralph C. Benedict 



The purpose of this short article is iconoclastic. The sub- 

 jects of the title, cabbages and cacti, have little in common, 

 botanically, but they do serve excellently, to illustrate a little 

 stressed and often misunderstood biological principle, and may 

 perhaps, also, furnish a basis for the correction of a wide- 

 spread and rather popular myth. 



Under cabbages are included all that congeries of vegetables 

 which are botanically related, such as all the different types and 

 colors of cabbage itself, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels' sprouts, 

 kale, kohl rabi, and the rest. Scientifically, these are all classi 

 fied as belonging to a single species of mustard, Brassica oler- 

 acea, which in its wild form, is still found growing along the 

 western part of Europe, as an inconspicuous, "poor relation" 

 of this opulent vegetable group. 



Probably, for most people, only two of the above list of 

 cabbage types are familiar comestibles in the course of a year. 

 For the purpose of somewhat better identification the following 

 brief definitions are given. The cabbage itself represents a 

 very much enlarged 'bud', the central fibrous conical structure 

 being the stem . The cauliflower is a thickened abnormal branch- 

 ing flower cluster, something like the many-headed dandelion 

 flowers which one occasionally finds. Broccoli, the favorite of 

 the Italian, is similar to cauliflower, but differs in being green 

 and much less condensed. Brussels sprouts are miniature cab- 

 bages, borne as lateral buds along an elongated stem, and sold 

 by the quart. Kale and collards are types in which the leaves 

 are thick and succulent, sometimes very much ruffled and curled 

 but not overlapping to form a folded head or bud, like the 

 cabbage. In kohl rabi the leaves are disregarded in favor of 

 the spherically thickened stem, which may be called a sort of 



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