54 General Notices. 



summit of the 20 ft. wall. The outline figure of the whole plant was that 

 of an acuminate cone. The curiosity of his neighbours was highly excited 

 by the marvellous size of the plant, and by his frequent use of a ladder to 

 gather its legumes ; and when informed of the plants being in the second 

 year of its growth, Mr. Watts received liberal offers from several for seeds 

 of his Everlasting Scarlet Runner, as they termed it. 



It may be well here to notice that the term " everlasting" is, in other 

 instances, applied to perennials by persons unfamiliar with plants. In a 

 village in Cambridgeshire, known to me, and possibly in the county gene- 

 rally" the Helianthus multiflorus, a well known perennial, is called the 

 Everlasting Sun-flower: this name, without a question, being designed to 

 contradistinguish it the more palpably from the annual species, Helian- 

 thus annuus. . . 



The power of spreading, and extensive growth, evinced in the scarlet 

 runner above, exceed every instance previously known to me, and associate 

 instantly a recollection of the close affinity which the genus Phaseolus 

 bears to the genus Dolichos. The power of extension possessed by some 

 species of Dolichos is most prodigious. I am, yours, Sir, &c. — John 

 Benson. Bayswater, July 31. 1831. 



The Sea or Wild Cabbage at Dover. — Sir, Herewith I send you some seed 

 of the sea or wild cabbage (Prassica oleracea Eng. Bot. pi. 637.), no doubt 

 the original parent of many of our garden vegetables. The plant, if not 

 rare, is yet, I believe, exceedingly local. Here it is evidently indigenous, 

 growing in the greatest profusion on the chalk cliffs, both on the preci- 

 pitous and accessible parts ; but I do not recollect to have seen it else- 

 where, save on the cliff near the sea, immediately under the town of 

 Penzance, where it grows more sparingly; and in that situation its 

 character, as a native plant, is somewhat more dubious, occurring, as it 

 does only, so far as I observed, under the town ; a situation which might 

 lead one to suspect that the plant may possibly have sprung from seed 

 escaped from a garden. My reason for sending you the packet of seed, is 

 the hope that you, or some of your friends, may try (as I mean to do my- 

 self) what may be the immediate effect, if any, produced on the plant by 

 cultivation. If (as may be expected) it be at all improved by cultivation, 

 or if it remains just as it is, it cannot but prove, I think, a valuable addi- 

 tion to our gardens j for, even in its wild state, it is as delicious a vegetable 

 as I ever eat. I shall perhaps raise a smile on the faces of some of your 

 blue-aproned readers, when I state that I have had the young tops of 

 this wild cabbage boiled and served up at table many times this month, 

 o-athering, of course, only the very eyes or young shoots, and that they 

 have afforded a more delicate dish of vegetables, at least of the cabbage 

 kind, than, I believe, can be purchased in the market at this season of 

 the year. In the spring they would probably be still better, as that, no 

 doubt, must be their proper season. The only wonder is that the sea 

 cabbage is not greedily gathered by the inhabitants, as well for private use 

 as for sale. But such is human nature, that we are ever apt to neglect 

 and despise whatever is common and has always been before our eyes ; 

 and probably, had I myself been a native of this place, instead of an 

 accidental visiter, I might never have thought of gathering the wild cab- 

 bage for the use of the table. All the productions of nature, doubtless, 

 have their use, if we could but discover it ; and the knowledge of this, and 

 the turning of any common thing to good account, I always consider as 

 a point <?ained. Such is my opinion of the excellence of the sea cabbage 

 as a culinary vegetable, that for the benefit of mankind I think its growth 

 ou^ht to be encouraged, and its seed scattered on all cliffs and waste 

 places, where it would be likely to succeed. I should mention, that in 

 a native state the wild cabbage varies in its foliage and general appearance 

 almost as much as the ordinary garden cabbage differs from the Savoy or 



