568 Foreign Notices : — Trance. 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 



FRANCE. 



THE Billandeau Cabbage, Chou de M. Billandeau. — The Horticultural 

 Society of Paris appointed a committee on August 8. 1839, to examine and 

 report on this cabbage, which is said to be so large that the chou cavalier is a 

 mere dwarf to it. MM. Billandeau are seedsmen in Paris, and they received 

 a plant of this cabbage from, a correspondent in the department of Deux 

 Sevres, where cabbage is much cultivated for feeding cattle. The specimen 

 sent was discovered in a field among others ; and, being remarkable for its large 

 size, it was left for three years, and afterwards taken up and sent to Paris. It 

 grew on a sandy soil, with a calcareous sand as a subsoil, and the water is 

 found at the depth of 2J ft. under it. No other variety of cabbage grows 

 higher in this soil than 3 ft. ; but the specimen of the chou de Billandeau sent 

 to Paris measured in height 10 ft. It begins to branch at 8 in. above the 

 neck ; the branches are 30 in number, the lower ones from 8 ft. to 9 ft. in 

 length, divergent, recumbent, and curved upwards at the extremities. At the 

 period of flowering, the principal shoot of each of these 30 branches sub- 

 divides at the summit into 20 heads of flowers, thus giving on the whole plant 

 40 spikes of seed pods. These pods do not differ from others, but the seeds 

 are less round and more unequal in size. The leaves of the plant, the com- 

 mittee were assured, were from 5 ft. to 6 ft. in length, pliant, not curled, and 

 resembling those of the cauliflower, but on a much larger scale. The plant 

 was raised from seed along with others, and not from a cutting, as some have 

 alleged. It is considered probable that this variety is a sport from the chou 

 branchu de Poitou, of which the chou vivace de Daubenton is a sport. It re- 

 sembles more the latter than the former ; but it differs from both in being 

 higher than the chou cavalier, while the chou branchu and the chou vivace are 

 less large than the chou cavalier. M. Poiteau, who is now (Sept. 5.) in 

 London, assure us that this account is not in the slightest degree exaggerated ; 

 and, as the seeds, no doubt, will be immediately exposed to sale, such of our 

 readers as are curious in the culture of cabbage will soon have an opportunity 

 of trying the chou Billandeau in England. The report, which is drawn up by 

 M. Poiteau, concludes with the following paragraph : — 



" Do Varieties reproduce themselves from Seed ? We might, and, indeed, we 

 ought, to be asked, whether the seeds of the chou Billandeau will produce 

 plants resembling their parent. To answer this question, we must have 

 recourse to experience and analogy, and say that in our own time there have 

 been formed many tribes or varieties in certain families of vegetables, par- 

 ticularly among cabbages. Thus, the Brussels sprouts have not always existed ; 

 we have not always possessed so many varieties of broccoli ; the branching 

 balsam, the dwarf" balsam, the branching China aster, and the dwarf China 

 aster, are the fruits of modern culture, and form races which perpetuate 

 themselves by seeds, the plants which produce these, being annually selected, 

 or, at all events, those which appear to deviate from the approved variety are 

 rooted out. In the same way, the varieties of domestic animals are preserved 

 pure, by avoiding cross-impregnation, and giving them suitable nourishment, 

 &c. The seed from a double dahlia will produce more double ones than that 

 from a single dahlia. The dark brown nasturtium which we all know was 

 produced accidentally from the yellow variety, reproduces itself and perpetuates 

 itself by means of selecting the plants that are to bear seed. Curled parsley, 

 which was not known in the time of La Quintinye, and curled Normandy cress, 

 whose origin is still more recent, produce seeds nearly as freely as natural 

 species ; the Chinese haricot bean, a dwarf variety with yellow seeds, pro- 

 duces a branching variety with white seeds, which perpetuates itself by seeds. 

 The Spanish haricot bean has given within these few years a two-coloured 

 variety which reproduces itself from seed. We could cite many other plants 

 of an origin more or less recent, that perpetuate themselves from seed by the 

 means of annual selections ; but here is enough to draw our conclusion, that 



