122 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
morning before any other food; and we are reminded that it was considered a pleasant 
addition to a repast even in luxurious Rome by our own poet Thomson’s description ot 
an evening meal :— 
“ The customary rites 
Of the last meal commence—a Roman meal, 
Such as the mistress of the world once found 
Delicious, when her patriots of high note, 
Perhaps by moonlight, at their humble doors, 
And under an old oak’s domestic shade, 
Enjoy’d spare feast,—a radish and an egg.” 
The variety of the cultivated Radish is very great, and its uses are not merely 
confined to its edible properties. Chemists formerly scraped the colouring matter from 
the rind to make a blue substance, which would turn red by the addition of acids, in 
the same manner as litmus is used at the present day. Gerarde also reports that “the 
root stamped with honey and the powder of sheep’s heart dried, causeth the hair to grow 
in short space.” 
SPECIES I1—RAPHANUS MARITIMUS. Sn. 
Prats LXXXII.* 
Raphanistrum maritimum, /eich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. II. Tetr, Tab. IIL. Fig. 4174. 
Root thickened. Radical leaves numerous, forming a rosette, 
lyrate with numerous approximate segments, or interruptedly lyrate. 
Pod distinctly beaded; beads 1 to 3, rarely 4, strongly ribbed when 
dry; beak about twice as long as the last bead of the pod. 
On sands and cliffs by the sea. Local; on the south and west 
coast of England, and west coast of Scotland as far north as Bute. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Biennial or perennial. Summer, 
Autumn. 
Root producing a rosette of leaves from 6 to 18 inches long. 
Stem much stouter than in R. Raphanistrum, and with the flower- 
ing branches more numerous, more diverging, and more rigid. 
Radical leaves with numerous approximate pinnee, which are 
sometimes directed backwards, so that the leaf becomes runcinate ; 
and when the leaf is large, there are usually smaller segments 
produced along the common petiole, alternating with the regular 
pinne. The flowers are rather smaller than in RK. Raphanistrum, 
and almost always yellow. I have only observed the white variety 
in the Channel Islands. The pod has generally fewer beads, and 
these beads are commonly larger and more deeply furrowed. 
Some authors describe the beak or empty part of pod as being 
* The Plate is from a drawing made by Mr. J. E. Sowerby, taken from a 
Wistonshire specimen ; the root leaf from a cultivated plant grown in Mr. H. C. 
Watson’s garden. 
