DV 1S 400-Ne. & 
y. Sea2Cabbage. 
* Braffica inavitima. 
The root is long, thick, divided into many | 
parts, and furnifhed with long fibres, 
‘The firft leaves ate large, long, and: rounded 
at the ends; “and they quickly fade. 
The ftalkris thick, fpungy, and of a pale | 
greyith colour, rough on the furface, and often 
‘decorated from the bottom with young fprouts. 
At the heightof a foot or two above the ground, 
burft out the principal leaves: they are very large, 
long, thick, broad, divided irregularly into a 
number of rounded fegments at the edges, and 
terminated by a great, round part at the end: 
they are of a greyifh or bluifh green colour, and 
of a very thick fubftance ; and, in the wild ftate, 
the veins are ufually purple. 
The main ftalk, from the fame part wheré 
the leaves rife, fends out many branches: thefe 
are flender, round, greyifh, and ufually coveftd 
with a dufty fubftance. : 
The leaves on thefe are oblong, but lefs divi- 
ded than the others. 
The flowers ave corifiderably latee, and yellow : 
the pods are long and thick, and the feéds aré 
large, round, and of a deép purplith brown. 
Ic is frequent about our fea-coafts, and flowers 
The BRITISH HERR BAL 
BRAT Is 4 
in July. In gardens it grows to a vaft height 
and bignefs. 
DIVISION UH. 
Garden-Cabbage. 
Brafica fativa vulgaris: 
- We are not to confider in the defcription of this 
plant the cabbage in its form for the kitchén, that 
being no more than a convolution of its: leaves 
over one another; but, confidering the herb in 
the fame Jight with others, as confifting, when 
perfect, of root, ftalk, leaves, and flowers, and 
feeds, it is fo to be defcribed, as a cabbage-plant 
gone to feed. ‘ 
The root is compofed of a multitude of crooked 
fibres, conneéted to.an oblong body. 
The main ftem is round, thick, rough, and of 
a whitifh. colour: this is of a middle nature be- 
tween a ftalk and a root: it is not hard:as a ftalk, 
but tender as a root, and may be properly enough 
called a part of the root rifing above the 
ground. 
The leaves ftand in aclufter at the top of this, 
and are very large, and of a bluifh green: they 
are rounded at the extremity : they have fome di- 
vifions toward the bafe when they grow freely, 
and they are of a very thick and flefhy fub- 
ftance. 
The. ftalk rifes in the center of thefe,. and is 
round,. upright,, branched, and four feet high. 
The. leaves-on this. are oblong, and-blunt at the 
end,.of the fame flefhy fubftance; and’of the-fame 
pale green with-the others, 
ne eg 
SPEC £'s, 
_ Motifon talls it Brifica’wiapininya arborea, fest 
procerier ramofa. Others only, Braffica mavitina. 
’ Linnus ‘makes it the fame fpecies with the 
common cabbage’, but this is one of thofe inftances 
in which he has reduced the number at the ex- 
pence of Nature’s diftin&tions, 
2. Perfoliate Cabbage. 
Brafica fjlveftris perfoliata flere albe, 
The root is long, fender, white, 
with a few fibres. 
The firft leaves are lar. e, broad lone a 
divided, and of a bluith ae, ie PEEL ge 
The ftalk is rouiid, firm, upright, very much 
branched, and two feet and a half high. 
. Tite leaves ftand alternately on it, and at con- 
fiderable diftances : they are broad and oblong. 
of a fhape fomewhat inclining to heart=fafhioned 
and they furround the ftalk at the bat : they and 
obtufe at the end, riot at all divided at the edges 
and of a bluifh green. : 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the branches 
and are moderately large and white, ; 
The feéd-veffels are very long, and the feeds 
are brown, latge, and round. 
It is wild in our corn-fields, 
Tt flowers ih Augutt. 
C. Bauhine calls it Braffica camper. i 
fore albo; and moft others fuinesnder: i ee 
and furnithed 
but not common, 
DO) RBG Naw eee Os rps 
The flowers are {mall and yellow, and they 
ftand ia a kind of fpikes at the tops of the 
ftalks. ; 
The feed-veffels are long, and the feeds are 
large, round, and of a purplifh brown, 
It is anative of Italy, and flowers in Jaly. 
In the wild ftate it is fmaller; and has thore 
leaves on the flowering ftalk’; but there is no 
other difference. Thofe who have feen fpecimens 
of this can never fuppofe; either that it is the 
fame with the Englith Sea-cabboge, or that the 
latter is the original plant of the cabbage kind, 
for it is plainly this. 
Such is the appearance of the plant which af- 
fords us the cabbage for our tables, when growing 
freely in gardens, and tunning up to feed its own 
way; or when wild in the fields of Italy: but from 
this fingle plant the induftry and {kill of the gar- 
deners in’ preceding’ ages havé furnithed’ us with 
a vaft variety of kinds, ! 
The round and oblong: cabbages}: diftinguifhed 
by modern gardeners under various names, are 
the plaineft and eafieft produéts, 
The curled cabbage, and what we call the jag: 
ged or ragged cabbage, proceed from the fame 
ftock. The red, the white, the purple, and the 
green cabbages, aré only’ varieties of the fame. 
The ragged, red, and the parfley-leaved cabbage, 
all enumerated by C. Bauhine and others, are lu- 
xtiriances of naturé’in the fame kind; as is alfo 
the 
