MUSTARD FAMILY 



the loveliest ornaments of the cliffs. Much of it is verdant when 

 all around is fading; and dark, purplish, red-tinted leaves mingle 

 with those which are green, and with others which are of deepest 

 yellow, and when the hoar-frost spangles them they seem enriched 

 with glittering diamonds. 



" The leaves have a salt and bitter flavor, but repeated washings 

 will fit this cabbage for use, and when boiled it is a good vegetable. 



Boys occasionally gather it 

 from the cliff and carry it 

 into the town for sale, but 

 it does not seem to be much 

 used in the neighborhood 

 either by rich or poor. 



" This Sea Cabbage, small 

 as it is, with its few scattered 

 leaves is important as hav- 

 ing been the origin of all the 

 wiidCabbi. Brisska oieracca giant and Small cabbages, 



both white and red, of savoys 

 and Brussels sprouts, and delicate cauliflowers and broccoli, and 

 all the varieties of greens which the gardener raises with so 

 much care. None who looked at it as it grew on the cliff would 

 have believed that culture could have wrought such changes; but 

 from earliest days it has received cultivation. 



"We know that the ancients had a ciu-led cabbage; they, there- 

 fore, probably, dined sometimes on broccoli. Our cauliflower 

 was brought from the Levant into Italy about the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, and gradually found its way into England. 



" The Wild Cabbage grows on the sea cliffs of several parts of the 

 shores of Europe and other wild cabbages grow on more distant 

 shores. The cabbage plant, too, is a frequent object of culture in 

 the East. Mr. Fortune, in his 'Wanderings in China,' says that 

 one of the cabbage tribe, Brassica chinensis, is extensively culti- 

 vated in the province of Chekiang and also in Kiangse." 



Field Turnip, Brassica campislris, has been cultivated, since 

 Roman times, for its fleshy roots. The flowering stem is about 



218 



