CHAPTER III. 



BRASSICACBOUS PLANTS, OR THE CABBAGE TRIBE. 



The natural order to whicli the Brassica- 

 ceoiis plants belongs, contains plants of 

 the greatest importance to man. The 

 whole order is pre-eminently European : 

 166 species are found in the north and 

 middle of Europe, and 178 on the shores 

 of the Mediterranean. Dividing them 

 into the two hemispherical divisions of 

 the globe, it appears that while only 

 about 100 species are natives of the 

 southern, there are about 800 natives of 

 the northern. "The useful qualities of 

 the turnip, radish, the rape, and the cab- 

 bage, and all its multiform varieties, are 

 all well known. The greater part of the 

 order consists of plants possessing high 

 anti-scorbutic powers. These appear to 

 depend upon a certain acrid, volatile, oily 

 principle, the chemical nature of which is 

 imperfectly known. It is to be remarked 

 that plants of this order are always eat- 

 able when their texture is succulent and 

 watery, as in the roots of the radish and 

 the turnip, and the leaves of the cabbage 

 tribe. Cruciferse are said to possess a 

 greater share of azote than any other 

 tribe of plants, as is apparent in their 

 fetid smell when fermented."-— ^or^M 

 jBritannicus. 



§ 1. — THE CABBAGE. 



Natural history. — Brassioa oleraoea is the 

 type of a numerous family, consisting of the 

 white and red cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, 

 savoy, Brussels sprouts, and the borecoles, all 

 of which are believed to have sprung from the 

 wild cabbage (Brassica oleracea), specimens of 

 ■which are to be foimd on the sea-shore at Dover, 

 and at various other places in our own country, 

 as well as in some other parts of Europe, but 

 always in chalky or calcareous soil. Botani- 

 cally, it ranks in the natural order Cruciferaj, 



sub-order Orthoplocess (from orihos, upright; 

 'plohe, fold — cotyledons), and tribe Brassicse 

 {Orthoplocece siliquosce); and stands in class Tetra- 

 dynamia and order Siliquosse in the Linnsean 

 arrangement. 



The name is derived from Bresic, the Celtic 

 name of the cabbage. Brassica was the name 

 by which it was recognised by the ancient 

 Romans, proceeding from prceeeco, because it 

 was cut off from the stalk. The Latins gave it 

 the name of caidis, from which our modern 

 names cole, colewort, are derived. The term 

 cabbage is in general understood to mean those 

 varieties which form a firm head, by reason of 

 the leaves turning close over each other, in 

 contradistinction to those open kinds, like the 

 borecoles, &c., which are called kales. Three 

 varieties of cole are mentioned by the eldest 

 Greek historians — the crisped, or ruffled, which 

 they called Seliuas or SeUnoides, from its re- 

 semblance to parsley ; the other. Lea ; and the 

 third, Corambe. Chrysippus and Dieuches, two 

 learned Greek physicians, each wrote a book on 

 the properties of this plant, and Cato and 

 Pythagoras wrote in its praise. Apicius loathed 

 them, and Drusus Csesar held them in no es- 

 teem, while his father, the Emperor Tiberius, 

 thought highly of them. The discovery of the 

 art of distillation is attributed to the simple 

 circumstance of an ancient physician having 

 been called suddenly away from a mess of cab- 

 bage he was eating; he placed another plate 

 over that in which his cabbage was, to keep 

 them warm, and finding, on his return, the in- 

 terior of the uppermost plate covered with 

 moisture, he reasoned on the cause, and ulti- 

 mately discovered the art of distUlatiou. 



The introduction of the cultivated cabbage 

 into Britain was no doubt the work of the 

 Romans ; and its dissemination afterwards may 

 be attributed to the earliest ecclesiastic com- 

 munities, who ever had an eye to the good 

 things of this life. In all probability it would 

 reach Scotland and Ireland by the same means, 

 although it has been asserted that it was scarcely 

 known in the former country till the time of 

 Cromwell, whose soldiers are said to have brought 

 it with them from England. Gerard is the oldest 

 English author who has written fully on this 

 useftd vegetable ; he mentions the white-cab- 

 bage cole, the red-cabbage cole, the curled gar- 



