90 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



broken and pulverised, and the operation as 

 speedily performed. They are much better 

 when the ground to be loosened is occupied 

 with the roots of trees or other plants, because 

 less injury is likely to befall them. The entire 

 length of this fork is 3 feet 3^ inches, the length 

 of the handle being 2 feet 2 inches ; the prongs 

 are 7 inches apart at top, and 6 inches at the 

 point; the length of the prongs, which are three 

 in number, is 1 SJ inches, and at the top | of an 

 inch square, tapering to a point. The straps 

 fixing the head to the handle are 11 inches long 

 and 2 inches broad, and 4 an inch thick at the 

 centre, tapering off at both sides. 



§ 2. — THE POETUGAL CABBAGE. 



The Portugal cabbage (Brassicm oleracea, var. 

 Oblonga — Couve tronchuda, large-ribbed or Por- 

 tugal cabbage, or Braganza) was introduced into 

 England about 1821, from Trauxuda in Portugal, 

 and is sometimes called Trauxuda kale. Of this 

 there is a dwarf variety, much cultivated in Por- 

 tugal, and known by the name of MiU'ciana. This 

 excellent vegetable, too little grown in Britain, 

 is not exactly of the hearting kind. The centre 

 leaves are deprived of their green or leafy part, 

 leaving the ribs, which are boiled, and used 

 much in the manner of sea-kale. It is exceed- 

 ingly delicate, and in this respect different 

 from the rest of the cabbage tribe. The dwarf 

 variety Murciana {Brassica oleracea, var. costata, 

 chou de Beauvais) is somewhat earlier, and 

 throws out numerous suckers from the lower 

 part of the stem, which the tall variety does 

 not. It is much more tender than any of the 

 others, and rarely stands our northern winters. 

 For early crops, the plants should be sown in 

 August, and kept under frames all winter, like 

 cauliflower; or better, they should be, like it, 

 sown on a slight bottom heat in February, 

 and hardened off for transplanting in April or 

 beginning of May. Its subsequent culture, &c., 

 resembles that of cauliflower [which see). 



[The most extraordinary production in the 

 cabbage tribe is Kerguelen's Land cabbage, the 

 JPringea antiscorbutica of botanists, first dis- 

 covered by Captain Cook, the circumnavigator, 

 and subsequently observed by Dr Joseph 

 Hooker as a native of Kerguelen's Land, or 

 Island of Desolation, situated in the centre of 

 the Southern Ocean— a cold, humid, barren, 

 volcanic rock, on which that distinguished 

 naturalist recognised only eighteen species of 

 vegetation, but amongst them this brassioaceous 

 production. It is described by him in the 

 " Flora Antartica " as very abundant, particu- 

 larly close to the sea. Its root-stocks are from 

 3 to 4 feet long, and lying close to the ground, 

 bearing at their extremities large heads of leaves, 

 sometimes 18 inches across, and so like those of 

 the common cabbage, that if growing in a gar- 

 den they would scarcely excite attention. They 

 form a dense white heart, that tastes like mus- 

 tard and cress, but much coarser. It abounds 

 in an essential oil, which renders it more whole- 

 some than the common cabbage. It may never 

 be worth the attention of the British cultivator, 

 but its existence in that desolate island, so far 



removed from civilisation as to be considered 

 the most remote of all islajads from any conti- 

 nent, suggests two important, although somewhat 

 different, considerations. The first and most 

 important is, that the Disposer of all that is 

 good should have placed there a plant so valu- 

 able to those who traverse those little-visited 

 seas, subject to one of the most fearful of aU 

 human diseases, scurvy, and that also presented 

 to them the moment they put their foot on 

 shore, where, from its luxuriance and abun- 

 dance, it is likely, as Dr Hooker observes, to 

 prove for ages to come an inestimable blessing 

 to ships touching at this far distant isle. The 

 next consideration is, how came it there ? "The 

 contemplation of a vegetable," he says, " very 

 unlike any other in botanical affinity, so emi- 

 nently fitted for the food of man, and yet inha- 

 biting the most desolate and inhospitable 

 spot on the surface of the globe, must equally 

 fill the mind of the scientific inquirer and the 

 common observer with wonder." A plant no- 

 where else recognised leads to the belief " that 

 it was created, in all probability, near where it 

 now grows — leads the mind back to an epoch far 

 anterior to the present, when the Island of De- 

 solation may have presented a fertility of which 

 this is, perhaps, the only remaining trace." We 

 know there is a theory recently promulgated, the 

 adherents of which will account for the existence 

 of this plant, in its unique form and isolated 

 position, on the supposition that numerous 

 centres of dispersion and new creations of 

 developments exist, and that these do not in 

 the slightest degree disturb the harmony of the 

 general design of creation. 



" One of the most mysterious of such pheno- 

 mena is the change by which certain hving 

 entities seem to pass from the animal to the 

 vegetable state, or vice versa, without decom- 

 position, or apparent disorganisation of fabric. 

 Professor Von Esenbeck was the first to publish 

 his opinions on the subject in 1814. His obser- 

 vations were made chiefly upon the filamentous 

 algas, particularly the Osoillatorise. The animal 

 state is inferred from the spontaneous move- 

 ments of the individual, the vegetable state 

 from its immobility. A monad or active mole- 

 cule issues from the summit of the filament, and 

 frolics in the fluid in which the plant vegetates. 

 Ultimately a period arrives in which a complete 

 metamorphosis ensues, the moving monad being 

 gradually converted into a motionless vegetable." 

 — The Eev. Patrick Keith Clark's Botanical 

 Lexicon, p. 264.] 



§ 3. — RED CABBAGE. 



Eed cabbage {Brassicce oleracea:, var. Capitata 

 rubra, De C. ) Of this there are several varieties, 

 differing only in their size, height, and colour. 

 Medium-sized varieties are to be prefeiTed, as 

 also are low-growing ones, on account of their 

 being less liable to sustain injury from frost dur- 

 ing winter; but colour is of all the most impor- 

 tant, as its chief use is for stewing or pickling, 

 when a fine red colour adds much to its appear- 

 ance. The sorts, or rather names, in the seed- 

 shops, are, dwarf red, tall red, red pickling, early 



