110 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



variegatedjSometimesgreeu and yellowisli white, 

 green and purple, bright red, purple and green. 

 It is occasionally employed for garnishing, but 

 it is very good cooked after frost. It is not 

 quite so hardy as the purple borecole. 



" Dwarf purple borecole and the dwarf varie- 

 gated we merely sub-varieties of the two pre- 

 ceding, distinguished by their dwarfer habit of 

 growth. 



" Buda hale, or Prussian kale, Prussian or 

 Buda kale, Buda greens, Eussian kale, Ham- 

 burg kale, Anjou kale, Manchester kale, aspara- 

 gus kale, Duke of York's kale, Camberwell kale ; 

 and so closely alUed as not to be worth dis- 

 tinguishing from it are, the Jerusalem kale, 

 Delaware greens, Delaware kale, ragged Jack, 

 jagged kale, and the dwarf feathered kale. The 

 Buda kale is not so tall as the purple borecole ; 

 very hardy; leaves purpUsh, somewhat glaucous; 

 cut and fringed. 



" Wohurn perennial kale. — This is a tall va- 

 riety of the purple borecole, with foliage very 

 finely divided and fringed. The plant lasts 

 many years, and may be propagated by cuttings, 

 as it neither flowers readily nor perfects well 

 its seeds. Its produce at Woburu is stated to 

 have been more than four times greater than 

 either that of the green or purple borecoles, on 

 the same extent of ground. The weight of pro- 

 duce from 10 square yards was 144 lb. 10 oz., 

 but some of the largo kinds of cabbages and 

 savoys will exceed this considerably, and prove 

 of better quality. The Wobum perennial kale 

 can, therefore, only be recommended where the 

 climate is too severe for the more tender kinds 

 of the cabbage tribe. 



" Tree cabbage, or great cow cabbage. Cesarean 

 borecole," with many French and German syno- 

 nymes. " This grows to the height of 6 feet, and 

 in La Vendee and Jersey it is reported that it 

 attains the height of 12 feet and upwards. The 

 leaves are large, smooth, or but slightly curled ; 

 its sprouts are said to be good when cooked. 

 Its merits have, however, been greatly over- 

 rated, for when tried [in England] against" other 

 cabbages, its produce was nothing extraordinary. 



" The thousand-headed cabbage is allied to the 

 preceding, but does not grow so tall, and sends 

 out numerous side-shoots. On the whole, it is 

 preferable to the tree cabbage. 



" Flanders hale is a tall-growing kind, distin- 

 guished from the tree cabbage by its purplish 

 foliage. 



"Cockscomb kale produces sprouts along the 

 ribs on the surface of the leaves, but it is of 

 little value." 



To these kales we may add the imperial heart- 

 ing or cabbaging kale ; and we believe the Ger- 

 man cabbaging borecole of some seed-Usts to be 

 the same. It appears to be a sub- variety of the 

 dwarf green curled, dwarf in growth, the leaves 

 standing nearly upright, turning in slightly to- 

 wards the centre, finely curled, and of great ex- 

 cellence as a small delicate variety. 



The palm borecole is a tall rambling kale of no 

 estimation in Britain. It is cultivated in many 

 gardens in France under the name of Chou Pal- 

 mier. 



The Chinese cabbage (Brassica chinenm L.), 



although recognised as a species by botanists, 

 has much the appearance of being connected with 

 both the cabbage and the turnip. It is an annual 

 of rapid growth, for, if sown at midsummer, it 

 wiU ripen seed the same season. It is cultivated 

 insomeofthe gardens around Paris, and has been 

 tried in the Horticultural Society's garden at 

 Chiswick ; the results, however, lead to a behef 

 that it is not suited to the cUmate of Britain. 



The khol-rabi, or turnip-rooted cabbage {Brassi- 

 ca oleracea Caulo-rafa commwnis De C.)^ — Of this 

 there are two varieties, the one having the tur- 

 nip-shaped bulb, of a pale-greenish colour ; the 

 other of a purplish-plum colour. The plant is 

 of low growth. The part chiefly used is a tur- 

 nip-looking bulb, formed by the swelling of the 

 stem, which is short. It is extremely hardy, 

 and much grown in the north of Europe, where 

 the bulb is dressed whole, and eaten with sauce 

 or with meat, as turnips usually are. The seed 

 should be sown on a warm border in February 

 or March, and planted out when the plants have 

 attaiaed the height of 6 or 7 inches. For suc- 

 cessional crops, sow again in April and May ; the 

 latter will produce plants for winter use. It 

 should be eaten while young, as it becomes hard 

 and stringy, and does not boU soft if left to be- 

 come old. 



Diseases and insects. — Amongst the diseases 

 that affect the brassioaceous tribe is the white 

 rust, called by many the mildew, perhaps on 

 account of its white appearance. The white 

 rust is even more formidable than the mildew. 

 Both are fangi, and although deriving their 

 origin from nearly the same causes, are different 

 in their botanical as well as their injurious dis- 

 tinctions. The common white rust (Cyspopus 

 candidus of Greville, Uredo Candida of Persoon) 

 produces a white leprous appearance on the 

 leaves of the plants. These white patches of 

 parasitic fungi not only disfigure but materially 

 injure the plants, as all parasites must do, 

 whether of vegetable or animal origin, because 

 they derive their very , existence by exhausting 

 the energies of the plant. Again, there is the 

 Botrytis parasitica, which, in mild winters, sadly 

 destroys the foliage of brassicaceous plants, and 

 often attacks them while quite young. A third 

 production of this kind, but happily of much 

 rarer occurrence, has recently been discovered 

 travelling, as it were, southward. This is Cylinr 

 drosporium concentricum, figured nearly thirty 

 years ago by Dr Greville, and at that time 

 abounding in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and de- 

 tected by several botanists. Its first detection in 

 England was only in 1850, and that no farther 

 south than Northamptonshire. It spreads rapidly 

 over the surface of the upper and under side of 

 the leaves of most of the BrassicsB,the cauliflower 

 in particular. These parasitics have been mi- 

 nutely examined by the Eev. M. J. Berkeley, 

 A.M., F.L.S., an acute observer in these mat- 

 ters, and are pronounced by him to have no 

 affinity with the genus Uredo, and still less with 

 the parasitic moulds to which mildew properly 

 belongs. These humble means at the disposal of 

 a supreme Being, insignificant as they may appear 

 even when viewed under the power of the best 



