38 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



have a number of names which seem to be original 

 Brassica rapa is called meipen or erfinen^ in Wales; 

 repa and rippa in several Slav tongues,^ which answers to 

 the Latin rapa, and is allied to the 'iielpa of the Anglo- 

 Saxons. The Brassica napus is in Welsh bresych yr yd ; 

 in Erse braisscagh buigh, according to Threlkeld,* who sees 

 in braisscagh the root of the Latin Brassica. A Polish 

 name, karpiele, a Lithuanian, jellazoji,''' are also given, 

 without speaking of a host of other names, transferred 

 sometimes in popular speech from one species to another. 

 I shall speak of the names of Brassica oleracea when I 

 come to vegetables. 



The Hebrews had no names for cabbages, rapes, and 

 turnips,^ but there are Arab names : selgam for the Br. 

 napus, and subjwm or subjumi for Br. rapa; words 

 which recur in Persian and even in Bengali, transferred 

 perhaps from one species to another. The cultivation o£ 

 these plants has therefore been diffused in the south-west 

 of Asia since Hebrew antiquity. 



Finally, every method, whether botanical, historical, 

 or philological, leads us to the following conclusions : — 



Firstly, the Brassicce with fleshy roots were originally 

 natives of temperate Europe. 



Secondly, their cultivation was diffused in Europe 

 before, and in Asia after, the Aryan invasion. 



Thirdly, the primitive slender-rooted form of Bras- 

 sica napus, called Br. campestns, had probably from 

 the beginning a more extended range, from the Scan- 

 dinavian peninsula towards Siberia and the Caucasus. 

 Its cultivation was perhaps introduced into China and 

 Japan, through Siberia, at an epoch which appears not 

 to be much earlier than Greco-Roman civilization. 



Fourthly, the cultivation of the various forms or species 

 of Brassica was difi^used throughout the south-west of 

 Asia at an epoch later than that of the ancient Hebrews, 



' Daviee, Welsh Botanology, p. 65. 



" Moritzi, Diet. MS., compiled from publialied flcras. 



• Threlkeld, Synopsis Stirpium Hibemicarum, 1 vol. in 8vo 1727 



• Moritzi, Vict. MS. 



' EoBenmiiUer, Biblische Natwrgeschichte, voL i., gires none. 



