:33l) HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



lage, and scaled by the officers, so as to supersede the for- 

 mality of a second examination at Lille. 



At this part of the road the crops assumed a different 

 aspect. A kind of coarse reddish colewort, known hereby 

 the name of caulct, occupied many fields. It is evidently 

 an additional variety of the Brassica oleracea, which none 

 of us had ever before seen. Having stopped the carriage, 

 and gone into a field to examine it, we learned from some 

 work people, that it is used solely for the feeding of milch 

 cows ; and from the size of the plant and luxuriance of the 

 foliage, it seems well adapted to this purpose. At present, 

 we believe, it is almost peculiar to this part of the country ; 

 but seeds of it might easily be procured, either from Tour- 

 nay or Lille. Mangold-wurzel or betteravc champetre is 

 likewise extensively cultivated : the lower leaves had alrea- 

 dy been cut off for green fodder, and the roots are, some 

 time after this, stored for winter provision. From seeing 

 scattered plants of madder or garance (llubia tinctorum) 

 along the margins of the fields, we conclude that it is occa- 

 sionally cultivated. Great quantities of the common gar- 

 den-cress are here grown in the fields, for the sake of the 

 seed, which is in constant demand for the purpose of raising 

 the plant in gardens as a salad. The remains of extensive 

 crops of white poppy every where appeared. The cut 

 poppies were, in some places, tied in small sheaves, five or 

 six of which stood together. In other places, women were 

 engaged, with sheets spread on the ground, in beating out 

 the seed with repeated strokes of the hand. From many 

 fields the poppies were by this time entirely cleared. The 

 cultivation of this plant on the great scale is unknown in 

 Scotland, but here, we are told, it yields a very profitable 

 return to the farmer. Tobacco likewise became a frequent 

 rrop. Besides these, crops of colzat and of rape, which are 



