Chap. IX. CULINARY PLANTS : CABBAGES. 323 



have been expected that the tallness of the stem, the period of 

 vegetation, and the ripening of the seed, would have been thus 

 affected ; but it is a much more surprising fact that the seeds 

 should have undergone so rapid and great a change. As, how- 

 ever, flowers, with their product the seed, are formed by the 

 metamorphosis of the stem and leaves, any modification in these 

 latter organs would be apt to extend, through correlation, to 

 the organs of fructification. 



Cabbage (Brassica oleracea). — Every one knows how greatly the various 

 kinds of cabbage differ in appearance. In the island of Jersey, from the 

 effects of particular culture and of climate, a stalk has grown to the height 

 of sixteen feet, and "had its spring shoots at the top occupied by a mag- 

 pie's nest : " the woody stems are not unfrequently from ten to twelve feet 

 in height, and are there used as rafters 61 and as walking-sticks. We are 

 thus reminded that in certain countries plants belonging to the generally 

 herbaceous order of the Cruciferse are developed into trees. Every one can 

 appreciate the difference between green or red cabbages with great single 

 heads ; Brussel-sprouts with numerous little heads ; broccolis and cauli- 

 flowers with the greater number of their flowers in an aborted condition, 

 incapable of producing seed, and borne in a dense corymb instead of an 

 open panicle; savoys with their blistered and wrinkled leaves ; and borecoles 

 and kales, which come nearest to the wild parent-form. There are also 

 various frizzled and laciniated kinds, some of such beautiful colours that 

 Vilmorin in his Catalogue of 1851 enumerates ten varieties, valued solely 

 for ornament, which are propagated by seed. Some kinds are less commonly 

 known, such as the Portuguese Couve Tronchuda, with the ribs of its 

 leaves greatly thickened ; and the Kohlrabi or choux-raves, with their stems 

 enlarged into great turnip-like masses above the ground ; and the recently 

 formed new race 62 of choux-raves, already including nine sub-varieties, in 

 which the enlarged part lies beneath the ground like a turnip. 



Although we see such great differences in the shape, size, colour, arrange- 

 ment, and manner of growth of the leaves and stem, and of the flower- 

 stems in the broccoli and cauliflower, it is remarkable that the flowers 

 themselves, the seed-pods, and seeds, present extremely slight differences 

 or none at all. 63 I compared the flowers of all the principal kinds ; those 

 of the Couve Tronchuda are white and rather smaller than in common 

 cabbages; those of the Portsmouth broccoli have narrower sepals, and 

 smaller, less elongated petals ; and in no other cabbage could any difference 

 be detected. With respect to the seed-pods, in the purple Kohlrabi alone, 



61 'Cabbage Timber, 'Gardener's 62 <j ourna i de i a Soc. Imp. d'Horti- 

 Chron.,' 1856, p. 744, quoted from culture,' 1855, p. 254, quoted from 'Gar- 

 Hooker's ' Journal of Botany.' A tenflora,' Ap. 1855. 

 walking-stick made from a cabbage- <» Godron, 'De l'Espece,' torn. ii. p. 

 stalk is exhibited in the Museum at 52; Metzger, 'Syst. Beschreibung der 

 Kew - Kult. Kohlarten,' 1833, s. 6. 



Y 2 



