r 
ig ak Bs 
Be 

1890.] History of Garden Vegetables. 313 
4. In these and other features the limestone shows marked re- 
semblances to that observed in coral regions. 
5. The conditions for the growth of reef-building corals were 
apparently present at the time of the deposition of the St. Louis 
Beds. That the Lithostrotion canadense and L. proliferum were 
reef-building corals seems quite probable, though scarcely suscep- 
tible of proof. 
6. The presence of coral reefs along the shore-line during the 
St. Louis epoch would seem: to account for the various peculi- 
arities of structure and arrangement observed in this limestone. 
Keokuk, Ta., March, 1890. 


THE HISTORY OF GARDEN VEGETABLES. 
BY E. L. STURTEVANT. 
(Continued from p. 157, Vol. XXIV., 1890.) 
PORTUGAL CABBAGE. Brassica oleracea costata D.C. 
75S cabbage is easily recognizable through the great expan- 
sion of the midribs and veins of the leaf, in some cases 
forming quite half of the leaf, and the midrib losing its identity 
in the multitude of radiating branching veins. In some plants 
the petioles are winged clear to the base. Nearly all the names 
applied to this form indicate its distribution, at least in late years, 
from Portugal, from whence it reached English gardens about 
1821} and in American gardens, under the name of Portugal 
Cabbage, about 1850.” It should be remarked, however, that a 
Choux a la grosse cote was in French gardens in 1612, and in 
three varieties in 1824.° 
1 Hort. Soc. Trans., 1821, 12. 
He Buist. Fam. Kitch, Gar., 1851. 
3 Le Jard. Solit., 1612, 158. 
t L'Hort. Franc., 1824. 
