632 The American Naturalist. [July, 
roots; the Ruta-baga or B. napo-brassica Ruta-baga A. P. DC. 
has a more regular root, round or oval, yellow both without and 
within.* In English nomenclature, while now the two forms are 
called by a common name, yet formerly the first constituted the 
turnip-rooted cabbage. In 1806 the distinction was retained in 
the United States, McMahon” describing the turnip-rooted cabbage 
and the Swedish turnip or Roota-baga. Asa matter of con- 
venience we shall describe these two classes separately. 
The first description of the white-rooted form that I note is by 
Bauhin® in his Prodromus, 1620, and it is. named again in his 
Pinax,” 1623, who calls it xapo-brassica. In 1686, Ray? appar- 
ently did not know it in England, as he quotes Bauhin's name 
and description, which states that it is cultivated in Bohemia and 
is eaten, but Morison? in 1669 catalogues it among the plants in 
the royal gardens. In France it is named by Tournefort,® in 
1700, Brassica radice napiformi or chou-navet. In 1 778 these were 
called in England turnip cabbage with the turnip underground, 
and in the United States, in 1806, turnip-rooted cabbage, as noted 
above.” There are.three varieties described by Vilmorin,“ one 
of which is purple at the collar, and apparently these same 
varieties are named by Noisette* in 1829, and the white, and the 
red-collared by Pirolle* in 1824, under the names chou-navet, chou 
turnip, and chou de Lapland. This class, as Don* says in 1831, 
is little known in English gardens, though not uncommon in 
French horticulture. 
The Ruta-baga is said by Sinclair, in the account of the system 
‚of husbandry in Scotland, to have been introduced into Scotland 
about 1781-2, and a quotation in the Gardeners’ Chronicle,® says 
** Decandolle. Mem. on Brassica, 1821, 25. 
35 McMahon. A Kal., 1806. 
% Bauhin. Prodromus, 1671, 54. 
“Don. Gar. and Bot. Dict., I., 241. 
55 Gard Chron., 1853, 346. 
