Botany of the Radish 



175 



and various forms of the same type. Other good kinds 

 are Olive-shaped, Scarlet Short-top, Wood Early Frame, 

 White Box. For summer, good varieties are Icicle, Char- 

 tier, Lady-finger, White Naples, White Vienna, Strasburg, 

 Stuttgart. For winter. Scarlet Chinese, Celestial, Black 

 Spanish, White Spanish may be mentioned. 



The Radish Plant 



Raphanus. Cruciferw. Probably 8 or 10 species, annual, 

 biennial, perennial, Europe to the East Indies. 



R. sativus, Linn. Sp. PI. 669. Common Radish. Annual 

 and biennial: root thickened, white to pink to purple to 

 nearly black, short and globular to conical to oblong to spindle- 

 shaped and extending into a long taproot that bears most of 

 the feeding rootlets : stem stout, erect, 2-3 ft. high, long- 

 branching in flower, usually falling when laden with fruit, 

 striate or grooved, more or less glaucous, glabrous or bearing 

 few scattered straight stiff colorless hairs : Ivs. very (variable 

 in size, shape and division, all petiolate, sometimes smooth but 

 usually with scattered sharp stiff colorless hairs on both 

 surfaces, strongly veined ; radical ones 3-6 in. long and 1-2 in. 

 broad, obovate or short-oblong in outline, usually lyrate- 

 divided, the terminal part large and the lateral divisions be- 

 coming very small along the petiole, the margins irregularly 

 crenate or crenate-dentate ; cauline Ivs. large, mostly strongly 

 lyrate-pinnatifid and long-petioled, terminal lobe very large 

 and mostly rounded (sometimes acute!) and more or less shal- 

 lowly lobed, the inferior divisions few or several, the upper 

 Ivs. passing into lanceolate or linear undivided bracts in the 

 inflorescence: flowers white to red-veined to lilac, slender- 

 pedicelled, on long branches; petals 4, long-clawed, the oblong 

 or obovate obtuse blade spreading usually at right angles in 

 full anthesis; 4 narrow sepals about as long as the claws of 

 the petals ; some or all of the 6 anthers exserted in the throat 

 of the corolla, as is also the single style with its globular 

 stigma : fruit an indehiscent spongy pod, 1 to 3 in. long 



