2 On the different Species, $c. of the Genus Brassica. 



been known from the earliest period of civilization, and from 

 being altered by the influence of various climates and modes 

 of cultivation, as well as increased by crosses obtained from 

 the intermixture of races and varieties have become so nu- 

 merous throughout Europe, as to be deemed unworthy the 

 attention of the learned : insomuch, that botanists and culti- 

 vators have alike adopted the various names handed down 

 by tradition, and which have been indiscriminately applied 

 in passing from one province to another, to plants of very 

 different natures. This will sufficiently account for the diffi- 

 culty of classing and distinguishing the different species, races, 

 and varieties of cultivated Cabbages ; plants undeservedly 

 neglected, and which I have been led to consider with at- 

 tention, from the desire of throwing some light on botanical 

 synonyms, as well as from the hope of inducing naturalists to 

 fix their attention on cultivated plants in general. 



M. Duchesne, the author of the Monograph on the 

 Strawberries, has already published a Memoir* on cultivated 

 Cabbages. Besides his work, which has in some measure 

 guided my researches, I have had valuable assistance from 

 M. Vilmorin of Paris, who, being at the head of a very 

 large commercial establishment in that city, particularly 

 instituted for economical plants, has studied them with 

 care and accuracy, and has deduced very interesting results 

 from his experiments. M. Audibert, settled at Tarascon, 

 has also had the goodness to communicate his ideas arising 

 from facts, which close observation and assiduous practice 

 have led him to discover. M. Sageret, an enlightened 



* Article Chou. Lamarck Encyclopedic Botanique, Vol. i. page 742, et 

 *eqq. 



