6 On the different Species, fyc. of the Genus Brassica. 



strength, and the vigour of the stalk diminishing, the race of 

 round-headed Cabbages has been obtained. 



The leaves of the Wild Cabbage are in every respect like 

 those of the Garden Cabbage, fleshy, glabrous, and of a bluish 

 green ; the inferior ones are petiolated, and more deeply 

 divided than in the cultivated varieties, from which circum- 

 stance one might suppose that the Brassica Napus is not 

 essentially different ; their terminal lobe is a flattened oval, 

 indented and very large, their surface either plain, or slightly 

 rugose or blistered. On comparing the wild individuals 

 together, it is easy to conceive that by culture varieties have 

 been obtained with leaves more or less swelled out, such as 

 the Milan Cabbage* (Savoy). The leaves of the Wild Cab- 

 bage are naturally green, and become red when exposed to 

 the sun, or when old, and diseased ; this reddish colour is 

 permanent in some of the cultivated Cabbages, and we shall 

 find that most of the varieties of each race have sub-varieties 

 belonging to them, some green, and some red, the difference 

 in colour forming no essential part of their character. The 

 flowers of the Wild Cabbage are in thick bunches in the 

 shape of a panicle ; the lateral ones sprout from the axillae 

 of the upper leaves. These panicles form a corymb greater 

 or less according to the distance of the lateral branches, and 

 their length, compared with the central one, from which 

 circumstance it is easy to imagine the possibility of increasing 

 the natural disposition of the panicle to form a corymb, and 

 this determines the character of the Cauliflower. The flowers 



* The Savoy is known on the Continent by the name of Chou de Milan 

 (Milan Cabbage) ; but this appellation in England is only given to a variety of 

 the Cavalier or tall Cabbage, noticed hereafter. Sec. 



