By M. De Candolle. 



27 



sica, by its spreading calyx, it ought, perhaps, to be placed 

 under Sinapis, as Poiret and Brotero* have proposed. 



First Race. Bras sica Rapa depressa. 

 Navet rond, ou Rave plate. Round Turnip. 

 The common field and garden Turnip. It has a large root 

 expanding under the origin of the stem into a thick round 

 fleshy tuber, flattened at the top and bottom, and distinctly 

 producing from its lower end, a small slender radicle : this is 

 the race particularly called Turnip ; and in French Raves, 

 Grosses Raves, or Rabioules ; it is a vegetable too well known 

 as excellent food for men and cattle, to need any further 

 remark on its utility in a memoir essentially destined to the 

 classification of varieties, of which the Turnip offers a con- 

 siderable number. In the first place, it is variable in size ; 

 some are about two inches in diameter, and others six or 

 eight, and even more, which difference, though allowed to be 

 somewhat hereditary, depends in a great measure on the 

 nature of the soil, and manner of cultivation ; the many inter- 

 mediate degrees, therefore, in the size of the Turnip, make it 

 impossible to establish a character of variety upon that dif- 

 ference. Secondly, the flavour of the Turnip offers little less 

 certainty ; it is a mixture of the sweet and acrid, the latter 

 quality residing principally in the fibres, the former \n the 

 juice ; the proportion of these two principles seems to vary 

 according to the nature of the soil : it is not unusual for 

 Turnips to change their flavour when they are grown in a dif- 

 ferent bed, and from this circumstance, common both to the 

 Brassica Rapa, and Brassica Najnis, most countries boast 



* Sinapis Rapa. Brotero Flora Lusitanica, Vol. i. page 586. 



