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



Third Race. Raphanus sativus radicula oleifera. 

 Oleiferous Radish. 



The root of this Radish is slender, and so thin as to be 

 scarcely fleshy, but the plant is abundantly productive of seed, 

 and well worth cultivating on that account as an oleiferous 

 plant. It was introduced in the time of Miller under the 

 name of Raphanus Chinensis. The Chinese Radish appears 

 to be the type of the cultivated species ; its root, according 

 to M. Vilmorin, is in different varieties, gray, white, or red, 

 a circumstance that would tend to unite all the varieties men- 

 tioned in this article, and noticed a few years since at Placen- 

 tia, in Italy, as belonging to the Raphano oleifero Cinese, at 

 which place M. Grandi* published instructions on the man- 

 ner of cultivating it. 



The second division of cultivated Radishesf is that of the 

 Black Radish, Raphanus niger, considered by the ancients 

 and by some few of our moderns, as a distinct species. The 

 root of the first variety of this race is always thick, and black 

 on the outside, compact, and nearly tuberous ; it is known in 

 France under the name of Radis noir, gros Raifort noir, Rai- 

 fort des Parisiens, and presents two varieties of shape, the 

 Oblong, vulgaris, and the Round, rotundus. MorisonJ and 

 Weinmann§ have attempted to distinguish the latter, but 



* De Grandi 1st. Cult. Piacenza. edit.G, 1807. 



t Mr. William Christie has given a detailed account of these Radishes, 

 under the names of autumn and winter Radishes, in the Fourth Volume of the 

 Transactions of the Horticultural Society, Article 4, page 10. Sec. 



: Mor. Hist. i. page 2, c. 13. § Weinmann Phyt. 860. 



