BRASSICACEOUS PLANTS.— THE BORECOLE. 



109 



it. The young tops of the Buda kale are some- 

 times, in spring, blanched by turning a flower-pot 

 over it ; or better, by placing a sea-kale pot on 

 it ; or the roots may be taken up any time dur- 

 ing winter, and planted in a bed of soil in a 

 dark cellar, and treated as has been recom- 

 mended for sea-kale. The bulbs, like turnips, 

 found on the surface of the Egyptian kale or 

 kohl-rabi, are stewed, boiled, and mashed like 

 turnips, and sometimes sliced in some German 

 salads. The tender tops of the others are served 

 to table plain boiled, as a garnish for meat, and 

 should assuredly accompany it in the popular 

 Scotch winter dish "beef and greens." They 

 enter largely into soups, and form an ingredient 

 as essential in the national dish, " the kail-brose 

 of old Scotland," as horse-radish does in that 

 of " the roast-beef of old England." Scotch 

 greens are often mashed with butter and pepper, 

 and served in imitation of spinach, and, like it, 

 garnished with hard-boiled eggs. 



Propagation. — Most of the varieties, 

 being annuals or biennials, are propagated 

 by seed ; those that are perennial or 

 half shrubby, like the Woburn kale, are 

 increased by cuttings, and some may be 

 grafted on other sorts, (vide art. Propaga- 

 tion by Grafting). One ounce of seed is 

 sufficient to sow a bed of 40 square feet. 



Sowing. — The latter end of March, in 

 April, the first week in May, and lastly, 

 about the 12th of August, are the sea- 

 sons adapted to England ; for Scotland, 

 generally ten days earlier in each case. 

 For the most part, however, those sown 

 about the beginning of August, in the 

 North, stand over winter, and are trans- 

 planted in spring. The English sow Ger- 

 man greens, or, as they call them, Scotch 

 kale, during the first week in April. In 

 the last week in August a sowing is made 

 of Buda kale, to be transplanted before 

 the 1st of October, to furnish a late crop 

 of greens in spring. 



The method of sowing, &c, is the same 

 as for savoys (which see). 



Subsequent culture. — The same as for sa- 

 voys. In all cold exposed places, and where 

 much snow is expected, it is expedient to 

 lay them over in November, as recom- 

 mended for broccoli, as their leaves are 

 very liable to become broken by the 

 weight of snow, particularly the taller- 

 growing kinds. 



Soil and manure. — The borecoles being 

 of less luxuriant habits, and it being also 

 desirable that they should stand the 

 winter, the soil need not be so highly 

 manured as for the other varieties of 

 Brassicee. Where the ground is not re- 



VOL. II. 



quired for other crops or purposes, they 

 may be made to succeed the summer pea 

 crops, and, indeed, if ground be scarce, 

 may be planted between the rows of late 

 pease, or interlined with potatoes. 



Approved sorts and their qualities. — Great 

 confusion exists in this section of the Brassicse, 

 probably arising from the circumstance that 

 the cultivation of them is for the most part 

 local, those that are grown in one part of the 

 kingdom being almost unknown in other parts. 

 Although we have been engaged for some years 

 proving various sections of culinary vegetables, 

 we have not as yet had time to bestow the 

 same attention on the present section; and 

 rather than mislead, we shall quote the substance 

 of an excellent paper by Mr Thompson, being 

 the results of his experiments carried on in the 

 garden of the Horticultural Society of London, 

 where an immense number of sorts by name 

 were grown together, to enable him to draw 

 the conclusions regarding their nomenclature 

 and merits ; and certainly to no one better 

 qualified could such an experiment have been 

 intrusted. Mr Thompson begins by observing 

 that " the varieties of these are endless : they 

 differ in having stems dwarf or tall, leaves more 

 or less cut or curled ; in colour, green, purple, or 

 variegated with purple, red, green, and yellow. 

 The transformations of all these render any 

 attempt to give minute descriptions quite useless. 

 It will be sufficient to point out the general 

 characters of varieties that may be usefully dis- 

 tinguished as such. 



" Dwarf green curled, or dwarf curled kale, 

 dwarf German greens, very dwarf green curled, 

 dwarf winter curled, Scotch kale, green Scotch 

 kale, dwarf curlies, French dwarf curled, Canada 

 dwarf curled, Labrador kale, green borecole, and 

 dwarf green borecole. By one or other of the 

 above names this is certainly known to every 

 one. The Canada dwarf curled was found to 

 represent exactly the finest dwarf curlies grown 

 many years ago in many parts of Scotland, the 

 plants being very dwarf and closely curled. 



" Tall green curled, or tall German greens, 

 tall Scotch kale, tall green borecole, and tall 

 greens," with a host of French and German 

 synonymes, for in both countries they are ex- 

 tensively cultivated. " Height usually from 2 

 to 3 feet, but 2 feet is the preferable growth. 

 The plants are capable of bearing severe frost, 

 and, like the preceding, it affords the best 

 greens from the time when the first frost has 

 mellowed its flavour, until the middle of Feb- 

 ruary. 



" Purple borecole, or purple or red borecole, 

 tall purple kale, purple winter greens, brown 

 kale, purple kale, curled brown kale, curled red 

 kale. This in its formation and habits differs 

 little from the tall green curled, but the colour 

 is deep purple. As the leaves enlarge, they 

 have an inclination to become green, but the 

 veins still retain the purple hue. 



" Variegated borecole, or variegated kale, varie- 

 gated plumage kale," with various French and 

 German synonymes. " A sub-variety of the 

 purple borecole, having the leaves beautifully 



P 



