ESCULENT-ROOTED PLANTS —THE TURNIP. 



183 



§ 2. — THE TURNIP. 



Naturalhistory. — Theturnip (Brassica rapah.) 

 belongs to the natural order Cruciferse, sub-order 

 Orthoploceee, and tribe Brassicee or Orthoplocea? 

 siliquosse, and to the class Tetradynamia and 

 order Siliquosa. The generic name is derived 

 from Bresic, Celtic name for the cabbage. It is 

 found wild in various parts of Britain, chiefly in 

 corn-fields and cultivated places. The ancient 

 Greeks, to whom the turnip was well known, 

 called it Gongyle, from the roundness of its root. 

 At what period it became known in Britain, 

 where it came from, or how its improvement 

 from its native wild and useless state was 

 brought about, is unknown. It appears to have 

 been well known in Greece in the time of De- 

 mocritus and Dionysius. Both the Greeks and 

 Romans were well acquainted with its cultiva- 

 tion ; and there are also faint traces in history 

 that it was brought from Gaul and other north- 

 ern provinces of the empire to Rome. It is also 

 well known that, during the fifteenth century, 

 the Flemings were considerably advanced in the 

 art of cultivation, and that the turnip formed 

 one of their important crops. From the re- 

 marks of Gerard, it would appear that turnips 

 were not grown much in his time, except for 

 domestic purposes. " It groweth," he says, " in 

 fi,elds and divers vineyards and hop-gardens, in 

 most parts of England. The small turnip grow- 

 eth by a small village near London, called Hack- 

 ney, in a sandy ground, and are brought to the 

 Cross in Cheapside by the women of that village 

 to be sold, and are the best I ever tasted. The 

 bulbs, or knobbed root, which is properly called, 

 Rapum, or turnip, and hath given the name to 

 the plant, is many times eaten raw, especially 

 by the poor people in Wales, but most com- 

 monly boiled." The early Dutch white turnip 

 is that noticed by our earliest horticultural writ- 

 ers. This, coupled with the well-known fact 

 that, in Elizabeth's time, turnips, as well as 

 other garden products, were quite common ar- 

 ticles of importation to the English court, leads 

 us to believe that our first garden varieties were 

 introduced from Holland and Flanders, probably 

 in the preceding reign. Those used for agricul- 

 tural purposes were introduced long afterwards, 

 mainly through Lord Townsend, who, when am- 

 bassador to the States-General in 1730, seeing 

 the importance of this plant as there cultivated, 

 introduced both the plant and its cultivation, 

 into his own estate in Norfolk. In " Miller's 

 Gardeners' Dictionary," 3d ed. fol. 1737, six va- 

 rieties of garden turnips only are described, two 

 of which, " the round turnip with a white root, 

 and the round turnip with a purple root," he 

 says, " are cultivated for the table in England." 

 The introduction of the Swedish turnip, often 

 grown in gardens in cold localities for winter and 

 spring use, where the other sorts would perish, 

 for the excellent greens or tops it produces, when 

 other greens are scarce, and which are now also 

 blanched and forced as a substitute for sea-kale, 

 is more clearly traced ; but whether it is of Lap- 

 land or Swedish origin, is not so satisfactorily 

 determined. Sir John Sinclair says it was in- 

 troduced to Scotland in 1781-2 from Gottenburg; 



others date its introduction from the same place 

 at a somewhat earlier date. Miller, in the work 

 quoted above, describes a yellow garden-turnip, 

 and that it, as well as a long-rooted sort, " were 

 formerly more cultivated than at present" (his 

 time), " for it is now very rare to see either of 

 these brought to the markets, though some 

 years since they were sold in as great plenty as 

 the common sort." The conjecture, therefore, 

 by Professor Low, in " Elements of Practical 

 Agriculture," p. 290, with regard to the yellow 

 turnip, that it was a cross between the white 

 turnip and the Swedish sort, admits of doubt. 

 Yellow turnips being well known about the be- 

 ginning of the eighteenth century, may have 

 formed the type of most of those of the present 

 day having globular roots, as, no doubt, the 

 whites of the same period did of the majority of 

 white globular ones as at present grown. Nor 

 are we justified in presuming that the first re- 

 moves towards improvement, in either case, took 

 place in Britain, as at that time turnip cultiva- 

 tion was much more extensively pursued and 

 understood in the Netherlands than it was with 

 us in our then rude state of cultivation. In im- 

 proved varieties, as well as in improved cultiva- 

 tion, Scotland, as far as regards this plant, stands 

 pre-eminent at the present day. " Mr Morton, 

 and the most eminent English authorities, now 

 admit one turnip of Scotland to be equivalent 

 to two of England ; and that they cannot, in the 

 latter country, raise turnips equal to those grown 

 in Scotland. This superiority (of not only the 

 Swedish, but other varieties) is not solely to be 

 attributed to the soil and climate being more 

 favourable to their growth, or to any improved 

 method of cultivation adopted — these undoubt- 

 edly exercise considerable influence on the crop 

 — but the principal cause of the superiority is to 

 be traced, unquestionably, to the care bestowed, 

 in the growth of the seed." 



Use. — " The use of the root in broths, soups* 

 stews, or entire and mashed, is general in all 

 temperate climates, and also the use of the 

 tender radicle and stem-leaves, and the points of 

 the shoots when the plant is coming into flower, 

 as greens (or turnip-tops). The seedling-plants, 

 when the rough leaf is beginning to appear, like 

 those of all others of the Brassica family, are 

 used in small salading. The earliest crop of 

 turnips (without forcing) comes into use about 

 the end of May or beginning of June" in the 

 neighbourhood of London, and ten days or three 

 weeks later about Edinburgh ; " and a succession 

 is kept up throughout the summer by subse- 

 quent sowings ; and turnips may be had through 

 the winter, partly from the open garden, and 

 partly from roots stored up in the manner of 

 potatoes. Hence a large portion of the kitchen- 

 garden is devoted to this crop. A well-grown, 

 turnip has a large smooth symmetrical bulb, a 

 small neck, and a small root or tail, with few 

 fibres, except nearest its lowest extremity." — The 

 Sub. Hurt., p. 647. Boiled turnips, mashed or 

 whole, is the orthodox accompaniment to a boiled 

 leg of mutton. In the time of Henry VIIL, tur- 

 nips were used baked or roasted in the ashes, 

 and the young shoots were used as a spring salad 

 in those days, as well as boiled as a substitute 



