THE HISTORY OF THE CABBAGE TRIBE. 



17 



with him ranks the lowest of all [not identifiable ; probably near to the 

 wild form]. 



" The best time for sowing them is at the autumnal equinox, and they 

 are usually transplanted as soon as five leaves are visible. In the ensuing 

 spring, after the first cutting, the plant yields sprouts, known as cymae. 

 These sprouts, in fact, are small shoots thrown out from the main stem, 

 of a more delicate and tender quality than the cabbage itself. After the 

 cymae have made their appearance the cabbage throws out its summer 

 and autumn shoots, and then its winter ones, after which a new crop of 

 cymae is produced." • 



It has been suggested that cymae (or cymata, as Columella writes it) 

 were vegetative buds developed as leafy shoots. If so, this would be just 

 like the form now cultivated as the " thousand -headed kale," adaptable 

 for sheep. 



The various kinds named and described by Pliny are as follows : 



" (1) Tritiana ; (2) Cumanian, with leaves close to the ground and a wide 



open head ; (3) Aricinian, of no greater height, but with more numerous 



leaves and thinner (this last is looked upon as the most useful of them 



all, for beneath nearly all of the leaves there are small shoots thrown 



out, peculiar to the variety) ; (4) the cabbage of Pompeii is considerably 



taller, the stalk, which is thin at the root, increasing in thickness as it 



rises among the leaves, which are fewer in number and narrower (the 



great merit of this cabbage is its remarkable tenderness, although it is 



not able to stand the cold *) ; (5) the Bruttum thrives all the better for 



the cold, its leaves are remarkably large, the stalk thin, and the flavour 



pungent ; (6) the Sabine has leaves crisped to such a degree as to excite 



our surprise, and their thickness is such as to quite exhaust [conceal ?] 



the stem ; t in sweetness, however, it is said to surpass all the others ; 



(7) Lacuturris (i.e., " lake- tower "). They are grown in the valley of 



Aricia, where formerly there was a lake and a tower. The head of this 



cabbage is very large ; there is no cabbage that runs to a larger head 



than this, with the sole exception of the Tritiana, which has a head 



sometimes as much as a foot in thickness, and throws out its cymae 



the latest of all." This is the most complete list we possess of the 



varieties in the first century of our era. We have to come to the 



sixteenth century for any new descriptions ; and although some writers 



of that century, as Dodaens, still recognise the forms of his day as being 



comparable with Pliny's, the difficulty now of doing so is greatly increased 



though we find varieties of similar types. It would be rash to call them 



lineal descendants, as the same forms will arise afresh under similar 



conditions, as has occurred more than once when wild seed has been 



grown for experimental purposes in gardens. 



The earliest attempt at an illustration of Brassica oleracea, L., that 



I know of is one in an edition of the " De Herbarum viribus " (1506), by 



Macer Floridus. He wrote his poem in 1140, and the first printed edition 



was issued in 1487 at Naples. The figure is suggestive of the wild plant 



* The above description of No. 4 agrees remarkably with the Chou moellicr blanc, 

 described above. 



f Bohn's translation has " exhaust." Not having access to the original Latin 

 I do not feel sure as to the meaning, and suggest " conceal," as the stem is no 

 longer visible, as in Sutton's " Al Kale." 



VOL. XXXIV. C 



