THE HISTORY OF THE CABBAGE TRIBE. 



19 



In his ninth figure of 'Cole Florie,' changed to-day into 'Cauliflower,' 

 there is a very small group of little clusters of flower buds embedded 

 in a large mass of foliage ; in fact it occupies less than the twentieth 

 part of it. If this represents the earliest form of the large cauliflowers 

 we have now it is not surprising that Pliny knew nothing about it. 



Great changes have taken place in the shape of the leaves. In the 

 wild form Hooker describes the leaf of the wild plant as " obovate, lobed, 

 and sinuate." There is a terminal, the largest, lobe, and from one to four 

 pairs of much smaller ones below. To the enormous expansion of the 

 uppermost lobe cabbages are due. " Sinuate " means having a " wavy " 

 margin ; in this one sees the origin of all the " crisped " forms, due to 

 an immense increase, by hypertrophy, of the minute interspaces between 

 the tips of the veins. 



Hooker classes the cultivated forms under the following heads : 

 Acephala, i.e., headless, the Scotch kale, cow cabbage, and borecole ; 

 Bullata and Gemmifera, Savoys and Brussels sprouts ; Capitata, the 

 red and white cabbages ; Caulorapa, the kohl-rabi ; Botrytis, the 

 cauliflower and broccoli. 



Returning to Gerard's figures and comparing No. 1 with the wild 

 plant, No. 15, the only difference we can see is that the lower part of 

 the stem has retained its leaves, instead of becoming bare. This is the 

 first result of cultivation and the beginning of some of the kales. The 

 best modern form of this is seen in Sutton's magnificent 'AT kale ; 

 there is the crown of leaves at the summit, but the whole stem below 

 is densely covered with leaves, the entire foliage being thoroughly 

 crisped. The description is that of " curled sprouts." Though many of 

 the leaves of the stem are retained the great mass of the foliage below 

 the terminal branch is due to the development of the axillary buds, 

 the leaves of which are sessile and much curled and crisped; not 

 growing out into shoots, as in the " 1,000-headed kale." 



Gerard gives two other figures of kales in which leaves are retained 

 almost to the root ; and in these the stems have grown upwards so as to 

 lengthen the internodes and prevent the rosette or head forming. The 

 leaves in both are finely divided, so he calls them Brassica selinisia, 

 the parsley colewoort, and B. selinoides, fine-cut colewoort. He says it 

 was not much known, and he is the first to describe it. A form some- 

 what resembling these still appears as a "sport," but I am not aware 

 of its being cultivated. However Gerard was wrong in saying that he was 

 the first to describe the laciniate types ; for two, called Brassica crispa 

 Tragi and B. tenuifolia racimata, are figured in " Historia Plantarum," 

 1586. 



Fig. 2, which Gerard calls B. sativa crispa, or ' Curled garden 

 cole,' only differs from No. 1 in having a naked stem below and the 

 leaves rather more cut and very slightly curled at the edges ; the most 

 primitive condition of the "crisped " forms of to-day. 



Fig. 10 is another form of the last, having the whole margin strongly 

 revolute. Gerard describes it as B. tophosa (apparently from a rough 

 resemblance to pumice-stone) ; " the swolen Colewoorte of al other is the 

 strangest ; it came from Fraunce." One or two modern kinds certainly 

 approximate to it. Thus Mr. Sutton writes me as follows : "I am 



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