20 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



struck with the close resemblance of the plant [B. tophosa of Gerard] 

 to two types of kale which are well known in the trade to-day. One is 

 the Chou palmier of France, or palm-tree kale of England. [A 

 bullated form, but not with the margins so much 1 revoluted ' as in 

 tojrfwsa.] The other is the Welsh tree kale, growing from four to five feet 

 high, and producing an abundance of similar leaves up the stem with 

 a pyramidal habit. The leaves of the Welsh kale much more resemble 

 those of Gerard's picture, being very much curved back." 



The Borecole, so called from the Dutch boerenkool, meaning 

 " peasant's cabbage," is a hardy form of kale, with the leaves loose and 

 much curled. It is apparently almost a crisped form of the wild cabbage ; 

 the foliage may be green or purple, or sometimes variegated with red 

 and yellow colours, and then often used as a decorative plant. Varieties 

 are known under the names of German greens, Buda kale, Scotch kale or 

 curlies. 



With regard to size, some have very tall stems, others stems of medium 

 length, and others dwarf. Differences are noticed by later writers. Thus 

 C. Bauhin,* describing one form of kale, says that it has been seen " as 

 high as trees " at Florence. Tournefort describes a red colewort as being 

 " taller than the other species ; for it grows up with a high stock, two, 

 three, or four foot, or even cubits, high, which is thick and of a dark 

 purple colour, rugged on the lower part, sometimes single, and at other 

 times branched out into arms ... if well looked after it arrives to the 

 height and firmness of a tree." t 



We seem to see here something resembling our Jersey kales, of the 

 stems of which walking-sticks are made. Gerard's figures thus illustrate 

 a certain progression from the wild plant. The leaves become more 

 wavy, then more dissected till the parsley-form is reached. 



Crispness is next adopted in various degrees, among which the curious 

 11 tophosa" type occurred. It is this group wherein so great an 

 advance in form and variety occurs at the present day. Those with 

 leaves of slight departure from the wild plant, as Carter's Phoenix kale, 

 might be mentioned, with erect foliage and broad terminal lobes. Then 

 his Chou de Bussie is a first step towards the more dissected parsley-type. 

 The thousand-headed kale* has also a primitive type of leaf, but the 

 stem buds are fully developed into shoots. 



We now come to the true cabbage, with the leaves closing over one 

 another, making the compact head ; but before arriving at this stage we 

 have to pass from the kales with spreading foliage. The first step is a 

 great increase in the dimension of the terminal lobe till it becomes nearly 

 circular. Even in the wild state it is often very large. In a leaf from a 

 wild plant from the chalk cliffs at Walmer the terminal lobe is 9^ inches 

 long by 7 inches in breadth. It has only one deep indentation, reaching 

 within one inch of the midrib. 



Gerard's third figure, of the Red Colewoort (B. rubra), has broader 

 leaves, which form a denser cluster, but still spreading. This may 

 have been the origin of our pickling cabbage. The next figure, No. 4, 



* Phmx, p. Ill (1071). 



t The Compleat Herbal, vol. i. p. 429. 



X A better name, perhaps, would be 1 Thousand-shooting' kale. 



