114 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Dyer thinks that the variety oleifera, D.C., having a slender 

 spindle-shaped root, is the Linnean type, and may be a starved 

 state of the Turnip.* The difference between the Turnip and 

 the Eape probably arises from the object and method of cultiva- 

 tion. If the seed be selected for its oil, then, by the law of 

 compensation, the root will not assume the enlarged form, and 

 vice versa. 



With regard to the geographical distribution of the Turnip, 

 all the Brassicce are of European and Siberian origin. They 

 are still to be seen in these regions, wild or half- wild, in some 

 form or other.f 



The Turnip was well known to the ancients. Pliny, writing 

 in the first century, describes several varieties ; but it is difficulty 

 if not impossible, to separate them in his descriptions from the 

 Eadish, and even, perhaps, from Beet. " In the fifteenth century 

 it had become known to the Flemings, and formed one of their 

 principal crops. The first Turnips that were introduced into 

 this country are believed to have come from Holland in 1550." % 



J&ADiSH.—Baphanus sativus, L., order Cruciferce, has 

 been proved by M. Carriere to be the cultivated form of B. 

 Bayhanistrum, L. § This plant is naturally distributed over N. 

 Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. Asia to India. The Radish has been 

 grown in gardens from the earliest historic times, from Europe 

 to China and Japan. || Herodotus, writing in the fifth century 

 B.C., speaks of a Radish, which he called surmaia, eaten by 

 the builders of the great pyramid (built probably between 

 3,000-4,000 years B.C.). The Radish is also figured on the walls 

 of the temple at Karnak in Egypt. % Gerarde (1597) gives two 

 figures of Baphanus sativus, of which " there be sundrie sorts," 

 as he says. One has an oblong, the other a globular-shaped 

 root. The former closely resembles one (No. 5) of the eight 

 figures of M. Carriere. On p. 184 Gerarde figures two varieties 

 of what he calls B. orbiculatus and B. pyriformis. It is, 

 however, noticeable that both these are represented as having 



* Hooker's Student's Flora, 3rd edition, p. 32. 



f Origin of Cultivated Plants, by A. de Candolle, p. 37. 



j Treasury of Botany, " Brassica." 



§ Origine des Plantes domestigues de'montre'e par la culture du Radis 

 sauvage. 



|| A. de C. op. cit. p. 29. 



The present indigenous variety in Egypt is a large white sort with 

 long tapering leaves. The European Radishes are also cultivated. 



