1 lie 
BRITISH H E R R B A L. 
239 
DIVISION I. 
BRITISH SPECIES. 
I. Sea-Cabb.ige. 
EraJJicn marilima. 
The root is long, thick, divided into many 
parts, and furninied with long fibres. 
The firll leaves are large, long, and rounded 
at the ends, and they quickly fade. 
The ftalk is thick, fpungy, and of a pale 
greyifh colour, rough on the furfacc, and otten 
decorated from the bottom with young fprouts. 
At thehcightof afootortwo above the ground, 
burft out the principal leaves-, they are very large, 
long, thick, broad, divided irregularly into a 
number of rounded fegments at the edges, and 
terminated by a great, round part at the end : 
they are of a greyilh or bluilh green colour, and 
of a very thick lubftance ; and, in the wild Hate, 
the veins arc ufually purple. 
The main ftalk, from the fame part where 
the leaves rife, fends out many branches : thefe 
ore nender, round, greyini, and ufually covered 
with a dufty fubftance. 
• The leaves on thefe are oblong, but lefs divi- 
ded than the others. 
■ The flowers are confiderably large, and yellow : 
the pods are long and thick, and the feeds are 
large, round, and of a deep purplifh brown. 
It is frequent about our fea-coafts, and Howers 
in July. In gardens it grows to a vaft height 
and bignefs.. 
Morifon calls it Bra][tca maritima ayhorea, feu. 
frocsncr rarnofa. Others only, Brajfica maritima. 
l.inntEus makes it the fame fpecies with the 
common cabbage ; but this is one of thofe inftances 
in which he has reduced the number at the ex- 
pence of Nature's diftindlions. 
2. Perfoliate Cabbage. 
Brnffua fyhejlrii ferfoHata ficre alio. 
The root is long, flender, white, and furnilhed 
with a few fibres. 
The firfl: leaves are large, broad, oblong, un- 
divided, and of a bluiflr green; 
The ffcalk is round, firm, upright, very much 
branched, and two feet and a half high. 
The leaves ftand alternately on it, and at con- 
fiderable diftances : they are broad and oblong, 
of a fhape fomewhat inclining to heart-fafhioned ; 
and they furround the ftalk at the bafe : they are 
obtufe at the end, not at all divided at the edges, 
and of a biuifh green. 
The flowers itand at the tops of the branches, 
and are moderately large and white. 
The feed-vefTels are very long, and the feeds 
are brown, large, and round. 
It is wild in our corn-fields, but not common* 
It flowers in Auguft. 
C. Bauhine calls it BraJJica catnp^ris perfoliata 
fiore albo ; and moft others ,'jllow him. 
DIVISION II. 
Garden-Cabbage. 
Brajfica fativa vulgaris. 
■ We are not to confidcr in thedefcription of this 
■plant the cMage in its form for the kitchen, that 
being no more than a convolution of its leaves 
over one another -, but, confldering the herb in 
the fame light with others, as confifting, when 
pcrfeft, of root, ftalk, leaves, and flowers, and 
feeds, it is To to be defcribed, as a cabbage-p\ml 
^one to feed. 
The root is compofed of a multitude of crooked 
fibres, connefted to an oblong body. 
The main ftem is round, thick, rough, and of 
a whitifli colour : this is of a middle nature be- 
tween a ftalk and a root : it is not hard as a ftalk, 
but tender as a root, and may be properly enough 
called a part of the root rifing above the 
ground. 
The leaves ftand in aclufter at the top of this, 
and are very large, and of a biuifh green : they 
are rounded at the extremity : they have fome di- 
vifions toward the bafe when they grow freely, 
and they are of a very thick and flelhy fub- 
ftance. 
The ftalk rifes in the center of thefe, and is 
round, upright, branched, and four feet high. 
The leaves on this are oblong, and blunt at the 
end, of the fame fleftiy fubftance, and of the fame 
-pale green with the others. 
FOREIGN SPECIES. 
The flowers are fmall and yellow, and they 
ftand in a kind of fpikes at the tops of the 
ftalks. 
The feed-veflels are long, and the feeds arc 
large, round, and of a purplifh brown. 
It is a native of Italy, and flowers in July. 
In the wild ftate it is fmaller, and has more 
leaves on the flowering ftalk j but there is no 
other difference. Thofe who have feen fpecimens 
of this can never fuppofe, either that it is the 
fame with the Englifli fea-cabbage, or that the 
latter is the original plant of the cabbage kind* 
for it is plainly this. 
Such is the appearance of the plant which af- 
fords us the cabbage -for our tables, when growing 
freely in gardens, and running up to feed its own 
way ; or when wild in the fields of Italy : but from 
this fingle plant the induftry and fkill of the gar- 
deners in preceding ages have furnilhed us with 
a vaft variety of kinds. 
The round and oblong cabbages, diftinguifhed 
by modern gardeners under various names, are 
the plaineft and eafieft produdts. 
The curled cabbage, and what we call the jag- 
ged or ragged cabbage, proceed from the fame 
ftock. The red, the white, the purple, and the 
green cabbages, are only varieties of the fame. 
The ragged, red, and the parjley-leaved cabbage, 
all enumerated by C. Bauhine and others, are lu- 
xuriances of nature in the fame kind ; as is alfo 
the 
