THE NAVEW — continued. 
The other great group is Brasska campestris Linne, or B. polymorpha Syme, 
which has the lower leaves hispid and lyrately-pinnate ; the upper ones auricled and 
embracing the stem ; and a more corymbose raceme of flowers which may be pale 
orange, bright yellow, or buff, those colours being characteristic of the varieties 
known as Rape, Turnip, and Swede respectively. The most fundamental division 
between the cultivated and wild or apparently wild races of this group would seem 
to be the colour of the first foliage-leaves. These are generally rough or hispid, 
but in the Turnip group, the sub-species B. Rapa Linne, they are grass-green ; whilst 
in the Swede group, B. Napus Linne, they are glaucous. In both these groups 
there are forms with enlarged roots, B. Rapa, var. rapifera Koch, the Turnip, and 
B. Napus, var. napo-brassica De Candolle, the Swede ; and forms with more slender 
roots known as Rape. De Candolle makes the interesting remark that : — 
“ When the root or the lower part of the stem is fleshy, the seed is not abundant, nor worth the trouble of extracting the 
oil ; when those organs are slender, the production of the seed, on the contrary, becomes more important, and decides the 
economic use of the plant. In other words, the store of nutritious matter is placed sometimes in the lower, sometimes in 
the upper part of the plant.” 
In both the green or turnip-like Rapes and the glaucous or swede-like ones, 
there are varieties named annua, known in cultivation as Summer Rapes, sown 
in April or May and harvested in September ; and varieties named oleifera or 
Winter Rapes, sown in August and September and harvested in the following 
June and July. 
Napus is Classical Latin for a Turnip ; so that, whether we got the vegetable 
from the Romans or not, we probably got the name, which in Old English 
became N^, from them ; whilst in French it became Naveau and Navette, 
borrowed by some of our sixteenth-century writers under the form Navew. Turnip 
has been said to be from Terr^e napus. The apparently wild form, which Hewett 
Watson treated as a variety sylvestris, is frequent on river-banks ; and by the 
banks of the Thames, where that river borders the county of Bucks, is known 
as Bargeman s Cabbage. 
