19M 
M. Link 07i the Ancient litslonj of 
The west has thus in some measure repaid to the east what it 
received from it, and it has thus obtained a share in the promo- 
tion of human happiness. Only some kitchen plants, those of 
the cucumber kind, come from warmer regions ; and the leek 
species have an unknown native country. 
The Cabbage {Brassica oleracea) was, very early known. 
Pythagoras wrote respecting its healing powers, as Pliny in- 
forms us, (1. XX. c. 9.) ; and although this piece of information, 
like many others attributed to Pythagoras, may be without 
foundation, it yet shews that the use of the cabbage was consi- 
dered as very ancient. In the Homeric writings, perhaps from 
accident, there is no mention of the cabbage. But, at a later 
period, it is frequently mentioned by Aristophanes. The old 
Greeks named the cabbage ^x<potvos : afterwards the name of the 
curled variety, was given to the whole species. The 
Scholiast on the Plutus of Aristophanes says distinctly, (cd, 
Brunk. p. 54'4.), that which the ancients called ^cl/pavo? is now 
called ; and Athenaeus explains ^a(pcivo^ by (Deip- 
nosoph. 1. ix. c. 9.) There is, therefore, no reason for explain- 
ing ^U(pcivoi by radish with Theophrastus, as Schneider has just- 
ly remarked . Although the ancients have not exactly described 
the cabbage, yet their accounts of its varieties, the manner of cul- 
tivating it, and even the name (caidis), are sufficiently distinctive 
of this plant. Theophrastus, Cato, Pliny, and Athenaeus, speak 
of the varieties of cabbage in such a manner, that we are able 
to recognise several of the varieties which are still known. The 
curled cabbage is called because it is curled like the 
curled parsley ; and this first had the name The white 
cabbage was also known to the ancients, as is evident from the 
description of the head {caput) in Pliny. But I find no traces 
of cauliflower, because the cyma, which is understood to denote 
it, is a species of sprat, and Prosper Alpinus speaks of cauli- 
flower in Egypt as a new discovery. The ancients blanched 
the flower-stalks, by binding the leaves together, and then they 
ate them. They also speak of a cabbage on the sea-shores, 
which has round leaves, and is of a sharp taste ; probably they 
mean the wild cabbage, not Br. arctica^ which is shrubby. 
Cabbage grows, wild on the sea-coasts of England in several 
places, and Sibthorp found it on the coasts of Greece. It is sin- 
